Autumn Statment 2013: Cap on student recruitment lifted for all universities He told the Commons: "That makes no sense when we have a lower proportion of people going to university than even the United States, let alone countries such as South Korea. The chancellor added: "This year is also the fiftieth anniversary of the Robbins Report, which challenged the nonsense that university was only suitable for a small few. "That was true then, I believe it should remain true today," he added. However Britain's top universities have expressed concern that the move is prioritising quantity of over quality of education. Dr Wendy Piatt, Director General of the Russell Group, said: "We have always said that quality higher education should be prioritised over quantity, especially in times of limited funding. We are therefore concerned that the Government has chosen to put additional taxpayers" money into growing student numbers so substantially. She added: "Good teaching requires proper levels of investment and we are not yet convinced the Government can deliver on its promise that the quality of provision will not suffer with such a significant expansion of numbers." However the umbrella body for all of UK's 132 universities said the changes were "good news" that the Government intended to expand student numbers. Nicola Dandridge, Chief Executive of Universities UK, said: "More graduates is good for the economy, developing a strong society and improving the lives of individuals. Employers tell us that they will need more people with graduate-level skills in the coming years. The Institute of Directors said University expansion should be "targeted" in areas where employers are crying out for more qualified graduates. Mike Harris, head of education and skills at the IoD said: "Expansion of university places should be targeted at the courses where employers tell us they have trouble recruiting, so we welcome the announcement of additional funding for STEM [science, technology, engineering and maths] subjects. When applying for university, students should consider choosing courses which will make them very employable, such as science, maths and engineering Mr Willets, the Universities minister told The Telegraph that institutions would not let standards slip as they "value their reputations" and will be judged on both the future job prospects of their students and their drop out rates. However, he said, Government would consult the sector on new regulations for that would when the cap is raised and would apply "further measures" to "ensure quality" if they were needed. He added: "I would no rule out if there is an increase if we have to regulate to make sure the quality control there, the drop out rates don't rise we will do that." What we are really doing is spreading the advantages that are already enjoyed by those [top] universities to all universities. We thinking principle you should have an open and free system no Government artificially setting targets for the number of students at each university.