Tories want to see targets scrapped for universities

The aim of encouraging up to 60 per cent of the population to pursue a university degree is unsustainable, the Scottish Conservatives said last night.

Higher education insiders also warned that the pressure on achieving high-level passes at degree level could result in students obtaining a first much more easily.

However, universities responded sharply to the suggestion of cutting the number of student entering university, describing it as "silly".

Liz Smith, the Conservative schools spokeswoman, said: "We need to take a long, hard look at how universities are funded and structures. We need to be focusing degrees on subjects which are useful for the economy."

Although Ms Smith did not advocate scrapping lighter degree subjects, she did not reject the idea outright.

Having too many people going to university, she claimed, risked undermining the academic value of higher education.

Ms Smith added: "We need to be creating the option of greater vocational education."

She spoke out after the Association of Graduate Recruiters revealed that more than three-quarters of employers would take only university-leavers with a 2:1 degree or a first, leaving thousands of graduates in Scotland this summer facing almost certain unemployment.

A source inside higher education said the pressure to deliver higher levels of degree passes could tempt some universities to make it easier for students to achieve a higher classification.

He said: "There's always a risk of a quality drift at universities. There is a pressure to reduce the threshold for the quality of degrees.

"If a university's position in the league tables is very important to them — and one of the drivers for a high place is a high percentage of 2:1s and firsts — there is a pressure to increase the number of first and 2:1 degrees.

"There is a general pressure in the market-place to move up the league tables."

However, university leaders said all classifications of degree were valuable and described employers who ignored those with less than a 2:1 as "foolish".

A spokesman for Universities Scotland, the umbrella group for university sectors, said: "Universities couldn't agree more that it is essential we look at the future needs of the economy when we are planning education and training.

"But in the future the demand is going to be at higher skill levels not lower skill levels, and the silly idea that you are either a graduate or have vocational skills will be consigned to the dustbin.

"If employers want low level vocational skills they are not going to come to Scotland because they are cheaper elsewhere.

We need to compete on quality, not on a 1950s vision of the Scottish economy."

And a senior university academic at one of Scotland's most prestigious universities said it was inevitable that employers would seek higher degrees.

Professor Neville Richardson, Master at St Andrews University, said: "I think its very likely if there's a reduction in jobs in the private sector, employers are going to look for people with 2:1s and firsts. They are going to want the very best people.

"In a sense we've been working to push up our entry requirements and increase the quality of students for a number of years." z