Rishi’s right to question the value of degrees - John McLellan

A young female graduate with a scroll in her hands is smiling against the background of university graduates. Graduation.University gesture and people concept.

It won’t happen here, but the debate about the value of a university education sparked by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is needed more urgently in Scotland than in England.

He is right to question whether some English students are being “ripped off”, as he put it, by low quality courses with poor employment prospects, but at least the cost burden does not fall on all taxpayers.

Analysing the quality of courses is not straightforward and employment prospects are a very crude measurement, but in Scotland there should be serious questions about the need to spin out standard undergraduate degree programmes over four years.

The standard is three in most other countries, but there is no suggestion from the Scottish Government that reform is necessary to reduce the cost to taxpayers and students whose entry into full-time employment is delayed.

With most Scots entering higher education from sixth form, thousands are only starting their working lives proper at 22 for no good reason other than tradition.

And while education for education’s sake is a noble ideal, taxpayers should not be expected to fund unnecessarily long courses just because the government and the institutions are either too lazy or too scared to question the value of what they offer.

Some students support the academics currently refusing to mark assignments and exams as part of their pay dispute, but if course lengths were cut the resources might fund improved staff conditions without putting more pressure on the public purse.

But in Scotland, the answer is usually squeeze the taxpayer.