Sunak vows to crack down on university degrees with low outcomes

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Rishi Sunak has vowed to phase out university degrees that do not improve students’ “earning potential”, create a Russell Group of world-class technical colleges and introduce a British Baccalaureate that would prevent 16-year-olds from dropping maths and English. will take a tougher approach to university degrees that saddle students with debt, without improving their earning potential Rishi Sunak The former chancellor would assess university degrees through their drop-out rates, numbers in graduate jobs and salary thresholds, with exceptions for nursing and other courses with high social value. “Every child deserves a world-class education and, if I become prime minister, I will make it my mission from day one to ensure that’s what they get.” The former chancellor would also create a new British Baccalaureate which would require pupils to continue studying core subjects such as maths and English until they finish school at 18. His Tory leadership rival Liz Truss has pitched herself as the “education prime minister” with a plan to replace failing academies with new free schools, and a promise that pupils with top A level grades would get an automatic invitation to an interview at Oxford or Cambridge – which has raised questions about whether the timing of the academic year would have to be altered.