Universities to be punished for over-hyped course claims

UNIVERSITY adverts will be required to include information on dropout rates and the proportion of students who go on to graduate jobs or further study under new guidance published today.

Michelle Donelan, the minister for higher and further education, said bold university advertising often “promises students a high-quality experience even when the statistics suggest they will be stuck on a dead-end course”.

She said the new guidance would give students clarity about what universities are offering them, especially for pupils who are the “first-in-family” to do a degree.

The guidance would apply to all forms of advertising and the information should be “noticeable” and be included in opening lines of an online adverts and quoted in television and radio advertising.

The Government said latest data show fewer than six in 10 students would make the same choice of university or course if they could decide again.

Ministers will consider tougher measures if universities do not comply with the guidance.

Ms Donelan said: “This is about giving students the information to make informed choices, and two of the key things that students always say to me is [first] they expect the support to be able to stand a really good chance to complete their degree and get that qualification, secondly they expect that degree will get them somewhere they wouldn’t have got to without it.

“That’s why it’s really important that the transparency is there and the information is there so students can see that.”

A spokesman for Universities UK said: “We share the Government’s ambition of raising transparency.”