We do want more young people at university, says top Tory

A senior Tory has risked creating a rift in his party by saying 'more and more' school leavers should go to university.

Michael Gove, the party's education spokesman, said he would not abandon Labour's target of increasing the number of young entering higher education to 50 per cent.

'There shouldn't be a cap on aspiration,' he said.

But his standpoint may anger traditionalists. The Conservatives have previously been critical of sending increasing numbers to university.

The party pledged to abandon the 50 per cent target on the grounds that students not suited to university would end up doing 'tinpot' degrees.

But Mr Gove said: 'More and more people going to university is an unalloyed good thing.

'I do not buy the argument that more means worse. The argument put around by Kingsley Amis and others that for a university experience to be valuable requires less than half the population to go there, just isn't right.'

He expressed doubt about criticism of the record 97.2 per cent A-level results which led to claims that they were becoming 'unfailable'.

'Pupils are being better advised and those being presented are well prepared. They are working hard and the pass rate reflects that.'

But senior Tory MP John Redwood warned against pushing ever-increasing numbers towards university.

There is no point pushing someone into university if they have not achieved good A-level results.'

This week, Universities Secretary John Denham admitted too many school-leavers were choosing to study for degrees instead of considering apprenticeships.

Mr Gove cast a shadow over his party's attempts to lose its stuffy image, admitting that voters still saw it as 'unreformed and grumpy'.

'The public gets that David Cameron is not just a Conservative like any other and they like that,' he said.

'But a lot of people still see him as a star centre-forward imported to an otherwise unreformed and grumpy team.'

He compared the Tory leader's ease in the media spotlight with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who was mocked for wearing a 'stiff and frumpy' jacket and shirt on his seaside holiday.