Academic savages Blair's university policy

Tony Blair's flagship policy of getting half of all young people into university was today savaged by a leading London academic.

Sir Richard Sykes, rector of Imperial College, hit out at ministers for pursuing an egalitarian "bums on seats" approach which harms world-renowned universities in Britain.

He claimed the drive for more higher- education places is "draining the system" and causing " unbelievable stresses".

Sir Richard also sparked a furore by hitting out at government decisions to pay universities more if they take more students from less well-off backgrounds.

He claimed: "For a maths student coming to Imperial College we get less than the maths student going to Luton. So is that the way the economy should be spending its money?

"Is that the way the Chancellor wants to spend his money? Because a penny spent here is a lot better

than a penny spent at Luton for the economy."

Sir Richard, former chairman of GlaxoSmithKline, admitted his comments are "divisive" but was unapologetic. He said: "We are diverting resources to universities that are having to bring these kids up to speed with what they should have learned in primary and secondary.

"And that's why you're moving money away from places like this to your thirdclass institutions - because it costs more to teach those kids, because they've never been taught.

"The belief that there are thousands of kids out there who come from poorer backgrounds that are geniuses ... there may be, but we can't take them at 18 if they've not been educated."

He branded local and regional universities "not national treasures and not international treasures".

And he added: "Let's accept it and deal with it, and let's ...stop behaving as if everybody's the same - because that's just a lot of nonsense." Sir Richard said the country was suffering from a "big problem" - that all its " excellence" is "concentrated in the south of England".

This is where wealth is generated, he claimed - hitting out at the Government's drive to spread resources more evenly around the country.

"You can't just send it to the North-East of England," he added. "People won't go."

He said Imperial College is suffering from a dearth of British applications for its science-and engineering courses, the shortfall being made up by overseas students.

Sir Richard hit out at Mr Blair's flagship highereducation policy. He claimed in an interview in the Financial Times: "First of all we have got to back off this 50 per cent participation, because there is not enough money for it.

"And I think it is draining the system. It is causing unbelievable stresses."