Tony Blair calls for 70% of young people to enter higher education

Tony Blair is set to call for 70% of young people to go into higher education.

A report from the Tony Blair Institute, to be published this week, will say that if 70% of young people completed higher education, it would “significantly” raise national productivity levels, and see economic growth rise by nearly 5% over the next generation.

It calls for the proportion of people under 30 going on to HE to increase to 60% by 2030, and 70% by 2040, in line with other high-innovation economies around the world.

The target builds on the former prime minister’s desire, when in office, for 50% of young people to enter HE.

Lord Jo Johnson of Marylebone, a former universities minister, said in the report’s foreword:

“We still don’t have enough highly-skilled individuals to fill many vacancies today.

“As we continue to mature as a knowledge economy, more jobs will be generated in sectors that disproportionately employ graduates.

“High-innovation economies, like South Korea, Japan and Canada, understand this and have boosted higher education; participation rates in these countries are already between 60% and 70%. We cannot afford for policy to remain steeped solely in today’s challenges and our ambition should be to join them.”

Higher education is provided both in universities and other institutions, including further education colleges.

 However, the former prime minister’s report suggests that the government is “setting up a false choice” between university study and vocational education, and that it is “increasingly sceptical” about the value of universities.

“The expansion of higher education over the past generation has become a progressively more important source of prosperity and the mainstay of economic growth since the global financial crisis.”

– Tony Blair Instiute Report

It reads: “The expansion of higher education over the past generation has become a progressively more important source of prosperity and the mainstay of economic growth since the global financial crisis.

“The country faces a set of profound economic challenges in the years ahead that will require many more highly-skilled workers possessing a combination of the technical and ‘soft’ skills that HE is best able to provide.

“Squeezing HE participation, therefore, represents an unambitious skills agenda that will leave Britons unprepared for the economy of the future.”

Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, welcomed the former prime minister’s intervention: “I think Tony Blair is correct on this. We’ve already hit his old 50% target and we should clearly now go further, given we remain behind other countries and employers are crying out for highly skilled people.”

The former Chancellor George Osbourne also agreed with Blair’s proposals, tweeting that it was a “bit odd when largely graduate educated MPs say university isn’t for others”.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Our universities have an important role to play in our education system, but this route is not always in the best interests of the individual or nation.

“The Education Secretary has been clear about his vision for a high-quality skills system that meets the needs of employers and our economy, while ensuring we have high quality vocational and technical options that are just as prestigious and rewarding as academic routes.”