Latest news with #MickeyMouseDegrees


Daily Mail
28-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
More than 630,000 graduates are on BENEFITS amid fears over the rise of 'Mickey Mouse' degrees
More than 630,000 graduates are claiming benefits amid fears over the rise of 'Mickey Mouse' degrees, official figures have revealed. According to the first data of its kind released to Parliament, a total of 639,000 people with an honours degree or similar level qualification are claiming Universal Credit. This means that more than one in nine claimants (11.9 per cent) are graduates, just four per cent lower than the proportion with no qualifications (15.9 per cent), which came to 849,000 people. The data, from the Labour Force Survey for March to May this year, has been released to Parliament by the UK Statistics Authority, as the full-time employment rate for graduates has fallen from 61 per cent to 59 per cent. It comes as more graduates face earning the minimum wage, with the salary gap between the country's lowest earners and students leaving university becoming increasingly closer. The median real-terms salary for graduates aged under 65 was £26,500, the study found. This was an increase of £500 from the previous year. The survey did find that graduates were more likely to be in work than non-graduates, with 88 per cent of graduates in employment last year, compared with 68 per cent of non-graduates. However, the figures of the number of graduates on Universal Credit will fuel worry that so-called 'Mickey Mouse' degrees are seeing students leave university without the skills they need to find a job. Prof Alan Smithers, the director of the centre for education and employment research at Buckingham University, told the Telegraph: 'The kinds of things that are offered lead to degrees but don't qualify people for the kinds of employment that are available. 'Therefore, people work hard on degree courses for three years and then discover that they don't have much earning potential in the labour market.' Neil O'Brien, a Tory MP who obtained the data through parliamentary questions and is leading the party's policy development, said it revealed 'the serious problems with both welfare and low-value university courses'. 'Students are running up huge debts, being promised the moon, but ending up on benefits,' he added. Helen Whately, the shadow work and pensions secretary, told the Times: 'Today's graduates face the triple jeopardy of low-value degrees, a labour market crippled by Labour's job taxes and competition with AI for entry-level roles. 'The Government needs to grip this challenge. Their failure to reform welfare and economic mismanagement threatens the future of a new generation. Meanwhile, the taxpayer is footing the bill for unpaid student loans and graduates on benefits.' A government spokesman said: 'We remain committed to our principles to reform the welfare system – those who can work should work and if you need help into work the Government should support you.' Last year, Daily Mail analysis revealed a wide range of 'novelty' courses were on offer for students who did not make their predicted grades on A-level results day. It found that the Ucas Clearing website showed 22 institutions offering courses in esports; nine in social media courses, three in digital content creation courses; and one had a 'rap and MC' course. But critics say that while the courses sound fun, they may lack academic rigour due to low entry requirements, and have only been created to increase funding, with universities facing tough financial challenges following tuition fees being frozen in 2017. Chris McGovern of the Campaign for Real Education said: 'This is a money-making racket from cash-strapped universities. 'They are placing their own interests above the best interests of these young people and [it is] the taxpayer who has to finance student loans that, in these cases, are unlikely to be paid off. 'Universities have a duty of care towards young people. Instead, they are exploiting them... Mickey Mouse degrees are those invented to seduce young people into handing over large amounts of money to keep universities in business.' Tuition fees had previously remained frozen at £9,250 per year in England since 2017. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson told the House of Commons last November said the tuition fees cap was being increased by £285 per year due to the 'severe financial challenges' facing universities. She said there had been a 'significant real-terms decline in their income' due to rampant inflation in recent years.


