Some highlights from the second reading of the higher education and research bill in the House of Lords on 6 December.
‘Power grab’
[My daughter] went and read through what is on the Department for Education website about this. I said, “Well, what do you think?”, and she said, “It looks to me like a power grab”. I fear, my friends, that that may be the reality.
Stewart Sutherland (cross-bencher), former principal University of Edinburgh
‘The gift of bureaucracy’
I am afraid that this behemoth [UKRI] will not, as my noble friend Lord Willetts said, be more efficient as a lobbyist for science; it will become a huge structure, and with it, I fear that in 20 years’ time,we will not see an increase in the productivity of British science, just an increase in that other great gift of Britain to the world—bureaucracy.
William Waldegrave (Conservative), former cabinet minister for science
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