This week, Professor Adam Tickell, vice-chancellor of the University of Birmingham, suggested something that was once unsayable in British education: perhaps we should reconsider lending student loans to people who have little realistic chance of completing a degree. It sounds harsh. But it also sounds like common sense.

Since Tony Blair set the tone in 1999 with his famous target that 50 per cent of young people should do so, Britain has pursued a single, almost unquestioned educational goal: get more young people into university.

The Blairite dream was realised by 2018 and today, the UK has one of the most university-heavy systems in the world.

Since 2018-19, more than 50 per cent of young people aged 17-30 have participated in higher education. Yet, still the pressure continues. Some education leaders are now talking about pushing participation even higher to 70 per cent of young people by 2040. But, why? Why have we built a culture in which a degree course is treated as the only........

© iNews