On Thursday in the House of Commons there was a discussion that took place under the title of Higher Education Reform. Sadly there were no Sussex MPs that participated in the discussion. However one of the MPs raised the call for STEM to be provided from a University for the local Buisnesses. The MP is Ben Everitt who is the Conservative MP for Milton Keynes. His call is as follows and the response came from Nadhim Zahawi who is the Government Minister for Education. The discussion can be found here.

Ben: Can my right hon. Friend confirm that these reforms will prioritise the long-term benefits of high-value employment and ensure that university courses are giving students the skills and the knowledge they need to fulfil their potential? Recognising that you asked for no long preambles, Mr Deputy Speaker, I will make my postamble very short. It will be no surprise to the Secretary of State that this is exactly the philosophy behind MK:U. It is about getting the digital skills and the STEM skills needed by businesses in Milton Keynes so that we can future-proof our economy.

Nadhim: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The work that MK:U is doing is exactly the sort of innovation that we need, in the same way that NMITE—the New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering—and others are doing as well. This is part of a long-term strategy. We began with the apprenticeship standards and reforms to ensure that businesses were embedded in the co-creation of our skills landscape. Skills are part of FE and HE, integrated together to deliver great careers and great outcomes for young people and the economy.