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University Alliance reacts to Universities Minister’s attack today on “low-value” degree courses

The Universities Minister, Michelle Donelan, today (1 July 2020) made comments on Higher Education suggesting fewer people should be going to university based on unsubstantiated claims over the value of degree courses.

Reacting to the comments, Chief Executive of University Alliance Vanessa Wilson commented: 

“We’re thoroughly disappointed in the Universities Minister’s comments today, suggesting fewer people should be going to university based on unsubstantiated claims over the value of degree courses. This attack on “low value” higher education is founded on highly limited data and a narrow and over simplistic interpretation of “value”, and it does not reflect students’ motivations for pursuing higher education.

“True social mobility is achieved when a wide range of high quality options and routes are available and equally valued, and it is wrong to suggest that higher education institutions have been wilfully misleading students when there is little evidence to support that claim.”

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