Business school leaders have accused the government of short-sightedness after ministers moved ahead with plans to defund most master¡¯s-level degree apprenticeships, predicting that the move will force some providers to cease offering them altogether.

Policymakers confirmed last month that nearly all level 7 apprenticeships ¨C equivalent to a master¡¯s degree ¨C will?no longer be funded by the apprenticeship levy?in a bid to retarget funding towards lower level qualifications.

Only those aged between 16 and 21 will be able to access levy funding for level 7 apprenticeships from January 2026.?

The decision follows concerns from the government that companies are investing too much in executive education for senior leaders, rather than training younger workers without degrees.

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Jonathan Lawson, director of strategic partnerships at Manchester Metropolitan 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ, predicted that the change could?lead to some universities,?whose business schools have benefitted from employers using the levy to enrol staff in MBAs and leadership training, exiting the apprenticeship market altogether.

According to the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS), 58 of the group¡¯s 122 member schools (48 per cent) delivered level 7 apprenticeships in 2024-25.?

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¡°There are quite a number of universities who only offer for provision at level 7,¡± Lawson said. ¡°I think that¡¯s rather a shame to drive those providers out of a space where they are working so closely with employers, meeting employer needs and supporting the local communities.¡±

According to CABS research, the apprenticeships can also boost social mobility. In 2021-22, 25 per cent of those enrolled in level 7 business and management apprenticeships had no prior higher education qualifications ¨C five times that of traditional postgraduate business and management students.

But speaking this week in parliament, education minister Bridget Phillipson said while level 7 apprenticeships can be a ¡°valuable route for some disadvantaged learners, a significant proportion are from non-deprived backgrounds and are significantly less likely to be deprived than apprentices at lower levels¡±.?

Senior leader apprenticeships attract mostly older learners, she added, with 99 per cent of students over the age of 25.

Stewart Robinson, dean of Newcastle 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ Business School and chair of CABS, criticised this as a ¡°short-term¡± argument.?

¡°If we don¡¯t train the leaders of the organisations¡­we¡¯re not generating the businesses with the employees that provide the opportunity for them to take these [lower level] apprenticeship roles,¡± he said.?

¡°It should be about getting the balance right. You don¡¯t want everybody doing level 7 and you don't want everybody at level 2 but you need to have the flow through.¡±

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While Robinson did not expect the policy change to adversely affect the finances of universities and business schools given the high cost of delivering the programmes, he warned that it could affect providers¡¯ engagement with the public and private sector.

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Business school leaders also said the new policy was misguided because?most companies wanted to upskill their staff to a higher level.

¡°For all its issues, the sense of employers being in the driving seat of apprenticeship policy was really strong over the last 10 years,¡± said Manchester Metropolitan¡¯s?Lawson.?

¡°Moving away from that really risks the future of apprenticeships as a whole because the key ingredient in an apprenticeship is the job, and that job cannot exist without the employer, and no employer is going to create a job merely to spend their levy.¡±?

While some employers might bear the costs of training themselves ¨C in addition to paying the levy ¨C this will be out of reach for most, Lawson said, particularly smaller businesses.?

Many employers relying on higher-level apprenticeships are in the public sector, Robinson added, including healthcare. ¡°We really don't want to put more strain on the resources there,¡± he said.

Amanda Goodall, professor of leadership at Bayes Business School,?said the policy was ¡°kicking the public sector when it¡¯s down¡±.

Her school runs an executive master¡¯s in medical leadership focused on NHS doctors because ¡°there are real problems with leadership in the NHS¡±.

¡°And when the NHS is desperate to retain...all its staff, having bad line managers is just such a waste, and to cut this programme, I think, is an absolute tragedy on a sector that, we know, is badly managed.¡±

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helen.packer@timeshighereducation.com