Letter: Our report will energise sector

Your editorial made some serious allegations concerning the behaviour of the select committee during its inquiry into access to higher education (Leader, THES, February 9). As chairman, can I refute the suggestion that members of the committee were pressured by the government, which was, I take it, what was implied by the phase "the egregious effects of executive control on parliamentary business".

The committee's higher education inquiry continues and its second phase, focusing on retention issues, will deal in more detail with student finance. Rather than Labour members of the committee using their majority to downplay evidence that "policies introduced in 1997 were flawed", we have tried hard to weigh any evidence that is more than "anecdotal" that hardship is a major deterrent to access or retention.

We will have the benefit of the Taylor report on university finance early in March and we therefore considered it more helpful to look at student finance in more detail in the second phase of our inquiry, the findings of which will be published in March.

This close to an election there is bound to be difficulty in a select committee reaching a consensus on such a sensitive political subject as access. However, I am confident that, if acted on our report, seen as a whole, will have a healthy influence on energising and improving higher education.

Barry Sheerman
Chairman of the Commons education select committee
and Labour MP for Huddersfield