The British government’s unwanted higher-education boom
Ministers mostly have themselves to blame
BRITAIN’S CONSERVATIVE government is ambivalent about universities. It won a majority in 2019 by picking up votes from people who never went to one. According to the British Election Study, 74% of people with no qualifications who voted Conservative or Labour broke for the Tories, while most people with degrees went for Labour. Ministers tout alternatives to higher education such as apprenticeships. When they do talk about universities, it is often to attack them as nests of woke ideology.
But their actions have a different effect. Britain is witnessing a jump in university attendance. Some of this is driven by social and economic forces that would have applied whatever the government did. Some of it is caused by the government’s chaotic treatment of schools and examinations during the covid-19 pandemic.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline "Seeing stars"
Britain August 14th 2021
- Britain’s courts are in a mess
- The battle for north London’s public space
- The British government’s unwanted higher-education boom
- HS2’s extension and the paradox of infrastructure investment
- Brexit Britain wants to liberalise trade with poor countries
- Britain’s economy: less scarred by covid-19 than had been feared
- Boris Johnson’s strained love affair with the motorist
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