The Reform party will attack universities and ¡°clean up¡± in the next general election?if the Conservatives fail to make the case for why higher education needs to change, a former science minister has warned.

Speaking at the party¡¯s annual conference in Manchester, George Freeman, chair of the House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, said the political class and the university class have ¡°embraced a very dangerous mutual dance in the last few years¡±.

Creating a ¡°zero risk economy¡± through encouraging 50 per cent of young people to go?to university and capping tuition fees at ?9,000 has ¡°driven mediocrity¡± in higher education, he told delegates at an event organised by thinktank More in Common and the UCL policy lab.

¡°There are some brilliant universities at the top and some brilliant universities at the bottom [but] there¡¯s too many mediocre universities. It suits the Treasury¡­and I think that¡¯s a huge problem we need to sort.¡±

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Freeman said policies have undermined the independence of universities and made them ¡°fatally dependent¡± on government funding ¨C which is ¡°too low for the top universities and too high for the vocational community universities¡±.

This ¡°middle mediocre group¡± should be forced to choose whether they ¡°go up and do global excellence or down and do local economics¡±,?the former science minister?added.

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¡°We as a party should be making the case for universities to get off that mediocrity escalator.

¡°As a party, if we don¡¯t make the case for universities and reforming them,?Reform will clean up making the case?and I think they will have some justification that this is a conspiracy of the global Westminster elite, soggy mediocrity management, a lot of vice-chancellors on huge pay for churning out mediocrity for students piling up debt.¡±

Freeman said the Conservatives¡¯ policy should be to let the top universities charge more in tuition but offer free bursaries to young people with good grades, strengthen the UK¡¯s ¡°local universities¡±, support further education and?get rid of the 50 per cent participation target.

¡°We might then have a policy that works for universities, works for students, works for the economy, and works for this party.¡±

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Matt Warman, a former MP and minister, said that the ¡°more facts¡± the Conservatives can introduce in the battle against Reform ¨C especially in the debate around international students ¨C the more successful it will be.

Warman also warned of the impact that the ¡°corrosive broken financial model¡± has had on people going to university.

¡°For many, many years, I think the damage that has been done to how people value universities and their degrees is immense.

¡°The fact that people don¡¯t pay that loan off is problematic in itself, but I think we¡¯ve really got to get to grips if we want people to continue to value the university degree.¡±

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patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com