Ex-Reform UK chair needs fewer younger to go to school – after going to high establishment himself
Reform UK’s former chairman calls for “fewer people going to university” after benefiting from a degree from one of the country’s most prestigious ones himself
One of Reform UK’s top brass wants fewer young people to go to university – despite himself studying at one of the country’s top institutions.
Multi-millionaire Zia Yusuf, former chairman of the party and now its head of policy, also suggested some universities should close.
Mr Yusuf, who attended an elite private boys school and then went to the prestigious London School of Economics, said three of the world’s best universities were “on these lovely little islands.” But he added: “It is my view that we are now in a situation where an enormous number of people have student debt in this country.
“We know we have many universities that exist largely through state subsidies. I think in the end, we probably need to end up in a situation where there are fewer people going to university and there are probably fewer universities,” said Mr Yusuf, who hailed Cambridge and Oxford Universities but failed to name any others in the UK.
The businessman, who after university became a banker at investment giants Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, also put universities on notice that any future Reform UK government would clamp down the number of overseas students they could sign-up, despite the huge financial boost they provide to their coffers.
Mr Yusuf slammed former Labour PM Tony Blair for his aspiration for half of young people to go to university. Sir Keir Starmer has since scrapped the target and says he wants more young people to do apprenticeships.
Mr Yusuf told the CBI’s annual conference in London: “Now look at what is happening with AI, we have to ask ourselves, is the current situation sustainable both for people going to university and taking on that debt, and is it for the betterment of the British taxpayer, and to British society as a whole?” He added: “We want fewer universities overall, but to have our best universities.”
His comments come as universities battling with falling student numbers and squeezed budgets have been forced to announce mass layoffs. Universities have collectively announced more than 12,000 job cuts in the past year, analysis from the University and College Union suggested.
Mr Yusuf, a close ally of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who attended exclusive Dulwich College in London, studied at Hampton School in south-west London on a 50% scholarship.
His appearance at the CBI’s annual conference was the first by Reform UK as the party tries to win over the UK corporate world.
It comes as Reform UK faces calls to launch an investigation after Nathan Gill, the disgraced former leader of the party in Wales, received a 10-and-a-half year sentence on after admitting to taking around £40,000 in bribes for pro-Russia interviews and speeches. Asked by the Mirror if the party was scared of what an investigation might found, he repeated that he had never met Mr Gill. “It is entirely unreasonable to try to leverage that to besmirch everybody else at Reform,” he said.
