Plan to crack down on ‘rip-off’ university degrees

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to crack down on “rip-off” degrees that don’t lead to graduate jobs.

Plans, to be announced later, say universities in England will be forced to limit the number of students they take on underperforming courses.

But Labor said the move would “create new barriers to opportunity in areas with fewer graduate jobs”.

Universities UK, an advocacy group, said the university is a great investment for the vast majority of students.

A spokeswoman for the organization warned that all measures must be “targeted and proportionate and must not be a sledgehammer to crack a nut”.

Under the plans, the independent regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), will be asked to limit the number of students universities can take on courses that don’t produce “good results” for students.

The government said this would include courses that have high drop-out rates or where only a small proportion of students pursue careers.

According to the OfS, almost three out of ten graduates 15 months after graduating do not get into highly qualified professions or do not take up further studies.

The OfS already has the power to investigate and penalize universities whose degrees fall below minimum performance thresholds. However, the new rules would require the regulator to limit the number of students for these courses.

The current thresholds for full-time undergraduate students are:

According to Universities UK, the UK has the highest graduation rates of any OECD country and overall satisfaction rates are high.

“However, it is true that the regulatory framework serves as a backbone to protect student interests in the very few cases where quality needs to be improved,” said a spokeswoman.

Labor shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said the announcement was “an attack on the aspirations of young people”.

Munira Wilson, education spokeswoman for the Liberal Democrats, said the prime minister had “run out of ideas” and “dug up policies that the Conservatives had announced and then twice unannounced”.

She said: “Universities don’t want that. It is an aspirational ceiling that makes it difficult for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to pursue further studies.”

The Government also announced that it would reduce the maximum fees universities can charge for undergraduate courses from £9,250 to £5,760. In the academic year 2021/22, 29,080 students studied undergraduate studies.

Courses in the basic semester are intended to prepare students for degrees with special entry requirements or knowledge, for example in medicine and veterinary sciences.

However, the government said research suggests that too many people are being encouraged to take a foundation year in some subjects, such as business administration, where it is not necessary.

University Alliance, which represents professional and technical universities, said cutting fees for undergraduate courses was “disappointingly regressive” and “makes them financially unviable to run”.

Executive Director Vanessa Wilson said: “Disadvantaged students and the ‘Covid generation’ will be the losers if this provision is cut back or eliminated.”

She added that the government had decided to “bash one of the few UK sectors that is truly a world leader”.

Mr Sunak said: “The UK is home to some of the best universities in the world and studying for a degree can be extremely rewarding.”

“But too many young people are sold a false dream and end up doing substandard studies at taxpayer expense with no prospect of a decent job at the end.”

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said: “These new measures will crack down on higher education providers who continue to offer poor quality courses and send a clear signal that we will not allow students to be sold false promises.”