Figures released by former Higher Education minister and Harlow MP Bill Rammell today show that the number of people living in the Harlow area going on to study higher education has risen by 50% compared with 1997.[1]

In 1997, 1,080 Harlow residents were studying at undergraduate and postgraduate level. By 2008/09, 12 years after this Labour Government first came into office, this number had increased to 1,615 residents.

Harlow is now in the top 20% of parliamentary constituencies which have seen the largest percentage increase of students going on to study higher education compared with 1997.

This figure is set to rise even further following news that Harlow’s first university campus will be completed by 2011. University Centre Harlow, a campus of Anglia Ruskin University, will be situated on the Harlow College site. Bill Rammell has pushed constantly for the new Anglia Ruskin campus in the town, pressing the Higher Education Funding Council and East of England Development Agency who are the project’s major funders, and has worked with Anglia Ruskin, Harlow College and Harlow Council, and on the 8^th February Mr Rammell spoke at the launch dinner of the new campus at the Harlow Civic Centre.

Bill Rammell MP said: “This is great news. These figures show a marked increase in the number of Harlow residents being able to access higher education and aspiring to study at this level. This shows the Labour Government’s drive to increase access to higher education in areas like Harlow, where historically numbers going on to study higher education has been quite low, is proving successful.

But there is always more to be done which is why the arrival of Anglia Ruskin University in Harlow, which I have pushed so strongly for, will be so important in increasing numbers who go on to higher education locally. It is vital that we make a university education a possibility for many more people. Harlow residents will be able to study for degree courses on their own doorstep and this is the first time a university campus will be based in the town.

This builds on other education successes in the town, with pupil numbers passing five GCSEs rising from 28% in 1997 to 67% this year. All Harlow secondary schools have been successful in gaining Specialist Status which has meant they have been able to attract additional Government funding to deliver their curriculum. More recently, I have also helped schools drive forward the development of a Schools Trust, a new initiative which could help to attract new additional teaching staff for hard-to-recruit subjects, develop greater partnerships with higher education institutions and the private sector and help to raise standards even further.

The Government has increased overall funding of higher education in real terms by 25% between 1997 and 2009-10. This stands in contrast to the Tories who when in office presided over a 36% fall in funding per student between 1989 and 1997.”