Don’t call them ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees – it’s insulting, says former universities minister

A former Tory education minister has described the previous Conservative government’s attack on “Mickey Mouse” degrees as an ‘insult’. 
 
This was a sentiment shared by Robert Halfon, a member of the Commons education select committee who was appointed the universities minister under Kuenssberg’s boss, Rishi Sunak, in 2021 last year, who told The Telegraph that the phrase “was wrong” for the Tories. 
 
The prime minister unveiled measures to curb so-called ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees earlier this year in one of his last education policy initiatives in No 10. 
 
He said one in eight university courses were ‘ripping young people off’ , promising to close them and use the money saved to establish one hundred thousand apprenticeships. 
 
But Mr Halfon said that while having a ‘ruthless focus on outcomes for university graduates’ was correct, it was incorrect that former colleagues called the worst-performing courses Mickey Mouse degrees. 
 
“I never liked that phrase and I never used it because I felt that it insulted – it became a kind of watchword when you think of students – those students who work really hard to get into university,” said he in The Telegraph’s Daily T podcast. 
 
“You really have to be very wary of using that term because… it carries over as an insult to all those people who are willing to work hard and get to university and actually enjoy it enormously I’ve never used it I never liked it And I never thought it was right that we did it. ” 
 
It emerges as many students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are expected to have their A-level results tomorrow Thursday, with heads of universities forecasting it as a good year for learners to join university. 
 
Analysts have predicted that to get an opportunity at the most competitive courses will be easier this year due to squeezed budget in the country’s universities due to reduced intakes of international students. 
 
It might see low-ranked universities outcompeted by other higher-ranked universities in the provision of students, which creates new concerns on the quality of some degrees. 
 
Mr Halfon said: “I do think the way to solve that is to have a resolute, ruthless focus on outcomes. ” 
 
“And honestly, I do not mind what type of course it is as long as the students are getting good skilled jobs in the end of it; and if they are not, then the taxpayer should not be subsidising or funding it”. 
 
The former minister, who declared his intention to contest the general election and then retire after 14 years as a Tory MP, said that Britain would have to make sure that ‘students who are taking out Big Wacky Loan get good jobs’. 
 
Informants who were close to the previous government explained to me that this crackdown on Mickey Mouse degrees was in essence, an effort to draw attention to large variability of the outcomes in some subjects rather than on particular courses in certain universities. 
 
The imaginative and the independent Office for Students, the universities regulator, was given fresh authorities in 2022 to target “poor quality courses”. 
 
This means that universities that cannot retain students, or those that cannot demonstrate that their graduates are succeeding will be penalized. 
 
‘He’s trustworthy and affable’ 

Mr Halfon also announced that he will be supporting Mel Stride the former work and pensions secretary in the imminent Tory leadership contest. 
 
The Conservatives have therefore lost the public’s trust, and Mr Halfon was of the opinion that the speaker managed to portray both trustworthiness and friendliness. 
 
He also proposed that the reasons that have made UP to transform from a formidable political force into a negligible force are well-founded, as the other political forces will have very difficult tasks in front of them to regain the trust of people. 
 
When you ask the man in the street, right now, they will tell you they do not like the conservatives, the former minister of education avers. 
 
“We are angry, we seem even shouty; we campaign for the negative when we should campaign for the positive… [Mr Stride] wants to democratis the party, to provide proper membership services, to eliminate all kinds of cronyism, to have a genuinely meritocratic party… to some extent some of the things that he’s saying are very exciting. ”