May: degrees are too pricey and plentiful

THERESA MAY will today attack Britain’s “outdated attitude” to university education as she says too many people take degrees and are charged too much money for their courses.

The Prime Minister will suggest snobbery towards vocational training has created a belief it is “something for other people’s children” as she aims to create parity between academic and technical education for over-18s.

Announcing a review of tertiary education and university funding, Mrs May will admit the fees system is not working because the amount students pay bears no relation to the “cost or quality of their course”.

The year-long review will be asked to look at ways of reforming funding, with Damian Hinds, the Education Secretary, favouring cuts in fees for arts and social science courses which are the most profitable for universities but often deliver the least benefit to students.

Mrs May, who will outline the plans at a speech in Derby today, wants teenagers to be able to make “more effective choices” rather than opting for academic subjects at university because they regard vocational training as second-class.

She will say a system of tertiary education “that works for all our young people” will require “equality of access to an academic university education which is not dependent on your background, and it means a much greater focus on the technical alternatives, too”.

Mrs May will also say: “For those young people who do not go on to academic study, the routes into further technical and vocational training today are hard to navigate, the standards across the sector are too varied and the funding available to support them is patchy.

“So now is the time to take action to create a system that is flexible enough to ensure that everyone gets the education that suits them.”

The Government-led review, supported by an independent external chairman and panel, will also look at funding, with a graduate tax among the options. Whitehall sources said the review would be told that tuition fees must stay and paying for

‘We now have one of the most expensive systems of university tuition in the world’

university education must not come out of general taxation, but every other option remains “on the table”.

Mrs May will say: “All but a handful of universities charge the maximum possible fees for undergraduate courses. Three-year courses remain the norm. And the level of fees charged do not relate to the cost or quality of the course. We now have one of the most expensive systems of university tuition in the world.”

Yesterday, Mr Hinds said he wanted universities to offer more two-year courses, more sandwich courses where students spend time in the workplace, and more “commuter courses” where they live at home to avoid the cost of student housing.

SIR – Theresa May, the Prime Minister, enthusiastically assures the EU of unconditional UK military support (report, February 17), but the inescapable condition has to be that Britain can continue to afford to pay for it.

If Michel Barnier, the EU Brexit negotiator, continues his successful Gaullist policy of degrading the British economy through an ever-more damaging “deal” being developed, that factual condition cannot be met. Why is Mrs May failing to make this obvious point? Tim Bradshaw

Oxford

SIR – It seems far more common for Bremainers to break off personal relations with Brexiteers than vice versa. What is to be made of this? Robert Edwards

Hornchurch, Essex