TheParagon-Education

‘Milking students’
Ed Humpherson, head of the OSR, said he now expects the DfE to make changes to the publication of the data to “reflect that the statistics should not be used to compare the outcomes of graduates and non-graduates in isolation from prior academic attainment”.

The body also said it “expects a more comprehensive and accurate definition” of the graduate premium to be used in any future official statistics publications which make use of the term.

Liz Emerson, chief executive of the Intergenerational Foundation, said: “For too long governments have dangled the promise of a graduate premium to justify milking students with sky-high interest rates, decades of repayments and high repayment rates.

“At the very least the Government should lower the current nine per cent taken from young graduates’ pay packets. This research has important implications over the setting of the repayment threshold.”

Ms Emerson added students on a plan-five student loan have to start repaying their loans once earning over £25,000, which “we believe is far too low”, especially given the rise in the minimum wage.

Chris McGovern, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said: “Micky Mouse degrees enrich universities but impoverish debt-laden students.

“Paul Wiltshire has done a huge service for young people by exposing the great university rip-off. It is a rip-off that was aided and abetted by Tony Blair’s misguided determination to drive more and more school leavers on to dead-end degree courses.”

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John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It’s heartbreaking to see that so many young people have been sold a pipedream based on flawed government statistics.

“There are far too many youngsters going to university, too many courses that aren’t worth the time or expense, and a taxpayer-underwritten debt mountain piling up, leaving graduates with long-term financial headaches.

“The Government must make sure its statistics reflect the reality of obtaining a university education, which often sees young people with jobs that don’t require a degree while saddled with crippling debt.”

A DfE spokesman said: “We will continue to back our world-class universities as engines of growth and opportunity, however it is vital that students can be confident the significant investment they make in higher education delivers real value for money.

“Our statistics publications are regularly reviewed for accuracy and relevance of content, and we have made clear how the graduate premium statistic should be interpreted.”