Guest post from Education Secretary Gillian Keegan: “This week the Prime Minister and I announced important new measures to give parents and their children the clarity they crucially need about degree courses in the UK”

[NicolaDMumsnet]

Students in this country are spoilt for choice when it comes to world-class universities. Four of the world’s top ten universities are in England and 55 current or recent world leaders were educated at UK universities. We are second only to America as a favoured destination for international students to continue their studies, which is something we should all be really proud of.

The decisions young people make when they leave school can shape the rest of their lives – their friendships, their careers, how much they will earn or where they choose to live. I know this first hand. I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t pursued a degree apprenticeship in a car factory straight from school.

This was the best option for me. It taught me what it means to operate in a workplace, about essential parts of industry like global supply chains and just-in-time manufacturing, and how to build relationships. It accelerated me into new roles, surpassing my peers, and enabled me to travel the world during a long international business career.

I want young people up and down the country to have this opportunity too. We must end this scenario where people are told you need to go to university to succeed, with no thought or consideration for why university might be right for the individual or what they should hope to get out of it.

It’s not fair to lead young people onto courses that are unlikely to lead to a good job and in the long run will only make people poorer - whether a student, parent, or taxpayer. We are concerned this is, in some cases, precisely what is happening.

There are still courses on offer that are leaving students saddled with debt, low earnings and faced with poor future job prospects - there are even examples of courses where earnings are less than £18,000 three years after graduation – that’s less than minimum wage for someone over 21.

Eighteen universities and colleges are already being investigated by the universities watchdog, the Office for Students, including a number of business and management courses that simply aren’t giving students the outcomes they deserve from higher education.

So, our government is acting now to stop that. This week the Prime Minister and I announced important new measures to give parents and their children the clarity they crucially need about degree courses in the UK, so they can make the best decisions about their futures. 

We will ask the Office for Students to put limits on the courses that aren’t up to scratch. Alongside this, we are asking them for greater scrutiny of the earnings achieved after course completion to ensure our students get the best value for money.

Bearing down on poor quality courses also means addressing the growth of some one-year foundation courses which, evidence suggests, are not in the best interests of their students. Too often they amount to an additional year of debt for the individual because they are an easy source of income for universities. We don’t think this is right. So, we’ve reduced the maximum fees for foundation years in classroom-based subjects, down to £5,760, putting them in line with similar Further Education courses.

Lastly, we are making sure everyone knows about apprenticeships, including degree apprenticeships, T Levels and skills bootcamps, so we’ve created a one-stop-shop so students can see all training opportunities on offer in one place through a new online platform. And all apprenticeships will also be on UCAS from the Autumn so that when young people are thinking about their next steps, they are genuinely presented with all the brilliant opportunities available to them to reach their potential.

The Prime Minister and I know that education is the closest thing we have to a silver bullet. It is right that we strive for the highest standards for all children to pursue their dreams and these reforms are an important step to achieve that.


Twitter: @GillianKeegan
Website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education

[RuleWithAWoodenFoot]

How do you feel about nursing degrees? I mean, they are pretty important right? But not very high earning. Are we just going to scrap them all?

Does everyone have to do PPE because that's the best course for grifting and syphoning money out of the public purse?

[Enoughnowbrandon]

Will you be funding redundancy packages for the staff who are rendered unemployed by this new policy?

[JanglyBeads]

And courses in the social care - they are lowest earning after graduation because carers and their managers need to be paid more!

[KatherineofGaunt]

"[We] know that education is the closest thing we have to a silver bullet"

And yet, there are so many Conservative government actions that contradict this statement.

It's a shame your party wrote off billions and gave billions to your mates for stuff that never materialised during Covid, instead of using that money to actually help education in this country.

[Piggywaspushed]

limits on the courses that aren’t up to scratch.

Define up to scratch please.

[Piggywaspushed]

to lead to a good job 

Please also define a good job.

[Morred]

As Conservatives, why are you intervening in the market in this way? Companies in The Real World (TM) will surely choose the best recruitment route and consumers (students) will not pay for courses that don’t deliver. Unless of course you’re wrong about what (all) students want (all) university educations to deliver. Maybe it’s about more than a market-driven conveyor belt to “a good job”?

As some of the biggest growth industries in the UK are the creative arts, I assume you’ll be encouraging students to take degrees in performing arts, broadcasting, sound technology, media and creative arts, etc? Rather than staid traditional subjects like PPE where accessing “good jobs” afterwards depends on the whims of hiring managers, evidence of “transferable skills” and/or old-fashioned networking and nepotism?

[Otzi]

Blimey, is this a piss take? Who is responsible for increased levels of student debt, a low wage economy and a high cost of living? Is it:

a) Universities
b) Santa Claus or
c) the government?

