Government ‘pushing universities out of teacher training’ over leftwing politics

Higher education leaders say ministers think departments are full of Marxists', as top universities fail accreditation process

Leaders in higher education said this week they believed the government was trying to push universities out of teacher training for political reasons because ministers thought their education departments were hotbeds of leftwing intellectualism" and full of Marxists".

Under changes announced last summer, all initial teacher training providers in England must be re-accredited by the Department for Education to continue educating teachers from 2024. However, two-thirds of providers, including some top universities, were told this month that they had failed the first round of the new accreditation process. The DfE said last week that just 80 providers, out of 216 who are understood to have applied, had made the cut.