University students on courses deemed to support the industrial strategy will receive maintenance grants, Bridget Phillipson has announced.
Speaking at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, the Education Secretary criticised the Conservatives, who she said treated universities “as a political battleground, not a public good”.
The grants are intended to support students studying “priority courses” in levels four to six, which include the certificate of higher education and higher national diploma qualifications, and undergraduate degrees.
They will be funded by a new levy on international students, which will apply to English higher education providers only, with more information to come in this autumn’s Budget.
Ms Phillipson said: “The Tories treated our amazing universities as a political battleground, not a public good.
“Labour is putting them back in the service of working-class young people.”
Ms Phillipson said that students’ “time at college or university should be spent learning or training, not working every hour God sends”.
The Education Secretary is running in Labour’s deputy leadership election, and faces the former Commons leader Lucy Powell.
To applause in the conference hall, Ms Phillipson told party delegates and activists: “In a darkening world, I am proud that our Labour Party, the greatest vehicle for social justice this country has ever known, is in Government and is delivering so much of that dream.
“Just look at what we have already achieved together: free breakfast clubs rolling out across the country; hundreds of new school-based nurseries opening from this autumn; Best Start family hubs, reviving Sure Start for a new generation; and, ended the tax breaks which private schools enjoyed.”
