To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to assist universities in helping any staff who have to leave as a result of reduced budgets cuts by providing advice on job placements and retraining. [HL2457]

We see no reason why there need be significant job losses in higher education as a result of recent budget announcements. However, the UK has a comprehensive package of support for those facing redundancy. We have substantially increased funding to Jobcentre Plus to ensure it continues to provide personal help and advice to everyone who needs it.

Jobcentre Plus also operates the rapid response service, which tailors post-redundancy solutions to the needs of the local economy and local labour markets. The rapid response service works with businesses at a local level to identify skill shortages and to develop training and skills programmes to fill any gaps.

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to assist universities to meet reduced budgets by introducing more cost-effective approaches to teaching. [HL2458]

We would expect all institutions in receipt of government funding to deliver teaching and learning in as cost effective a way as possible, particularly at time of restraint in public spending. In particular we would expect institutions to continue to develop innovative methods of delivery. However, we have tried as far as possible to protect front-line teaching by concentrating on increasing efficiency in administration and other non-essential services. In fact the real terms reduction in the Higher Education Funding Council for England's teaching grant for the 2010-11 academic year was just 1.6 per cent.