Universities UK Chief Executive, Vivienne Stern MBE, responds to
the Prime Minister’s comments on education made at the
Conservative Party Conference 2023:
“The Prime Minister keeps talking down universities. He risks
putting people off who would stand to be benefit if they did go.
The biggest difference in the last 30 years has been the growth
in the proportion of people from less privileged backgrounds who
go to university.
“This political rhetoric is not in the interests of students, or
the economic prospects of the country as a whole. We should
be expanding opportunities and not talking down what is a
national success story. Those who attend university are over
£100,000 better off across their lifetime – even after taxes and
student loan repayments are taken into account.”
“In terms of substance, however, we look forward to engaging with
the government on the proposal to introduce an Advanced British
Standard. Reforming post-16 qualifications would have significant
implications for how education is delivered at university, and
it’s vital that the suite of qualifications on offer deliver the
knowledge, skills and opportunity young people need to succeed.”
Notes to editors:
- The vast majority of the over 30,000 courses available in the
UK are of exceptional quality, not only by the OfS’s standards,
but in the eyes of the 91% of students who praised the quality of
teaching in the most recent National Student Survey.
- UUK has recently published work
confirming the value of a degree to graduates’ employment
prospects, with 73% of UK graduates crediting going to
university with getting the job they wanted in under one
year.
- The same research suggested students who were the first in
their family to attend were likely to earn higher starting
salaries than those who were not, showing the impact of higher
education on social mobility.
- A concurrent survey of business leaders found that 97% of
those polled felt graduates reached managerial positions faster
as a result of going to university.
- Graduates in England are more likely to be in employment
compared to non-graduates (87.3% vs 69.8%). Overall, graduates
have lower levels of unemployment (2.5%) compared to
non-graduates (4.8%) (Graduate Labour market
statistics)
- Official data shows graduates earn on
average £11,500 more per year than non-graduates.
- Research from the Department for Education shows that skills
and labour – driven by an increasing share of graduates in the
Labour market – have been the only factor making a positive and
consistent contribution to productivity growth in the UK in
recent years, following a significant decline in the contribution
of capital investment and business innovation since 2007.