Fuck me.

[swallowedAfly]

Odd.

is that a party political broadcast MN?

Also is there a link to this ’one stop shop’?

[swallowedAfly]

I agree with much of what you say about the mistake of steering ‘all’ young people towards university. I just don’t know how to square it with the decimation of funding to FE and the impact that’s had on accessing alternatives.

[TmFid]

@KatherineofGaunt

"[We] know that education is the closest thing we have to a silver bullet"

And yet, there are so many Conservative government actions that contradict this statement.

It's a shame your party wrote off billions and gave billions to your mates for stuff that never materialised during Covid, instead of using that money to actually help education in this country.

Exactly this! Hate these lying, corrupt, greedy Tory wastes of space! They have decimated this country with their incompetence, greed, and their shocking levels of corruption. They have ruined every single public service and I hope they are consigned or the footnotes of history at the next election. Keegan might then have to find a real job instead of leeching off the public purse!

[UnsungShero]

Hiya @NicolaDMumsnet

Can you confirm whether or not Mumsnet received a fee for this?

Thanks.

[NicolaDMumsnet]

Hi @UnsungShero

Thanks for the question.

I can confirm that we don't receive payment for any of the guest posts that we do.

Thanks,
MNHQ.

[TeamDfE]

Hello everyone,

We'll be here from the Department for Education for the next 45 minutes to answer any questions you have about the Secretary of State's post and the announcement, so ask any questions you have!

[TeamDfE]

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

How do you feel about nursing degrees? I mean, they are pretty important right? But not very high earning. Are we just going to scrap them all?

Does everyone have to do PPE because that's the best course for grifting and syphoning money out of the public purse?

Hello, thanks for this question! We think it is important that graduate earnings reflect the significant investment students make in their education, but it’s not the only thing that’s important and we recognise that many factors influence earnings.

Recruitment limits are not targeted at specific subjects, but rather at individual courses that don’t see enough students continuing or completing them or progressing onto graduate employment or further study 15 months after they graduate. It will be for the Office for Students (the independent regular) to decide whether to impose a recruitment limit, but this is not an attack on any particular sector, and the vast majority of courses – including in nursing - are high-quality, so won’t be affected.

The government values nursing very highly and aims to increase the number of adult nursing training places by 92%, as confirmed in the NHS Long Term Workforce plan. It also introduced nursing apprenticeships to provide another route into the sector for those who don’t want to go to university and would prefer to study on the job, committing to training 20% of nurses via apprenticeships by 2028/29, compared to 9% now.

[Papernotplastic]

How do you face going to work everyday knowing that, at best, you’re just rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic?

[GCAcademic]

Why is the government not taking steps to address the problem of low earnings rather than actively imposing constant pay erosion on so many sectors?

[Italiandreams]

How do you measure whether a degree is ‘up to scratch’ ? What is the criteria?

[Spendonsend]

Providers are struggling to find employers to support T levels. I have friends children who have started a course really unable to get the experience bit sorted.

How are you going to make it more suitable for employers to take people on.

[LadyLapsang]

Do you think we undervalue the contribution of women given the gender pay gap between those with the same level of vocational qualifications, e.g. adult or childcare compared with a mechanic?

[Rummikub]

Have you got the details/ link to this one stop shop for information for young people regarding their choices?

[Rummikub]

in my sector i work with disadvantaged young people. They are put off T levels (5 days a week) as they are then unable to take in part time work alongside their studies. Will there be funding for this cohort so they are not disadvantaged further?

[HidingBehindABigRock]

If continuing in further education is a metric used to determine course quality, are you going to check this doesn't lead to universities pushing students on to low value masters courses?

[TeamDfE]

@Enoughnowbrandon

Will you be funding redundancy packages for the staff who are rendered unemployed by this new policy?

Thanks for this. To be clear - we are asking the Office for Students to impose recruitment limits on specific, low quality courses that offer poor outcomes and we are reducing the maximum fees for some foundation years. The vast majority of courses won’t be affected by recruitment limits.

We are only reducing the maximum fees for foundation years in classroom-based subjects, such as business and social sciences. All other foundation years will continue to be able to charge fees of up to £9,250.

We understand that universities and colleges will need to adapt to these changes, and it will be for them to decide how best to do this. We announced the policy earlier this month so that universities and colleges can start this process before recruiting students for the 2025/26 academic year, and we expect to publish further detailed guidance on this in Spring 2024.

[lavenderlou]

Good grief. All knowledge and learning is valuable. Students in the UK pay a fortune for university and should be allowed to choose whichever subject they like. Let employers be the judge of its value. "Job-related" knowledge learned on degree courses will likely be out of date in a few years anyway.

Luckily this government will be out before they can actually enact this policy.