Nigel Farage has hit out at universities for ¡°poisoning the minds¡± of students with what he said was a?¡°twisted interpretation of history¡± in his speech on the opening day of the Reform UK conference.

Farage, leader of the populist right-wing party since June 2024, focused his speech in Birmingham on getting ready for government and criticising Keir Starmer¡¯s Labour administration in ¡°deep crisis¡±.

Reform,?which is in the midst of an unprecedented rise in the polls for a non-major party, has no?education spokesperson yet,?while the university financial crisis is far below immigration in its list of priorities.

But Farage did give some indication of what its future policies could look like ¨C with a particular emphasis on vocational education.

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In addition to an exodus of big taxpayers from the UK, Farage claimed that young people are ¡°leaving in droves¡±. To encourage them to stay, he said children at school should be taught trades and services.

¡°The one thing that AI will not replace is the local plumber. They¡¯re going to make a fortune in the years to come.¡±

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With many conference delegates sporting ¡°Make Britain Great Again¡± hats, Farage said he wanted to ¡°make Britain proud again¡±, and publicly acknowledge its ¡°Judaeo-Christian culture and heritage¡±.

¡°We refuse to have our kids¡¯ minds poisoned in schools and universities with a twisted interpretation of the history of these amazing islands. We will not stand for it.¡±

Speaking to?ÌÇÐÄVlog?at the conference, George Finch, the 19-year-old leader of Warwickshire County Council and former student, said?that universities are a ¡°conveyor belt of communism¡± and ¡°a complete joke¡±.

¡°It¡¯s a coercive curriculum: you¡¯re meant to be in university for free speech, freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and what is it at the moment? You¡¯re being told what to think, you¡¯re being told what to say.¡±

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Finch criticised schools and universities for failing to teach the history of the British Empire properly.

¡°We did amazingly ¨C democracy, infrastructure, transport, railways in India, Africa, all across the world. We owned a third of the world ¨C that¡¯s something to be proud of.

?¡°[Academics] do not talk about these things. It¡¯s either they¡¯re afraid or they don¡¯t feel as though that¡¯s the right way to go down, and it¡¯s such a shame that we¡¯ve done so well as a country¡­the world¡¯s gone bonkers.¡±

Finch said he dropped out of his politics degree at the University of Leicester because ¡°the politics, the Mickey Mouse degrees will not prepare young people for the future¡±.

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¡°I dropped out of university because apprenticeships are the way forward. We have to do practical hands-on support because our traders are dying off.

¡°We have to increase that by getting more apprenticeships, work experience, and building that up.¡±

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He said students feel lost in the education system and that Reform would remove politics from universities and start a more ¡°commonsensical¡± approach.

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com