Rishi Sunak has vowed to phase out university degrees that do not improve students’ “earning potential”, create a Russell Group of world-class technical colleges and introduce a British Baccalaureate that would prevent 16-year-olds from dropping maths and English. If he becomes the next prime minister, Mr Sunak would strengthen networks of technical institutions and their links with industry, as well as giving them powers to award degrees, his campaign said. The former chancellor would assess university degrees through their drop-out rates, numbers in graduate jobs and salary thresholds, with exceptions for nursing and other courses with high social value. Mr Sunak said: “A good education is the closest thing we have to a silver bullet when it comes to making people’s lives better. And they will take a tougher approach to university degrees that saddle students with debt, without improving their earning potential.

Source: The Times August 06, 2022 23:17 UTC