Culinary Arts Management, Wildlife Media and Concept and Comic Art degrees could in the firing line after Rishi Sunak last night pledged to axe 'Mickey Mouse' university courses.
Drop-out rates, job progression and earnings potential will all be assessed to determine the worst courses and force them to close. Read More Tories vow to ban 'rip-off' university degrees: One in eight face the axe in radical plan to end 'mickey mouse' courses and use the spare money to fund 100,000 new apprenticeships Sir Keir Starmer's party has branded the policy as 'laughable' after the Tories 'presided over a halving of apprenticeships for young people'.
Speaking at a train depot in Cornwall, he said: 'University is great and it makes a fantastic option for young people, but it's not the only option. I'm not someone who believes that you have to go to university, and all the apprentices I've been talking to this morning are proof of that, describing it as the best decision they ever made.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said: 'There are no limits to where an apprenticeship can take you. Mine took me from a car factory in Kirkby to the Cabinet. The choice is clear'Despite being asked to name a specific example of an underperforming degree, Mr Sunak did not do so. An additional 5.8million apprenticeships have been delivered under Conservative governments since 2010, with 340,000 starting in 2022/23, the Tories said.
'If people have passion for creative arts degrees that's not something you should cut out. Apprenticeships are very much industry-based. They are really important and they work for certain jobs but they don't work for every single subject. 'You have to have diversity within students and the workforce and account for people who learn in different ways. Cutting out university degrees is going to end up harming a lot of people and I wonder if it will affect people's motivation and what careers they go in to.
Ella Mitchell, 19, a geography student from Newcastle University said: 'It would be so boring if you cut the arts out and everyone is doing the same thing.