'Mid-table' UK must invest for success

Fewer people in Britain are well-educated than in countries such as Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia and Poland. UCU said today that the government must reverse plans to cut places at universities and colleges if the UK is to avoid slipping behind the rest of Europe.

The UK is only mid-table in a European league of the percentage of people who have at least an upper secondary education (equivalent to A-levels). Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary and Bulgaria are also among the 18 countries who boast a better-qualified populace than the UK.

UCU said that unless the government opened up opportunities for people and made education a policy priority, the UK would get left behind on the world stage.

The government unveiled plans last month to axe the number of university places by 15,000 and has increased the cost of studying a degree to as much as £9,000 a year. Worryingly, it was revealed last week that 43,881 fewer people in the UK applied for a place at university than last year.

In further education the news is similarly bleak. People over the age of 24 wishing to study a level 3 qualification and above will now have to pay fees of up to £4,000 a year. However, these charges come against a backdrop of decreasing numbers of people studying. The total number of learners participating in government-funded further education fell by 8.0 per cent to 4,264,900 in 2010/11.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'The UK should be at the top of the table when it comes to education. We pride ourselves on being world leaders in many areas and must not settle for mid-table obscurity. Even more worrying is the very real possibility that we will slide further down the table as people find it harder to access education following price hikes and restrictions on places.'