The previous Conservative government went ¡°too far¡± with the marketisation of UK higher education, a shadow minister has conceded but he said Labour¡¯s ¡°strange¡± new target for participation was not the answer.

Neil O¡¯Brien, shadow minister for policy renewal and development, said the cost to the public of funding ¡°low-quality¡± higher education was a key challenge facing the sector.

Speaking at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, the former shadow education minister said there were ¡°good things and bad things¡± about the various reforms that his party introduced during its 14 years in power.

While universities¡¯ income was protected compared with some other public services, the MP for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston said ¡°a lot of the things that we hoped for when we did the increasing fees in 2011 have not come off¡±.

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¡°We¡¯ve not seen price competition and my own view, for what it¡¯s worth, is that the almost excessive belief in quasi-market forces did go too far, that we built a system which continues to cost us about ?8 billion a year in taxpayer write-offs.

¡°And for a lot of young people, the dream that they are being sold, that this will lead to fantastic outcomes in the labour market does not come true, and that leads to a lot of bitterness now.¡±

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Given the ¡°tectonic grinding forces¡± on the public finances that the UK will face because of its ageing society, O¡¯Brien said there are questions around whether the current system is the best value for money with higher education ¡°not economically worthwhile¡± for some people.

¡°I don¡¯t want to come across in any way as anti-higher education. I was the first generation to go to university, it was a wonderful experience and higher education across the country does incredible things for our economy, absolutely vital.

¡°But nonetheless, there is a problem about public spending, there¡¯s a problem about low-value higher education which needs to be tackled, and I think we do need some quite radical steps to do that.¡±

O¡¯Brien told delegates at the Higher Education Policy Institute event that Keir Starmer¡¯s?new target of two-thirds of young people to attend higher education or start a gold standard apprenticeship?was ¡°strange¡±.

¡°I was very unclear on what his plan was.?It seemed to be an acknowledgement of a problem without a clear solution.

¡°I¡¯m sympathetic to the point he¡¯s making, but I think that ¨C as often happens with Keir ¨C there¡¯s a correct analysis that there is a problem, but without any clear solution. I think we need on our side to do better in terms of developing a much clearer solution.

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¡°If you want to change the balance [between higher and further education], then you have to do some quite significant things.¡±

He warned that it was ¡°unsustainable¡± to continue admitting as many international students as the UK does.

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O¡¯Brien said ¡°real students¡± will always be welcome but there is a problem?at the ¡°bottom end of the higher education market¡±?with students whose primary motivation is to work in the UK rather than study.

¡°We have been using [visas] as a way to sell higher education. We¡¯re not unique in doing that though¡­we should be able to sell British higher education on its own merits rather than effectively selling visas in order to cross-subsidise it.¡±

Another key challenge facing UK higher education was ¡°getting better bang for our buck¡±, with universities doing more for the economy.

Speaking at the same event, Duncan Ivison, vice-chancellor of the University of Manchester, said higher education was facing a greater political problem than it was with the public.

¡°We appear to be both at once central to the current government¡¯s policy ambitions and a threat to it at the same time, and there¡¯s a certain amount of cognitive dissonance [involved].¡±

While the public is currently supportive of universities, he warned that there was a risk of public perceptions changing because of the ¡°malaise in the British populace about the dysfunction of the British state¡±.

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¡°The risk is that universities find themselves in that quadrant and that we become associated with a general dysfunction in the British state and, moreover, a general decrepitude of the British identity or British society.¡±

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com