Students ‘misled’ on value of courses at university

TOO MANY young people have been “taken advantage of” and misled by the expansion of courses with no real demand from the labour market, the Universities Minister has said.

Michelle Donelan has urged universities not to spend widening access funds on “marketing” to get students through the door – but instead to focus on ensuring that graduates secure jobs.

In a speech to the higher education sector, Ms Donelan said for decades too many people have been recruited onto courses that “do nothing to improve their life chances or help with their career goals”.

The Universities Minister said: “The New Labour access regime has let down too many young people. Since 2004, there’s been too much focus on getting students through the door and not enough focus on how many drop out, or how many go onto graduate jobs.

“Too many have been misled by the expansion of popular-sounding courses with no real demand from the labour market.

“Quite frankly, our young people have been taken advantage of, particularly those without a family history of going to university. Instead, some of them left with the debt of an investment that didn’t pay off in any sense.

“Too many universities have felt pressured to dumb down - either when admitting students, or in the standards of their courses. We have seen this with grade inflation and it has to stop.”

Asked whether universities

should make greater use of contextual admissions to widen access amid the pandemic, she said: “Universities need to be able to recognise that every individual’s circumstances are different, but we don’t help disadvantaged students by levelling down – we help by levelling up.”

Speaking at the National Education Opportunities Network virtual event, the minister called for a “new era” of social mobility.

She said: “True social mobility is when we put students and their needs and career ambitions first, be that in HE (higher education), FE (further education) or apprenticeships.”