Telegraph
28-07-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
More than 600,000 graduates on benefits
More than 630,000 graduates are claiming benefits, according to official figures that cast doubt on the value of 'Mickey Mouse' degrees. A total of 639,000 people with an honours degree or similar level qualification are claiming Universal Credit, according to the first data of its kind released to Parliament. That is equal to more than one in nine (11.9 per cent) of Universal Credit claimants and is four percentage points below the proportion with no qualifications. Those without any qualifications who are receiving Universal Credit numbered 849,000, representing 15.9 per cent of claimants, according to the data from the Labour Force Survey for March to May this year, released to Parliament by the UK Statistics Authority. The data comes as the full-time employment rate for graduates has fallen from 61 per cent to 59 per cent, with some academics warning that too many degree-holders are leaving university without the skills they need to get a job. Prof Alan Smithers, the director of the centre for education and employment research at Buckingham University, said there was a significant mismatch between the degrees offered to students in a massively expanded university sector and the demands of the job market. He said he was 'not a fan' of the term 'Mickey Mouse' degrees, a phrase first coined by Baroness Hodge, the former Labour universities minister, to mean 'one where the content is perhaps not as rigorous as one would expect and where the degree itself may not have huge relevance in the labour market'. However, he said: 'I don't think we have really established the role of universities in society. We have just expanded them on the grounds that they were a good thing and fairness determined that everyone should have the opportunity to go. 'As a result of that, the system has grown. The kinds of things that are offered lead to degrees but don't qualify people for the kinds of employment that are available. Therefore, people work hard on degree courses for three years and then discover that they don't have much earning potential in the labour market.' He said there were some graduates, such as those who had chosen to be writers, actors or artists, who were 'quite relaxed' about claiming benefits. But others would have built up massive loan debts on courses that had been elevated to degree level when they did not need to be, such as education or media studies, he added. Prof Smithers said: 'Many institutions have become elevated to universities and many subjects have become elevated to call themselves degrees, but they then have to shovel things into them.' The data showed that people who had finished their academic career with top grade GCSEs (A-C, or 4-9) accounted for the highest proportion of Universal Credit claimants at 26.7 per cent. They comprised a total of 1.4 million people. That was almost five times the rate of those who had 'failed' their GCSEs by receiving grades D-G or equivalent, and who were also half as likely as graduates to be claiming Universal Credit. They numbered 304,000 and accounted for 5.7 per cent of claimants. Those with A-levels or the equivalent, but who had not gone to university, numbered 1.1 million and accounted for one in five (20.6 per cent) of claimants. The figures come as more graduates face earning the minimum wage, with the salary gap between university leavers and the country's lowest earners disappearing. Rapid increases in the National Living Wage mean a full-time worker on the UK's lowest salary now earns £25,500. Meanwhile, one in 10 graduate roles were advertised at £25,000 at the end of last year, according to Indeed data. 'Students being promised the moon' Neil O'Brien, a Tory MP who is leading the party's policy development and obtained the data through parliamentary questions, said it showed 'the serious problems with both welfare and low-value university courses'. He added: 'Students are running up huge debts, being promised the moon, but ending up on benefits.' Helen Whately, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said: 'Today's graduates face the triple jeopardy of low-value degrees, a labour market crippled by Labour's job taxes and competition with AI for entry-level roles. 'The Government needs to grip this challenge. Their failure to reform welfare and economic mismanagement threatens the future of a new generation. Meanwhile, the taxpayer is footing the bill for unpaid student loans and graduates on benefits.' The Government noted that 87.6 per cent of graduates were in employment – compared with 68 per cent for non-graduates. Some 67.9 per cent of graduates were in high-skilled employment – compared with 23.7 per cent of non-graduates. A government spokesman said: 'We remain committed to our principles to reform the welfare system – those who can work should work and if you need help into work the Government should support you.'


Telegraph
11-06-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
How Starmer's immigration crackdown could kill off the Mickey Mouse degree
In 1999, Tony Blair pledged that half of young people would go to university. The sector mushroomed, producing a rash of so-called ' Mickey Mouse degrees ' – those useless, and now very expensive, courses that result in low salaries and few job prospects. But they may finally be under threat – from a Labour government. Sir Keir Starmer announced in May that universities would face tighter restrictions on recruiting overseas students as part of a wider push to reduce immigration. Under the reforms, universities would face a levy on fee income from international students and stricter restrictions on how long students can remain in the UK after they graduate. Telegraph analysis has identified more than a dozen universities that rely on foreign students for more than half their fee income, and whose graduates typically earn salaries of less than £30,000 five years after graduation. The table below shows these universities: Karl Williams, of the Centre for Policy Studies think tank, accused universities of 'papering over the cracks in their funding through foreign students', who they can charge unlimited fees. He said: 'Poor graduate salaries show that all too often the courses universities offer – both to domestic and international students – do not provide the outcomes students are hoping for. 