“It is absolutely clear that students get different returns from different courses… universities with unacceptably high drop-out rates will be asked to plan improvements.
Anyone assuming that an incoming Labour government will deliver on apparent revulsion to the latest crackdown on “low-value” courses in England probably ought to have a read of 2003’s “The future of higher education” white paper.
Back then, variable “returns” from graduate jobs were positioned as a justification for the introduction of £3,000 fees.
Then Secretary of State Charles Clarke also argued that fee income “must not be an incentive for recruiting students for whom higher education, or a particular course, is not suitable”, suggesting that universities were “exploiting their most vulnerable students by making up the numbers with students who cannot cope”.
