Nobody thinks that students or the taxpayer should invest in poor-quality university degrees. We all want excellent university courses with high prospects for graduates to progress into skilled, meaningful employment.
But there are two problems with the government’s recent announcement that it wants to limit the number of students universities can recruit for courses that are failing to deliver “good outcomes”.
The first is that the university regulator, the Office for Students, already has the power to limit the numbers taking degrees that aren’t performing well. The plan will only affect a relatively small number of courses and universities.
Second, and perhaps more concerning, is the government’s language: “crackdown on rip-off university degrees” opens up the value of a university education itself to criticism.
