My article for this week's Herald and Post looks at the post 18 education sector...
This week, the Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, announced a crack down on low value degrees.
The phrase “low value” shouldn’t be taken at face value. Education is about so much more than a financial value. All kinds of academic study are important, and the world needs artists just as much as it needs scientists.
Our higher education financing system is designed such that if you never reach a certain earnings threshold, you don’t pay back. Many more reach the point where the loan expires without having paid it in full. No one need be put off higher education for this reason.
But whatever the degree it should be of good quality. Unfortunately there are too many degrees that don’t lead either to good employment, or to further study – and have high drop-out rates. If you start a course and don’t finish it you are still left with loan repayments when you reach the earnings threshold, but without the degree to show for it.
From my time chairing the all-party parliamentary group on social mobility, I know what a difference university participation can make to life chances. But it would be quite wrong to think this applies to any university education.
We want all young people to get access to high quality education that is right for them, gives them the vital skills they need, and can maximise their potential.
For many, university is absolutely the right route for them to take.
But university degrees are only one part of the picture. Thanks to reforms over the last 13 years, many young people are now going down the technical qualification route and landing well paid jobs as a result. Beyond age 18, this can mean higher-level technical qualifications, or a degree-level apprenticeship.
During my time as Education Secretary, we launched an independent review headed by Sir Philip Augar into post-18 education and funding. One of Sir Philip’s recommendations was to cut funding for degrees that do not offer value for money for either the student or the taxpayer. I am pleased that the key essence of that recommendation is coming to fruition.
In practical terms, the Office for Students, or OfS, will now place a cap on the number of students that universities are allowed to recruit onto low value degrees. The OfS will also make it easier for students to assess the quality of university courses to better inform choices about where and what to study.
Those who say this is an attack on aspiration have got it totally the wrong way around. This is about guaranteeing a level of quality, of the teaching and learning experience. It is to make sure that when young people are committing financially – and, just as important, committing some of the best years of their lives – that that should be something that can really work for them.
This is also a moment to celebrate the British higher education system, in all its diversity. We have fantastic universities, including here in Hampshire, that deliver a great experience, and great learning, and attract students not only here but from around the world. That quality offering is something we should want for all our young people.
