The blow has been a little softened through the rise in the salary threshold triggering payback, moving from £15k per annum to £21k in the new system.

Graduate employment is higher than non-graduate employment, at 85.5% compared to 73.3%, over the last six years.

There's a slew of surveys showing that graduates earn more over their working lives than non-graduates. The last one I saw showed people with degrees earned an average of £12k a year more than non-graduates over the past decade.

And of course with GDP figures out later this week our economic growth challenge will remain front of mind.

'Let the Chinese do the commodity stuff,' he exhorted. 'We need to focus on value added, innovative, quality and branded goods and services. We want the Indians and the Chinese to get rich so they can buy Brand Britain.

His survey, 'Britain's Most Admired Companies', is an assessment of executives' perceptions of 'corporate reputation'.

Speaking recently at the Birmingham Made Me Design EXPO Mike Brown commented on how reputation is now one of the key intangibles which our business executives are managing to a greater extent than ever.

In most instances, he noted, around 75% of companies value is being derived from intangibles.

Even in the simplest places chairs are ubiquitous. And well-designed chairs can change our everyday experience of life for the better.

Thanks to designers such as Prof Richard Snell at the Birmingham Institute of Art & Design, the Midlands continues to play a noteworthy role in chair design.

"What is the difference between a street and a road?' Phil asked. 'Would you dance in the road, or dance in the street?"

"How we create an environment where people can live together and have their own space whilst also being part of a wider community poses a particular set of challenges," said Glenn.

Or for that matter the words 'Birmingham' and 'great design'?

It simply doesn't happen often enough.

Yet according to Ipsos MORI 80% of people look for beauty in their built environment, with 40% actively expecting their local Council to provide this.

Just over a week ago several thousand people visiting the Birmingham Made Me Design EXPO, hosted at the Mailbox and run by Birmingham City University, were reassessing Birmingham's contribution to design very favourably after enjoying exhibits, workshops and awards involving the very best in industrial design and creative arts from across the region.

My overriding take from the hour during which Professor Reed shared her thoughts gathered from over 20 years in professional practice as an architect and her extensive global experience was the importance of 'beauty'.... So elusive, hard to pin down, instinctively recognisable and easy to dismiss, it was an essential element in delivering quality of life and 'well-being'.

Teasing out the values contributing to well-being Ruth Reed suggested that 'comfort', 'contentment', 'protection', 'good health', 'vitality', 'security' and 'joy' were key values and ones which had been a concern from Aristotle onwards.

And they are not alone. Ian Callum, RDI, Director of Design, Jaguar, will be presenting Jaguar's Award-winning concept car, the C-X75. The ground-breaking hybrid super car - of which there will be just 200, is currently being developed in the Midlands.

And today..... Abraham Darby, the founder of AGA Rangemaster, whose 1707 cooking patent fired the Industrial Revolution, provides his perspective and shows off the new Smartphone controlled AGA. Abraham Darby the 18th century innovator whose cast iron cooking pots started the Industrial Revolution shows off the new iPhone controlled iTotal Control AGA (3.30-4.30pm).

Chair designer, Prof Richard Snell, outlines changing views on the essentials of chair design over the past eight decades (5.30-7.30pm) and immediate past President, RIBA, Prof Ruth Reed, considers Urban Futures and quality of life (12.30-2.30pm) -- all in the Birmingham Made Me Entrepreneurs Store, Level 3 the Mailbox.

Birmingham Made Me brings together 150 companies and designers - in a collaboration led by Jaguar LandRover, JCB and AGA Rangemaster with Birmingham City University and Birmingham City Council.

To vote for the Midlands Best Brand or Innovation visit Idea Birmingham

To find out more about Birmingham Made Me Design EXPO fringe event programme visit Birmingham Made Me

I have just left the Birmingham Made Me Entrepreneurs Store where attractive young girls sporting sequined shorts were singing some much loved Standards whilst the Cava flowed - courtesy of Harvey Nichols....This new wave of design talent was certainly making me and quite a few others feel more upbeat...

During these discussions, Steve Thachet, an overseas student studying international Broadcast Journalism at the Faculty of Performance, Media and English, Birmingham City University, produced a video blog.

The students were keen to help with the 12 Design Zones which will be showcasing design excellence from the over 130 Exhibitors from across the Midlands during the eight days of the Design EXPO and the more than 30 events taking place at the Mailbox.

Thanks to former colleague, William McGrath, Chief Executive of AGA Rangemaster, I was able to bring with me to this meeting at Portcullis House a copy of Patent No. 380, granted to Abraham Darby in 1707, during the reign of Queen Anne.

This historic and extraordinary document, housed at AGA Rangemaster, still making AGAs in Abraham Darby's original foundry at Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, effectively launched the industrial revolution. The 1707 Patent states,(in fulsome legal language, amply demonstrating that profession's ability to use many complex words in varying combinations was already, even as early as the 18th century, well- practiced),

We're thrilled to have some of our best-known Midlands brands exhibiting - Jaguar Land Rover, AGA Rangemaster, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Brintons Carpets, Glenn Howells Architects, Acme Whistles, Deakin & Francis and Emma Bridgewater, together with some big national and international names including JCDecaux, the outdoor advertising business.

Obsessionistas, a site dedicated to those passionate about collecting will provide a digital display covering around 20 design archives highlighting our authenticity as the home of design.

....Not from any lack of talent or interest amongst our young people, would be my observation.

It is emerging talent like this as well as our established brands that IDEA Birmingham is aiming to showcase at the forthcoming Birmingham Design EXPO 15th-22nd June, at the Mailbox Birmingham.

Speaking to over 2000 people - those just graduated, their families and friends assembled in the ICC Birmingham, Ian said, "IDEA Birmingham is about bringing creativity and industry together. It made this region what it is today and it is what we need to embrace further as a region, and it is what this country needs to embrace."

Today IDEA Birmingham launches Birmingham's first Design EXPO in over 100 years, running from 15th-22nd June at the Birmingham Mailbox, and the 2012 Design Awards, at www.ideabirmingham.co.uk.