Rishi Sunak has pledged to scrap what he called “rip-off degrees” in favour of creating 100,000 more apprenticeships per year, in his latest general election policy announcement.
The Prime Minister says if he stays in No10 he wants to see the worst-performing university courses replaced with high-skill apprenticeships, in a Conservative offer to young people.
It comes after speculation ahead of the election being called that the government was considering plans to restrict the graduate visa route in a bid to curb rising migration into the UK.
But No10 appeared to backtrack on the measures after reported interventions from ministers including foreign secretary Lord David Cameron, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and education secretary Gillian Keegan.
Sunak claimed the Tories are offering youngsters “the employment opportunities and financial security they need to thrive”, in a bid to narrow Labour’s double-digit poll lead.
But Sir Keir Starmer’s party called the policy “laughable” and argued the Tories had “presided over a halving of apprenticeships for young people”.
The Prime Minister said: “Improving education is the closest thing we have to a silver bullet for boosting life chances. So it’s not fair that some university courses are ripping young people off.
“Thanks to our plan, apprenticeships are much higher quality than they were under Labour.
“And now we will create 100,000 more, by putting an end to rip-off degrees and offering our young people the employment opportunities and financial security they need to thrive.”
Sunak promised 100,000 extra apprenticeship places would be created within five years, under new funding, and said he would give England’s universities watchdog, the Office for Students (OFS) new powers to shut down courses deemed as underperforming.
An additional 5.8m apprenticeships have been delivered under Conservative governments since 2010, with 340,000 starting in 2022/23, the Tories said.
But Labour pointed out apprenticeship achievements among under-19s are down 50 per cent since 2015/16, and starts have dropped by at least 30 per cent in every English region.
Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “It is laughable that the Tories, who have presided over a halving of apprenticeships for young people, are now announcing this.”
Lib Dem education spokesperson Munira Wilson said: “The shockingly low pay for those on apprenticeships will remain, doing nothing to encourage more people to take them up or tackle soaring drop out rates.”
But some welcomed the move, with Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) research director, Karl Williams commenting: “Far too many young people are being suckered into low quality university courses with poor employment outcomes.”
He added: “This is bad for students – who leave university tens of thousands of pounds in debt but with poor graduate employment prospects – but also for the taxpayer, who picks up the tab for the majority of student loans that are never repaid.
“Using some of the savings to fund an expansion of apprenticeships is undoubtedly a positive step too – studies show that those completing a Level 3 apprenticeship are likely to earn between an additional £77,000 and £117,000 over their working life.”
While Universities UK CEO Vivienne Stern said: “Degree apprenticeships are not an alternative to higher education, they are a form of it. But the number has been falling and the cause is employer uptake.”
She also stressed: “The OFS monitors performance and their figures show very low levels of concern – just one per cent of students registered with providers falling below expectations.”
Stern added: “The increase in tertiary level education has been the only consistent factor driving productivity growth recently… I don’t get the determination to put people off going to university.
“Rishi Sunak keeps saying he is fed up of people talking down Britain. I am fed up of people talking down universities- which are one of the things the UK can be genuinely proud of.”