The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is putting measures in place to restrict student numbers on what he has termed “rip-off degrees”: university courses that have high drop-out rates and are unlikely to lead to highly skilled jobs.
Instead, the government is promoting apprenticeships, through which young people train for a specific career while in employment. Ucas, the universities admissions service, is making it easier for applicants to compare degree options with apprenticeships.
But attempts to encourage people to take vocational routes as an alternative to studying for a degree are unlikely to work.
A degree is a widely recognised mark of achievement, and its value does not look likely to diminish. Young people and their families aspire towards degrees. They also know that having a degree is likely to lead to a higher salary.
