Push To Get 70% Of School Leavers Into Higher Education

[Borg Refinery]

Not really on topic but very tangentially related to Lab's private schools reforms with VAT:

10,000 fewer children in private schools ahead of Labour's VAT raid

[Borg Refinery]

Seventy per cent of school leavers should go into higher education, accor�ding to a blueprint for university reform published on Monday.

The new target outstrips Tony Blair's ambition for 50 per cent to continue their education post-18 and is accompanied by pledges to boost the number of students from poorer backgrounds.

Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, has published a detailed document promising substantial changes in return for more government funding. The body wants a rise in the £9,250 tuition fee and an increase in teaching grants. Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, is drawing up plans for tuition fees to rise in line with inflation.

About half of young people go into higher education at present and the document, written by leading figures in education and politics, calls for this to rise to 70 per cent, including lower-level courses than full degrees. It also wants to increase the numbers from poor backgrounds from 30 to 50 per cent by 2035. The document states: "Government and universities and colleges in Eng�land should work together to ensure that by 2040, 70 per cent of the population achieve tertiary attainment at level 4 or above by the age of 25, up from 48.6 per cent currently."

Times

That's an overly ambitious target, 48.6% sounds reasonable for now, why not improve the standards so there's a very, very high pass rate among those who currently do go - and a 99% pass rate at secondary and college level first?