Newspaper review: Sunak's 'bad degree crackdown' and 'King Carlos'

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By BBC News
Staff
EPA

Photographs of Carlos Alcaraz feature on many front pages, after the 20-year-old Spaniard won the men's singles title at Wimbledon

The government's plan to crackdown on low-quality university courses is given a push by two high-profile opinion pieces.

Writing in the Daily Mail, the Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, acknowledges the "significant financial investment" needed to study at university - before warning "it's not fair if students are saddled with a degree that's not worth the paper it's written on."

Outlining his case in the Daily Telegraph, Rishi Sunak argues that some young people are being "ripped off" because they're dissuaded from pursuing more vocational options, and are led to believe that university is the "only route to success". The Mail gives its backing to the plan, saying it will "begin to correct a cruel deception which has gone on for far too long."

The Times highlights concern about the effects of rising interest rates, expressed by the UK's largest debt support charity. Citizens Advice says it is now unable to help almost half the 40,000 people who come to it for debt advice every month, as they have already cut back their spending to the bare essentials.

The charity also warns that the number of people it is seeing who can no longer afford the property they live in has almost doubled in a year.

The Financial Times says new research by the Resolution Foundation think-tank has indicated that soaring interest rates have driven the biggest fall in household wealth since the end of World War Two.

The Daily Mirror is excited by drug trial results set to be revealed on Monday afternoon, suggesting they "could herald the beginning of the end of Alzheimer's disease".

The BBC has previously reported a claim by the manufacturer that the drug, Donanemab, could slow patients' mental decline by a third. The Mirror's leader column welcomes what it calls the "potentially ground-breaking" medical advance - arguing it's "frustrating" that effective treatment for dementia has been lacking for years, when Covid vaccines were invented, developed, produced and delivered in months.

With the headline "Sex Predators Stalking Britain's Police Stations", The Daily Express says freedom of information requests have revealed more than 170 allegations of sexual assaults committed on police premises between 2019 and 2022. "What makes this doubly repugnant", says the paper, "is that so few of these incidents have resulted in charges".

It warns that a civilised society "is in grave danger when you can no longer trust those tasked with enforcing the law".

Photographs of Carlos Alcaraz feature on many front pages, after the 20-year-old Spaniard defeated defending champion Novak Djokovic to win the men's singles title at Wimbledon.

The Guardian describes the final as a "five-set thriller, watched by a deafening Centre Court crowd who could hardly contain their joy at bearing witness to this match for the ages".

The Sun notes that Prince George and Princess Charlotte were among those to enjoy the "gobsmacking" match, but their younger brother was absent. According to his mother, the Princess of Wales, Prince Louis was "very upset" to miss out, after he practised being a ballboy at home.