Election 2001

12 June 2001 : Margaret Hodge gets higher education. Lord Sainsbury keeps science

11 June 2001 : Estelle Morris steps into Blunkett's shoes; Patricia Hewitt lands trade and industry

8 June 2001 : VCs press new government for more cash

Hostages to fortune
During the 2001 general election campaign, politicians from all the main parties said what they would do about higher education and research if they were elected. The THES has been collecting these statements. We will judge the new government's performance against Labour's campaign promises. Thanks to our readers for the contributions we received at election2001@thes.co.uk  

Reshuffle raises cash hopes
15 June 2001
Post-election restructuring of the Department for Education and Employment has raised hopes of more money for higher and further education.

Hodge puts her weight behing QAA
15 June 2001
Demonstrating the quality of university teaching will become increasingly important under the new Labour government, according to the incoming higher education minister Margaret Hodge.

Analysis: science comes in from the cold
15 June 2001
Research has grown in stature: ministers are giving it more cash and inviting it into the political fold.

Outlaw the apathetic
15 June 2001
People should be obliged to vote, writes Robert Blackburn, even if they choose 'none of the above'.   

Leader: we want to see tangible results 
8 June 2001
In an open letter The THES invites the new government to tackle the urgent problems in UK higher education. The sector needs more cash and less control.

'Act or watch standards slide'
8 June 2001
Radical intervention in higher education by the incoming government is needed if universities are to balance the demands of access and excellence successfully, according to Sir David Watson, Brighton University's vice-chancellor.

Billboards back off from hard messages
8 June 2001
Public apathy about the general election left the main political parties struggling to find a memorable message to display on advertising billboards.

Forum looks at Labour ideology
8 June 2001
The Labour Party's ideology is much more complex than many academics suggest, according to an Edinburgh University expert.

Employers and lecturers to unite to lobby for better pay
8 June 2001
A joint lobby of the next Parliament for better pay by lecturers' unions and employers in further education looks likely, both sides agreed this week.

A big fish, small pond scenario
8 June 2001
Tony Blair might hold sway in his cabinet, but in the global arena he is more than a cigar short of a Churchill, argues Richard Rose.

6 June 2001
Blair defends tuition fees

5 June 2001
Lib Dems push to scrap fees in Wales
Cancer specialist fears Tory tax cut promise

Blair warns of Tory budget axe
1 June 2001
Universities would have their budgets cut by almost a quarter under Conservative spending plans, prime minister Tony Blair told The THES this week.

Dons who want to be MPs
1 June 2001
THES reporters talk to four academics who are candidates in the general election.

• Robert Collinson, Antony Hook, Royce Longton and Harash Narang were all defeated.

Past NUS presidents who want to stay MPs
1 June 2001
THES reporters talk to Phil Woolas and Stephen Twigg, MPs who are both former NUS presidents.

• Phil Woolas and Stephen Twigg were both re-elected. 

Science lobby disappointed by manifestos
1 June 2001
Science has been disappointingly omitted from the three main parties' election manifestos, according to Peter Cotgreave, director of the lobby group, Save British Science.

Most parties field four men for every woman
1 June 2001
Northern Ireland has its best chance in more than 30 years of returning a woman to Westminster, according to the Centre for Advancement of Women in Politics at Queen's University, Belfast.

Play politics online to win whisky
1 June 2001
Academics in Wales have placed a computer program on the internet that will predict which seats will be gained and lost in Wales under certain pre-determined conditions. They are offering a whisky prize for the best forecast.

Leader: This time, funds must be found for expansion
1 June 2001
Labour's 1997 landslide is set to be repeated next week, a justified reward for a government that has made few serious mistakes, has had the economy on its side and has been blessed with a feeble opposition.

Letter: Blackstone on top-up fees
1 June 2001
"There is absolutely no question of top-up fees being introduced in the next Parliament, as your story suggested last week" - Baroness Blackstone, minister for higher education.

Soapbox: Fight for humanity
1 June 2001
David Cromwell asks why the media and politicians seem blind to the dangers of globalisation It is the elephant in the room - the one big issue that politicians and media in this election have tried to sweep beneath the carpet. Globalisation.

