Parties steer safe course on funding

Labour and Conservative conferences are set to take a low-key approach to funding issues.

"We're all in the same boat, and nobody wants to rock it." The speaker, as it happens, is a Labour supporter, but could have been speaking for both main parties as they approach their conferences over the next fortnight.

The perception that there are few votes to be won in higher education remains in spite of the surge in participation over the past decade, perhaps unsurprisingly given that the millions in further education have been unable to give that sector any political weight.

But the perception that votes may be lost remains, buttressed by memories of Sir Keith Joseph's limited attempt in the 1980s to extend parental contributions which brought the middle-class militant, feared and prized in equal measure by all parties, down on his head. How successful the handing over of policy to the reassuring figure of Sir Ron Dearing has been in defusing any potential vote-losers will be measured by the reaction of the two conferences.

First indications are that it has worked pretty well. Labour, which goes first next week in Blackpool, will put its Lifelong Learning document to conference. Few observers expect it, or its proposals for student repayments to cover maintenance, to run into any serious difficulties.

The party as a whole remains to be convinced about contributions. Seven resolutions call for a comprehensive system of grants, with Doncaster North rejecting the front-bench shift to contributions. These objections will doubtless receive an airing during the education session, but it would be a major surprise if the document were to be overturned. If any academic source is likely to lead to a leadership upset it is Peter Townsend's research on pensions policy, which will underpin Barbara Castle's attack on Labour's current position.

Conservative belief that the higher education debate has been successfully dampened was reflected by the recent appointment of Lord Henley as minister. Potential political flashpoints are rarely shuffled off to hereditary peers. Very few of the 164 Conservative conference resolutions submitted on education, employment and training touch on higher education. Conservative associations remain more interested in the virtues of selective and grant-maintained schools and the vices of local authority.

Nor is it likely that the Conservative Student resolution which congratulates "John Major and the Government on expanding choice and diversity in further and higher education and urges the Government to ensure higher standards are maintained, to secure economic success for the United Kingdom in the future" will tax the party managers' legendary ability to defuse, suppress or simply ignore potentially embarrassing motions.