The changes will disproportionately impact working-class and BAME students
This article was originally published 17 July 2023 and updated on 29 May 2024.
Rishi Sunak has promised to scrap “rip-off degrees” and replace them with 100,000 high-skilled apprenticeships if he wins the general election.
Under the Conservative plans, there would be legislation granting greater powers to the Office for Students, the universities regulator, to get rid of degree courses that are underperforming. The ‘value’ of a degree would be assessed based on drop-out rates, job progression and future earnings potential.
Speaking in Cornwall on Wednesday, Sunak said: “University is great and it makes a fantastic option for young people, but it's not the only option... And what we do know is that there are university degrees that are letting young people down.”
This is not the first time the Tories have pledged to crack down on creative degrees. In January 2022, Sunak revealed he was planning to scrap student loans for those studying ‘Mickey Mouse’ subjects. More recently, in July 2023 he announced further plans to cap the number of students doing ‘low-value’ university degrees. He proposed that limits should be imposed on courses where a low proportion of graduates get a ‘professional’ job, study a postgraduate qualification, or start a business. The policy, which was supposed to come into effect for the 2024/25 academic year, sought to restrict student applications in England for the first time since the government scrapped the previous numbers cap in 2015.
It’s always been widely assumed that creative degrees would be most effected by these policies – and the news that courses’ value will be be determined based on drop-out rates, job progression and future earnings potential essentially confirms this.
Unemployment rates are highest among creative arts graduates: 6.5 per cent are unemployed, compared to the average of 5.9 per cent. Earning potential is also low among creative graduates: research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that creative arts degrees cost the taxpayer 30 per cent more than engineering degrees, as arts graduates are less likely to pay back their student loan in full. As a result, arts graduates can cost the taxpayer up to £35,000 each, with degrees in subjects like music, drama, fine art and design studies proving the most costly.
In January 2022, a consultation was launched by the Office for Students (OfS) to look at the new “minimum acceptable” standards for degrees, in a bid to tackle “poor-quality” courses. For each undergraduate degree, universities are expected to have 80 per cent of students continuing into the second year of their course, 75 per cent completing their qualification, and 60 per cent going into “professional employment or further study” after graduation.
According to the Guardian, it’s “a measure which is most likely to hit working-class and Black, Asian and minority ethnic applicants”. The cap could also be very damaging in subjects or courses with substantial numbers of students from disadvantaged backgrounds, or disabled or mature students.
The numbers cap is unlikely to affect most courses offered by Russell Group universities, where students tend to go on to “highly skilled” jobs and earn above-average salaries.
This “low value degree” cap stuff is wild like… underfund the arts & culture sector, saddle students with debt and then cap arts & humanities degrees because graduates aren’t landing well paying jobs (which don’t exist because your party underfund the arts & restrict unions!)
— emma (@emmatranter_) July 17, 2023
The i reported last year that courses at around 26 universities were not meeting the new OfS standards. The University of Wolverhampton had the highest number of subjects judged to be low value according to the criteria, while London Metropolitan University and London South Bank University also both had three subject areas not meeting the thresholds in the data.
Professor Damien Page, deputy vice chancellor at Buckinghamshire New University, said any plan to introduce a cap on degrees based on professional achievements is based “on the fallacy that the graduate employment market is a meritocracy”.
He said: “Graduates from disadvantaged backgrounds, those who are mixed white and Black Caribbean, mature or disabled, are all less likely to achieve graduate outcomes because of the discrimination they face in the graduate jobs market. Instead of addressing inequalities in employment, this policy locates the problem within universities, especially those who seek to widen participation and achieve real social mobility.”