Alison Bennett condemns Government cuts to IB Diploma Funding At Varndean College

Alison Bennett MP has criticised the Department for Education’s (DfE) recent decision to withdraw the Large Programme Uplift (LPU) funding for 16–19 study programmes, including the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma, from the next academic year.

The move, announced without consultation or impact assessment, puts the future of the IB Diploma at serious risk. This is particularly disappointing for Varndean Sixth Form College in Brighton, the only state-funded provider of the IB in Sussex. Without this essential funding, the college believe that delivering the IB programme will soon become financially unviable.

Following the announcement, Alison Bennett MP said: “This decision is deeply damaging and short-sighted,”

“Many state-educated young people from Mid Sussex have greatly benefitted from the IB course at Varndean, using it as a springboard to achieve brilliant things in higher education.

These cuts will drastically reduce access to the programme and risk making it an exclusive choice unavailable to state school pupils.”

Alison has spoken to concerned parents and students in Mid Sussex who have expressed their dismay that the IB will not be available in years to come. Following this, Alison will be tabling a question about the future of the IB to the Minister on Monday 20th October in the House of Commons, to seek an answer from the Department for Education about the future of this programme.

The Liberal Democrats are calling on the government to reverse the cuts and guarantee that students who wish to study the IB Diploma can continue to do so, regardless of their background.

“This is about fairness and opportunity,” Ms Bennett added.

“We must ensure that all students, no matter where they live or what school they attend, have access to the high-quality education they want and deserve.

This appears to be yet another one of the government’s cost-cutting exercises, one that will have a significant impact on students and save the Treasury very little in the long-term."