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The prime minister¡¯s ¡°scrapping¡± of the 50 per cent target for young people to attend higher education has been welcomed by his main leadership rival Andy Burnham, who stressed that it is ¡°not an attack on universities¡±.

Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester?where the Conservative Party conference is being held, is widely considered to be the front runner to replace Keir Starmer ¨C if the government does not improve its position in the polls.

Starmer?announced a new target of two-thirds of young people?going through university or taking a gold standard apprenticeship at his own party¡¯s conference last week, in a speech?that Burnham skipped to avoid ¡°creating a distraction¡±.

He told delegates in Manchester that he has backed the creation of an ¡°equal alternative to the university route¡± with the creation of the Greater Manchester Baccalaureate and has ¡°wholeheartedly¡±?embraced the T levels introduced by the Conservatives.

¡°Kids growing up in our 10 boroughs can see our skyscrapers, but currently they don¡¯t see a path for themselves to those places, and they don¡¯t necessarily see it as their world, a world where they can succeed.

¡°The whole point of that is to give young people growing up in Greater Manchester a line of sight to the modern economy, let them see the jobs that we¡¯ve got, and then plot a path towards those jobs through secondary school.¡±

Burnham, who served as culture secretary and as shadow education secretary, said universities have been ¡°absolutely critical¡± in the devolution of Greater Manchester and are ¡°at the heart¡± of his plans for the growth of the city region¡¯s economy.

¡°The idea of academic and technical education in parallel is critically important. It was good to see the prime minister make that commitment last week in Liverpool, moving away from the over-focus [on universities] but it¡¯s not about doing universities down.¡±

¡°Just because we¡¯re talking about technical education in a way that we¡¯ve not done as a country, I do not hear it as an attack on universities,¡± he added.

Speaking at the same event, Andy Westwood, professor of public policy, government and business at the University of Manchester and a former Labour adviser,?pointed to figures showing that the higher education participation rate is much higher in London than it is in Greater Manchester.

Meeting the new target of Starmer¡¯s government is therefore going to be applied differently across the UK, with separate interventions, policy and investment needed, he said.

¡°It¡¯s got to look different, it¡¯s going to be made up of different pathways, different types of provision and so we need to get out of the mindset that basically says there¡¯s only going to be one way of delivering this ambition.

¡°It gives us a particular challenge in places within Greater Manchester, so places like Oldham and Rochdale have roughly half the amount of kids going to higher education and half the residents with higher education than even a place like Trafford.¡±

Though participation rates are low in parts of the city region,?former universities minister David Willetts?said people in these townships ¡°bloody well should be going to university¡± if the route was properly sold to them.

¡°I know universities have rather gone out of fashion, but actually the network of universities you¡¯ve got here in Manchester and communicating those benefits to parts of this region where there are areas of low participation is something else that is very much needed.¡±

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com