Badenoch: I’ll double apprenticeships budget by slashing uni degrees

A future Conservative government would double England’s apprenticeships budget to £6 billion a year by slashing university student numbers.

Leader of the opposition Kemi Badenoch plans to use her speech at the Conservative Party conference tomorrow to pledge to reintroduce student number controls on “poor value” degrees and direct the “savings” towards apprenticeships and “worthwhile” courses.

She is expected to say: “Every year, thousands of young people go off to university but leave with crippling loans and no real prospects. Nearly one in three graduates see no economic return, and every year taxpayers are writing off over £7 billion in unpaid student loans. Wasted money, wasted talent. A rigged system propping up low-quality courses, while people can’t get high-quality apprenticeships that lead to real jobs.”

Individual higher education institutions would be subject to student recruitment caps, which were abolished by the Conservatives in 2015, for courses “on the basis of quality and graduate outcomes”.

Badenoch expects this will reduce university student numbers by 100,000 a year by the end of the next parliament. The Conservatives claim this would free up enough cash to double England’s apprenticeships budget from £3 billion to £6 billion over that period. New apprenticeships for 18 to 21-year-olds would be “incentivised”.

The University and College Union (UCU) called Badenoch’s plans “economically illiterate”.

Return of ‘rip-off’ degrees

Badenoch, who claims to be a former apprentice, will say: “A lot of people know I did two degrees. One in engineering. One in law. But while I can’t remember how to do parallel integration. I can remember how to fix a broken computer. Which I learnt on my apprenticeship. We need more apprenticeships.

“I was working with adults. I was paying my own way. And it gave me self-confidence in a way my university degrees never did. And unlike my subsequent university degree, I wasn’t still paying off my debts in my early 30s.

“So we will shut down these rip-off courses and use the money to double the apprenticeship budget. Giving thousands of young people the chance of a proper start in life. Just like I got.”

In Manchester, Badenoch will echo Conservative Party announcements from before last year’s general election, which also raided funding from “rip-off” university degrees to pay for more apprenticeships. 

But the party has not spelt out which university courses would be at risk. A press notice trailing the speech said caps would be placed on courses “that consistently lead to poor graduate outcomes”.

“We will introduce controls on student numbers in specific subject groups, so the taxpayer is not left subsidising courses which are leading to low graduate earnings or limited career prospects,” the party said.

Controls on university student numbers were abolished in 2015 by then-Chancellor George Osborne.

Apprenticeship consensus

Ministers would decide on the courses and the number caps, which would then be allocated to providers “on the basis of quality”.

Last week, prime minister Sir Keir Starmer used his party conference speech to replace Tony Blair’s 50 per cent higher education target with a pledge for two-thirds of young people to achieve higher-level qualifications through universities or apprenticeships.

Ben Rowland, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), said having both leaders talk about apprenticeships shows “there is now a welcome political consensus behind more apprenticeships”.

He added: “AELP welcomes the gauntlet that Kemi Badenoch has thrown down of a commitment to doubling apprenticeship funding.”

The apprenticeships budget for financial year 2025-26 is £3.075 billion.

Voter intention polling by YouGov currently places the Conservatives third behind Reform UK and Labour.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “This is an economically illiterate policy; no country has ever grown by slashing university places. Nonsensical ideas such as this come as no surprise from the party that crashed the economy, and fortunately, have no hope of being enacted, as the Tories will not be winning an election anytime soon.

“The way to deal with the student debt burden is through a return to public funding, this could be paid for with a wealth tax, so those who benefit the most from getting a degree contribute more.”