The Bishop of Sheffield received the following written answers on 16th September 2025:
The Lord Bishop of Sheffield asked His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to promote and support vocational development and training between United Kingdom further education institutions and their equivalents overseas.
Continue reading “Bishop of Sheffield asks about further education sector”The Bishop of Sheffield spoke in a debate on recommendations from a report from Universities UK on 14th November 2024, stressing the importance of access to education in combatting inequality and kick-starting economic growth:
The Lord Bishop of Sheffield: My Lords, I too thank the noble Baroness, Lady Warwick, for securing this debate of a vital report. It is a privilege to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson—as it happens, for the second time this week. I celebrate the contribution of all the commissioners and advisory group members to the report, and I welcome its recommendations for a bold new strategic vision for the sector.
I am tremendously proud of all the phenomenal HE providers in my diocese: Sheffield Hallam University, the University of Sheffield, the Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and the colleges of Sheffield, Barnsley, the Dearne Valley, Doncaster and Rotherham. For the next few minutes, I just want to comment briefly on maintenance grants and financial support, and on the challenges facing FE colleges in particular.
Continue reading “Bishop of Sheffield highlights importance of higher and further education”The Bishop of Sheffield spoke in a debate on the crisis in higher education on 12th September 2024, emphasising the role of universities as a public good for communities:
The Lord Bishop of Sheffield: My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Krebs, for focusing the attention of the House on the HE crisis and for the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I look forward to the maiden speech of the noble Lord, Lord Tarassenko.
As the Bishop of Sheffield I have close ties with both universities in the city, the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University. I am told that those two institutions support more than 19,500 jobs and generate more than £1 billion annually for the local economy. I know at first hand that they bring a rich cultural diversity to our city. What is true in Sheffield is true across the country: universities are generally hugely beneficial to the communities within which they are situated.
Continue reading “Bishop of Sheffield takes part in debate on higher education in the UK”The Bishop of Sheffield made his maiden speech during a debate on the Lifelong Learning (Higher Education Fee Limits) Bill on 19th June 2023, speaking on his experience in Sheffield Diocese and highlighting potential challenges in the implementation of the bill:
The Lord Bishop of Sheffield: My Lords, I am grateful for the opportunity to speak for the first time in this Chamber, and in support of this Bill’s aim of widening access to higher education. I look forward to hearing the maiden speech of the noble Lord, Lord Sewell of Sanderstead. I record my thanks to Members and staff for the consistently warm and generous welcome I have received and the helpful induction I have been given. If my experience of introduction to this House is typical, it speaks very well of the culture of this place.
On Thursday, it will be exactly six years since I was consecrated as a bishop at York Minster and took up my present responsibilities. The wonderful diocese I serve is made up of former steel-making and coal-mining communities across much of south Yorkshire, farming communities in parts of the East Riding and even a port in the town of Goole. I had never lived in south Yorkshire before but have found the city of Sheffield astonishingly green—I believe it to be the only city in England with a national park within its boundary.
Continue reading “Lifelong Learning (Higher Education Fee Limits) Bill: Bishop of Sheffield makes maiden speech supporting efforts to increase access to higher education”The Bishop of St Albans asked a question on upholding freedom of speech in universities on 20th December 2022, following discussion of an attack on protestors at the Chinese consulate in Manchester:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, as was said, this is part of a much larger testing of what we do in this country. This is also being lived out and spelled out in our university campuses, where meetings are sometimes being disrupted, people are being shouted down and freedom of speech is under threat. What advice and support are being given to our universities to ensure that these vital values are upheld in our country?
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about upholding free speech in universities”On 31st October 2022, the House of Lords debated the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill in the committee stage. The Bishop of Coventry spoke in the debate in support of various amendments, with reference to use of religious and spiritual spaces:
The Lord Bishop of Coventry: My Lords, I support Amendments 5 to 7 in particular. I shall follow on from the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Mann, because I had similar concerns about unintended consequences. I wonder whether your Lordships would mind me sharing some rambling thoughts that have come through my mind. I was not going to, but the reference by the noble Lord, Lord Triesman, to nothing before 1680—I think it was 1680—strengthened me.
In many countries in Europe, today is Reformation Day. I happened to be in Dresden yesterday, where you cannot help but see the statue of Martin Luther, which I was admiring. That is not irrelevant to these discussions. The history of academic freedom in Europe—freedom of expression and of religion—will have different views about the Reformation, but I cannot help celebrating the fact that, 500 years later, the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation said that they agreed over the doctrine of justification by faith, which was the great thing that divided the Churches at that time. As this fascinating debate has continued, I could not help thinking that, if there had not been a suppression of academic freedom at the time, there may not have been that great bust-up, which caused a lot of tearing to society and Church. I simply share that to reinforce that which we are all committed to—academic freedom and freedom of speech—and to recognise that institutions did not always get it right. Certainly, the Church has not.
Continue reading “Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill: Bishop of Coventry speaks in support of amendments”On 28th June 2022 the House of Lords debated the Government’s Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill, at its Second Reading. The Bishop of Coventry spoke in the debate:
The Lord Bishop of Coventry: My Lords, intense competition for students, jostling for promotion among lecturers, vigorous, often intense and sometimes rancorous debate, with dashes of sharp practice and occasional mob violence—not a preview of some future Office for Students report but a snapshot of the early academic career of Augustine of Hippo. One of his first publications was advice to lecturers and, significantly for this debate, he later asserted that “By force we can make no one believe.” I will make some general points about the Bill and then raise three more specific issues.
Timothy Garton Ash speaks of three “vetoes” that silence the ability of people to express themselves: shouting them down, the “heckler’s veto”; declaring what they say to be offensive, the “offensive veto”; and, in extreme cases, threatening to kill people, the “assassin’s veto”.
Sadly, it seems that we have seen each of these techniques in action within higher education, as some of the evidence submitted to the Bill Committee demonstrated.
Continue reading “Bishop of Coventry on Freedom of Speech in Universities”The Bishop of Gloucester asked a question on issues of access to academic eBooks on 10th January 2022, during a debate on the economic recovery of the bookselling industry and libraries following the COVID-19 pandemic:
The Lord Bishop of Gloucester: My Lords, as pro-chancellor of the University of Gloucestershire I am very aware that during the time of pandemic there have been issues with eBooks relating to university libraries. How will the Government address the current issues of excessive pricing, restrictive licensing and lack of availability of academic ebooks?
Continue reading “Bishop of Gloucester asks about access to academic eBooks”On 18th May 2021 the Bishop of Manchester asked a question about antisemitism on university campuses, following a spate of attacks targeting Jewish people.
The Lord Bishop of Manchester [V]: Is the Minister aware that the Union of Jewish Students has raised serious concerns that Jewish students and societies are now being targeted with really quite disgusting anti-Semitic abuse due to the conflict in the Middle East? Will he reassure Jewish students that the Government will clamp down on all forms of campus anti-Semitism and encourage all universities not just to adopt but to implement the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism?
Continue reading “Bishop of Manchester calls for clampdown on antisemitism on university campuses”
On 8th February 2021, the Bishop of Winchester asked a question on support for students seeking graduate jobs on 8th February 2021, following a government statement on the effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on university students:
The Lord Bishop of Winchester [V]: My Lords, while the short-term support offered by the Government to students facing financial difficulties is most welcome, the pandemic has also generated uncertainty about graduate employment in the short, medium and long term. What plans do Her Majesty’s Government have for supporting students and graduates who are or will be seeking skilled graduate employment?
Continue reading “Bishop of Winchester asks about support for graduating students affected by the COVID-19 pandemic”
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