Future Nobel prizes rely on young people going to university, says science minister

Peter Kyle, who applied to university three times, said Tory government’s ‘war’ on higher education was over

Britain’s future Nobel prizes will come from encouraging young people into university rather than making sandwiches in high street chains, according to the science secretary Peter Kyle, who declared that the previous government’s “war on universities” had ended.

Taking aim at claims that too many school-leavers went to university, Kyle said attacks on “rip-off” degrees from the former prime minister Rishi Sunak risked putting off future innovators and scientists.