'The only way to encourage universities to improve their courses and get themselves on a more sustainable financial footing is to clamp down on student numbers and create an immigration system which truly does attract the best and brightest.' Charging higher fees to foreign students to subsidise domestic ones is not unusual when compared to universities in Canada, Australia and the US. However, British universities have been hamstrung by a freeze on tuition fees since they were introduced in 2012. Professor Brian Hall, who chairs the Migration Advisory Committee, said: 'When tuition fees were introduced, universities could break even on their domestic students, and international students were a nice-to-have. 'Since then, universities have been told to keep their prices steady while paying higher pension, salary and building costs.' Universities therefore responded by introducing more cheap-to-run courses such as business studies, as opposed to engineering, and recruiting more students from abroad. But this approach is fast reaching its limit, and universities are already going bust. Prof Hall said: 'When inflation reached 10pc in 2022, that was the final nail in the coffin. The model can't continue in its current form, and I worry about some of the lower-ranked universities. 'If they push up their prices any more, they will see a reduction in the number of students applying.' Even after the coalition government granted universities the power to charge thousands of pounds a year for tuition, universities have plainly struggled to balance the books against a ballooning number of students. Just as Sir Tony envisioned, the number of successful applications through the University and College Admissions system in Britain ballooned from 335,000 in 1999 to a peak of 570,000 in 2020. Meanwhile, visas granted to overseas students reached a peak of 484,000 in 2022, with record numbers of Chinese and Indian students offsetting a decline in those from the EU after Brexit. A government report noted that the growth in the student population since 2020 'has been driven by increases in overseas students on postgraduate taught courses'. The total amount foreign students have paid through uncapped fees has more than doubled from £5.3bn to £11.6bn between 2017 and 2024. Meanwhile, domestic fees have increased by just £2.5bn in the same period, from £10.5bn to £13bn. Eyebrows have been raised at the merit of the courses for which universities charge full price, not least at media courses with modules on Disney, which would leave a typical graduate earning below minimum wage for five years. Nick Hillman, of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said Labour's white paper 'absolutely might mean some less prestigious courses are closed down'. He added: 'There are a lot of universities in the middle of the league table which are kept going by international students, and demand for their courses is very dependent on immigration policy. 'You have some courses where international students are propping up the course, and it probably applies to the very prestigious courses at the other end of the spectrum as well.' Universities reliant on a high number of students from Pakistan, India and Nigeria would be especially hit by restrictions on how long graduates can remain in the UK, Mr Hillman added. The Mickey Mouse universities In the 2023-24 financial year, the most recent for which data is available, one in three universities relied on foreign cash for over half their fee income, Telegraph analysis shows. These include 17 universities where a typical graduate earns a salary of less than £30,000 in five years, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). Among them is the University of the Arts, London, which made £242m in fees from foreign students in 2024, up from £91m in 2017. A typical UAL graduate's salary five years after graduation is £26,300 a year, according to HESA. A UAL spokesman said: 'The UK's creative industries are a huge contributor to the economy and the UK's status as a global creative leader must not be taken for granted. 'Measures of graduate success that focus narrowly on immediate post-university salary fail to reflect the realities of the creative industries.' Shadow education minister, Neil O'Brien, called on Labour to 'ensure that our higher education sector upholds the quality and global reputation it deserves'. He added: 'We have long warned that too many universities have prioritised revenue over rigour, offering low-value degrees to foreign students simply to boost their income.' The crackdown on universities' reliance on overseas students comes a year after Rishi Sunak pledged to scrap 'rip-off' degrees that the former prime minister claimed 'make students poorer', in favour of more funding for high-skill apprenticeships. Edinburgh Napier University similarly relies on overseas students for two-thirds of its fee income. The university raked in £46m from foreign students in 2023-24. However, a typical ENU graduate earns £29,200 a year five years after graduation. A university spokesman said: 'We are proud of our international students, who enhance the success of Edinburgh Napier and enrich the university experience for all. ENU graduates continue to make a positive difference to people's lives across a wide range of sectors around the world.' Universities UK, which represents all universities in England and Wales, argued there was 'no such thing as a Mickey Mouse university', and that measuring a university's quality by graduate salaries was too simplistic. A spokesman said: 'Some of the institutions named here are world-renowned in specialist fields like music, art or dance, while others do the vital job of training nurses and teachers – all are necessary for the country to thrive. 'The financial challenges facing universities stem from falling per-student funding, visa changes which have decreased international enrolments, and a longstanding failure of research grants to cover costs. 'However, it is simply wrong to pinpoint these institutions as particularly at risk, given the diverse range of income streams universities have.' A spokesman for the Office for Students said: 'We recognise that universities and colleges are facing increased financial challenges. 'However, we have repeatedly been clear that they should be alive to the risk of over-reliance on fee income from international students, particularly when recruitment is predominantly from a single country.' A government spokesman said: 'Students rightly expect a high-quality education, and the Office for Students has powers to protect their interests. In line with our mission to drive up standards through our Plan for Change, we have asked the OfS to make that work a priority. 'Our reforms will ensure value for money for students while delivering the high-quality education they deserve and ensuring universities play their part in driving economic growth. 'The Education Secretary and the OfS have been clear that many institutions will need to change their business models to ensure they remain financially sustainable.'