U.K. Government Crackdown on ‘Rip-Off’ University Degrees May Cause Creative Industries Skills Shortage, Industry Body Warns
The U.K. government’s plans to limit enrolment into so-called “rip-off” university degrees has met with pushback from Creative U.K., the independent network for the country’s creative industries.
On Monday, the U.K. government announced plans where the Office for Students will be asked to limit the number of students universities can recruit onto courses that are “failing to deliver good outcomes for students.”
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“The government wants to make the system fairer for them, but also for taxpayers – who make a huge investment in higher education and are liable for billions of pounds in unrecovered tuition fees if graduate earnings are low,” a U.K. government statement said, which quotes numbers from the Office for Students showing that nearly three in 10 graduates do not progress into highly skilled jobs or further study 15 months after graduating and an Institute for Fiscal Studies estimation that one in five graduates would be better off financially if they hadn’t gone to university.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “Too many young people are being sold a false dream and end up doing a poor-quality course at the taxpayers’ expense that doesn’t offer the prospect of a decent job at the end of it. That is why we are taking action to crack down on rip-off university courses, while boosting skills training and apprenticeships provision.”
However, when asked on the “Good Morning Britain” program which degrees would be capped, U.K. education minister Robert Halfon did not name any. When asked if the assessment would be based on money or the moral value of jobs, Halfon replied: “If people are doing degrees, they should get good jobs at the end – in public service or it might be in the private sector, whatever it may be, but there are too many students not getting those jobs, too many students who aren’t completing, too many students who are dropping out of courses. So that’s why we’re always saying is that there should be recruitment limits on those courses that lead to those poor outcomes.”
'There are too many students not getting [good] jobs, too many students who aren't completing, too many students who are dropping out of courses.' – Education Minister.
Under new Govt plans, universities will be forced to limit the number of students they enroll in… pic.twitter.com/aZP4HNmLCM— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) July 17, 2023
Caroline Norbury, chief executive, Creative U.K., said that the the org is aligned with the U.K. government on the expectation that students undertaking higher education will be rewarded with the knowledge, skills and earning potential needed to build a sustainable and fulfilling career.
“However, at Creative U.K. we have long warned of the risks of assessing the value of courses on metrics that are too narrow to accurately or fairly reflect the success of the U.K.’s talented creative graduates,” Norbury said. “Studying creative subjects develops the finely-tuned cognitive skills that are increasingly sought after by employers across all industries. What’s more, those graduating with creative degrees do experience career progression at least equal to STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Math] graduates, over the first decade of work.”
Norbury pointed to the recent Creative Industries Sector Vision announcement where the U.K. government pledged to grow the creative sector by £50 billion ($63 million) and create one million new creative jobs by 2030.
“We are deeply concerned that plans to cap student numbers for certain courses will introduce significant barriers to achieving these ambitions,” Norbury said. “Today’s creative industries contribute £108 billion to the U.K. economy, but we are already facing a crippling skills shortage, with creative roles currently representing nearly a third of the government’s own shortage occupation list. By introducing further restrictions to accessing meaningful creative education, our talent pipeline will only constrict further, limiting the creative industries’ potential to drive economic growth, job creation and innovation.”
Creative U.K. is asking the U.K. government to introduce broader metrics for assessing graduate outcomes and quality of course provisions, saying that these should vary based on subject areas and the requirements of the industries they are designed to feed qualified talent into, while also factoring in whole career earnings potential, skills shortages, societal benefits and future facing needs.
“The metrics must give higher education providers a clear framework within which to deliver this more nuanced definition of course quality, so that they may also be held to account by regulators if they fall short,” Norbury said. “This approach will ensure we can produce a strong and diverse creative workforce equipped with the skills needed to support U.K. growth and unlock the opportunities of the future.”
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