Rise of exotic degrees

They have been derided as Mickey Mouse degrees, with little academic merit. But qualifications such as surf science and technology are riding the crest of the economic wave, according to Universities UK.

Degrees in computer games technology, golf management, brewing and distilling, and cosmetic science are among those flourishing, says the group that represents Britain's universities, in a report aimed at proving how closely higher education is working with employers to provide vocational skills.

Drummond Bone, president of Universities UK, said courses once described as "Mickey Mouse" were now the "mouse that roared." He added: "If our graduates are to take their place in the global economy, it is right that there should be a range of courses on offer to ensure a workforce with diverse, and in some cases very specific, skills."

The report says graduate-level jobs in the computer industry, already worth £65.5 billion a year to the economy, are expected to jump 20 per cent to 530,000 by 2014. Those in the £310 billion financial services sector will rise by an eighth to 450,000 and in the £90 billion media and fashion industry by a 12th to nearly 1.6 million. Demand for graduates in the £10 billion sport and leisure industry is expected to soar beyond the present 53,000 and better-qualified white-collar staff are urgently needed in the construction industry, which employs two million people.

Courses at 26 universities are singled out in the report, including a Master's degree in computing run jointly by Sussex University and American Express and an accountancy degree course run by Ernst and Young with Lancaster University.

Ministers are demanding that employers improve links with higher education and want more vocational courses to be created. The Government is introducing new powers for further education colleges to offer foundation degrees, equivalent to about two years of a traditional three-year undergraduate degree in England, in an effort to spur competition.

Lord Leitch, who is heading an inquiry for Finance Minister Gordon Brown, into the skills needed in Britain by 2020, is expected next month to praise higher education's contribution but to say that Britain's 26 per cent of adults with degrees is only just over the average for the "rich man's club" of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Alan Johnson, the education secretary, says in the foreword to the report that "as the HE sector begins to operate in a more competitive market, employer-led provision will enable delivery of the skills that the labour market needs and that students want."

Richard Lambert, Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), said the courses highlighted in the report "need to be celebrated and encouraged."