Soapbox: We'll raise you seven prisons
1 June 2001
As Labour tries to out-bid the Tories in the fight against crime, nobody has checked the facts, say Roger Matthews and Jock Young.

Political dons come out of the closet
1 June 2001
Mandy Garner asks whether political scientists can influence policy-making.  
 
Academics identify key issues in the upcoming general election
1 June 2001
David Denver: Public weary of continuous campaigning
David Chandler: Participation bid will not reduce apathy
Helen Margetts: Disillusioned voters reject the big three

Telling a pinch from a punch in the mother of democracy
1 June 2001
Election campaigning has left Vincent Magombe questioning the meaning of politics in Britain today. 

Top-ups back to spook Labour
25 May 2001
The most influential new Labour think-tank, The Institute for Public Policy Research, has backed university top-up fees, signalling possible change in future government higher education funding policy.

Financing is the crucial issue
25 May 2001
Three think-tanks agree that the financing of higher education is a crucial election issue, but their prescriptions differ.

Edgbaston: students hold the balance of power
25 May 2001
It is tempting to assume that higher education issues will be a decisive factor in the electoral battle for Birmingham Edgbaston.

Colchester: college cutbacks concern all
25 May 2001
Colchester, home of many University of Essex and Colchester Institute students, is the tightest three-way marginal seat in the country with just 2,000 votes separating the three parties.

Guildford: apathetic learners won't rock the boat
25 May 2001
Voters have returned a Conservative member of parliament for Guildford since 1832, but could students hold the key to a possible swing to the Liberal Democrats on June 7?

Aberdeen South: small swing might turn the tables
25 May 2001
Labour-held Aberdeen South has a large student population and is the number one target in Scotland for the Liberal Democrats. The Tories would also like to win it back.

'Free tuition for all named Grant'
25 May 2001
THES reporters scrutinise the minority party manifestos.

Farewell to welfare
25 May 2001
New Labour embraces an economic model that promotes inequality, says Donald Hagger.

'We have a lot more to do'
18 May 2001
Baroness Blackstone assesses the government's record.

Labour pledges NHS university
18 May 2001
Higher education is one of Labour's top ten manifesto priorities, underlining Tony Blair's commitment to increase investment in universities and create a National Health university if elected for a second term.

Main points from the parties' manifestos
18 May 2001
What the main parties say they will do if they are elected on 7 June.

Election is still crucial in devolved Scotland
18 May 2001
Academic experts are keen to see the turnout now that the main campaigning issues, such as education, are devolved.

Unions make claims for more cash
18 May 2001
University funding is a key election issue for the AUT and Natfhe.

The third way ahead
18 May 2001
New Labour's policies have led to real achievements and will deliver more, argues Anthony Giddens .

Academics abandon Tories
11 May 2001
Conservative Party support on campus has slumped for the third election in a row, according to an ICM poll for The THES . Only 5 per cent of the 501 academics polled said they intended to vote Conservative on June 7.

Growth is blamed for fall in standards
11 May 2001
Analysis of the THES /ICM poll.

ICM poll: academics' voting intentions
11 May 2001
Poll results.

Does Labour come up smelling of red roses?
11 May 2001
New Labour's mantra at the last election was that things could only get better. Certainly, higher education has changed significantly since Tony Blair swept to power, but is the sector, and the staff and students who depend on it, any better off?

Higher education: the audit
11 May 2001
Key figures show how UK higher education changed before 1997 and in the years since Labour came to power.

Leader: Party war cries ring out but fail to hit the right note
11 May 2001
Universities are a vital part of an advanced economy, but no party seems to have a sophisticated idea of how to develop their unique contribution to society.

Bring back student grants, voters say
4 May 2001
Voters are unhappy with tuition fees and the scrapping of student grants, according to two MORI polls conducted for The THES in March and April this year.

Polishing those pledges before electoral rituals
4 May 2001
Anthony Barker , reader in government at the University of Essex, looks at some key issues that will sadly not win the election.