Wildlife Media and Comic Art: Mickey Mouse levels in Tory crosshairs

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.

Conservative sources shared a list of seven courses that could fall under the new legislation which could result in one in eight being axed in a bid to cut down on ‘rip-off’ degrees and pay for 100,000 apprenticeships.

The Prime Minister wants to see the worst-performing university courses replaced with high-skilled apprenticeships to offer young people ‘the employment opportunities and financial security they need to thrive’.

This would lead to the number of university places available decreasing by 130,000, but the Tories argue that one in five graduates would have been better off not going to university.

Drop-out rates, job progression and earnings potential will all be assessed to determine the worst courses and force them to close.

MailOnline understands degrees that could be axed under the proposed rules due to their low earning potential include:

• Football Studies
• Concept and Comic Art
• Dance: Urban Practice
• Wildlife Media
• Creative Music Technology
• Drawing
• Culinary Arts Management

Other degree courses which could get cancelled could also include ‘Harry Potter studies‘, which has previously drawn ire from Tory ministers including former Higher Education Minister Andrea Jenkyns.

Sir Keir Starmer‘s party has branded the policy as ‘laughable’ after the Tories ‘presided over a halving of apprenticeships for young people’.

Mr Sunak has promised 100,000 extra apprenticeships by the end of the next parliament, backed by new funding. His new proposal would give England’s universities watchdog new powers to shut down courses deemed as underperforming.

Mr Sunak, who is campaigning in the South West today, said: ‘Improving education is the closest thing we have to a silver bullet for boosting life chances. So it’s not fair that some university courses are ripping young people off.

‘Thanks to our plan, apprenticeships are much higher quality than they were under Labour. And now we will create 100,000 more, by putting an end to rip-off degrees and offering our young people the employment opportunities and financial security they need to thrive.’

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.

‘And what we do know is that there are university degrees that are letting young people down. Independent studies say that around one in five people who are on degrees would have been financially better off not doing them, about one in three graduates are in non-graduate jobs.

‘So actually we are better off providing those young people with the opportunity of a high-quality apprenticeship.

‘The regulator will be given the powers to look at underperforming degrees, looking at the progression rates, the drop-out rates, the earnings of people on those degrees, and instead we will use that money to fund 100,000 new apprenticeships.’

Despite being asked to name a specific example of an underperforming degree, Mr Sunak did not do so.

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. 

‘Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour Party who have contempt for apprenticeships, or Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives who have a clear plan to give young people the best start to their careers.’

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: ‘It is laughable that the Tories, who have presided over a halving of apprenticeships for young people, are now announcing this.’

An additional 5.8million apprenticeships have been delivered under Conservative governments since 2010, with 340,000 starting in 2022/23, the Tories said.

But Labour pointed out that apprenticeship achievements among under-19s are down 50% since 2015/16, while starts have dropped by at least 30% in every English region. 

Young people in Newcastle today slammed the PM’s proposals, saying young people should be allowed to study whatever they choose.

Grace Lane, 19, an economics and politics student at Newcastle University said: ‘People don’t just go to university for the job or their career they go because they are passionate about their subject and want to learn more about it.

‘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.

‘It’s very important to differentiate them and these degrees. He’s obviously trying to appeal to the older generation. He wants apprenticeships and he wants to grow the economy and this is how he is going to do that.’

Her friend, Lily Cunningham, 20, a modern languages and business student at Newcastle University added: ‘Doing creative subjects can lead to other things later in life.

‘I study modern languages and that doesn’t lead to anything specific, I don’t need to be doing my degree, but it can lead to jobs that help the economy and he isn’t looking at that. You can’t just cut out creativity and innovation, it doesn’t work like that.

‘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.

‘The arts are such a prominent industry in England. We are so renowned for it. We have a beautiful West End, we have loads of different artists and we have great universities that promote all these art techniques.

‘It means you develop the skills to become creative and think creatively and think differently to people that have done standard degrees. Rishi will do whatever he wants to do but is that the right thing?’

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.

‘People should be studying what they are best at. Cutting these degrees can lead to mental health issues.

‘It’s similar to kids at school being pushed into doing a maths GCSE but they hate it and don’t know what they are going to do. They don’t know if they are going to be able to do anything else as they need that qualification to move on.

‘Who doesn’t enjoy creatives? Rishi probably loves going to the theatre but he is cutting out what a lot of people enjoy and want to spend their money on.

‘If you do that then you are taking away that whole sector and it won’t be there in the future.’

Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Munira Wilson said: ‘The shockingly low pay for those on apprenticeships will remain, doing nothing to encourage more people to take apprenticeships up or tackle soaring drop out rates.’

Education minister Damian Hinds also said today that it was not for Government ministers to decide what university courses will get scrapped. Mr Hinds told Times Radio: ‘We’re not directing somebody to scrap one in eight.

‘We have this independent body, the Office for Students, an objective system which looks at things like: what proportion of those who graduate go into graduate jobs, looks at completion rates, looks at the number of students who make it from year one to year two in that course, and it’s right that it should be an independent body that does that and does it in an objective way, we will not be instructing anybody to hit a particular number.’

He later added: ‘What is new is writing into law that if something is going to be up to scratch, is not going to be giving young people the value and the experience and the return on their time as well as money, then actually, then new people should not be admitted to that course.

‘It’s not about taking somebody off a course they’re already on and it’s absolutely not about saying to any individual ‘you can’t go to university’.

‘It’s about saying, if there’s a course which isn’t doing what it should do, isn’t providing that opportunity for those young people, then it shouldn’t be able to recruit more people onto that course.’