Students are being ‘ripped off’ by a tuition fees system that encourages ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees, a new report has said.

Student loans should be overhauled to encourage universities to offer degrees

Students are being ‘ripped off’ by a tuition fees system that encourages ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees, a new report has said.

Student loans should be overhauled to encourage universities to offer degrees that help their students land better-paid jobs when they leave – instead of ‘subsidising’ creative arts degrees.

Universities are accused of being focused on increasing numbers of students rather than improving the quality of degrees, according to the report published tomorrow by the think-tank Centre for Policy Studies (CPS).

It recommends that universities should in future hand out student loans themselves, rather than the Government, using cash lent by Whitehall.

At the end of their studies, students would repay their loans to their universities, making the institutions responsible for any shortfall from defaults.

The CPS believes the changes would push universities to focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses that reward students with better pay once they get a job after their studies.

Students are being ‘ripped off’ by a tuition fees system that encourages ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees, a new report has said

In the past, less rigorous subjects that are less relevant to the labour market have been branded ‘Mickey Mouse’ courses

It would let funding be ‘redirected from bad courses at bad universities to supporting high-cost courses in medicine or the STEM subjects’, according to the CPS.

In the past, less rigorous subjects that are less relevant to the labour market have been branded ‘Mickey Mouse’ courses.

Universities might also decide to replace some degrees with shorter or online-only courses which would be cheaper.

Typical student debt now stands at £45,000 in England – but 54 per cent of the value of student loans is written off. These moves could save the Treasury as much as £7 billion since more students would be able to earn enough to repay their loans, the think-tank claims.

The report also says that ‘too many courses are not delivering for students, or for the country. We now spend more subsidising creative arts than engineering’.

CPS director Robert Colvile said: ‘We must find ways to incentivise universities to do the best for their students, rather than for themselves.

‘These changes will make the system self-funding and encourage more students to take up courses that mean both the individuals – and the country – will become better off in the future.’

He added: ‘As well as adding to the workforce of engineers, scientists and doctors, it will save the Treasury billions of pounds that can then be reinvested into the education system of the future.’