According to The Times last week:
One in eight university degree places would be scrapped under a future Conservative government and the funding diverted into apprenticeships, Rishi Sunak will pledge on Wednesday.
In a crackdown on so-called Mickey Mouse courses, Sunak will accuse universities of âripping young people offâ by offering degree places that do not increase their long-term earnings potential.
Instead Sunak will say the money should be spent creating an extra 100,000 apprenticeships by the end of the next parliament.
As always with such announcements, the story is not so simple.
For a deep dive into this, the article below from WonkHE contains some really interesting data (including a set of interactive tables).
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The article pretty thoroughly demolishes the figures in the policy announcement.
To take a simple example from the section âNumbers Roundâ:
- Announcement: Close 13 per cent of the âpoorest performingâ undergraduate courses and put the savings into 100,000 new apprenticeships.
- Fact: 13 per cent of the current undergraduate population is about 265,500.
- Announcement: 50 per cent of this displaced cohort (132,750) will do an apprenticeship instead, 25 per cent (66,375) will go straight into employment, and the remainder (another 66,375) will take a âbetter, high quality, courseâ.
- Comment: Perhaps some of the displaced students will take a maths course, where they might learn that if you are creating 100,000 new apprenticeships, then you will be 32,750 short.
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This is a significant shift in education policy, and itâs important to consider both the potential benefits and the broader implications. Redirecting funds from university degrees to apprenticeships could indeed help address the skills gap and provide valuable opportunities for young people who might thrive in more practical, hands-on careers. However, itâs crucial to ensure that such a move doesnât undermine the value of higher education or limit opportunities for those who would benefit from a university experience.
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Thatâs a pretty bold move by the Conservative government! Itâs definitely sparking a lot of debates. How do you think this shift towards more apprenticeships will impact the value and perception of traditional university degrees? Do you think it could lead to a greater emphasis on vocational training overall?
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Itâs definitely a hot topic!
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Itâs really not going to happen @carmennjg for two reasons:
- The Conservatives are going to lose the election
- Even if they get in, the numbers in this policy donât add up.
Added to which I would say the low status of vocational education in the UK makes any policy concerned with apprenticeships hard to implement successfully.
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