A response to Suella Braverman

August 21, 2026

A response to Suella Braverman

Those of us with any interests in politics in recent years have learned that whenever Suella Braverman speaks the best course of action is to turn a deaf ear.

A response to Suella Braverman

Her own political career has been particularly chequered with ministerial demotions, sackings, failed leadership bids and a defection to another party altogether.

However, this week she has regurgitated the hackneyed old line about “Mickey Mouse” degree courses and cited Golf Course Studies as one of the main culprits.

On this occasion we can’t simply ignore her and allow her views to gain traction, particularly given the difficulties in attracted young people into not just the golf course management industry, but turf and grounds management as a whole.

She told The Sun: “In terms of Mickey Mouse courses, listen, this has been well chronicled for many years. Whether it’s Gender Studies, whether it’s Golf Course Studies I think I’ve seen, there’s not a necessity, there’s not a value in many of these degrees.

“Now I know that might be uncomfortable for those people who have those qualifications, But the reality is, you’ve got to ask yourself, what are the graduate outcomes you have in mind?”

Well Suella, I’d suggest that someone who has applied for, and successfully completed, a degree in Golf Course Studies is aiming for a job working on a golf course.

The curriculum for Golf Course Studies covers a huge range of topics including turf grass science, agronomy, sustainable water management, disease identification and land resource planning and it produces well rounded employment-ready young people.

It is, don’t forget, a vocational degree and those who sign up for it know what they want to be doing with the rest of their working lives.

They won’t be graduates who are going to be asking “Do you want fries with that?” for the first few years after they’ve left university.

For too long Golf Course Studies has been a punchbag for politicians, usually, and in this case definitely, without a clue.

I would suggest that they turn their focus onto many of the non-vocational courses which, while perhaps stretching students’ brainpower, don’t offer a direct path to the workplace.

It is good that the GMA have the same view and CEO Geoff Webb is, as ever strident in his condemnation

“The GMA firmly condemns these comments. To single out golf course management as a degree lacking value fundamentally misunderstands both the qualification and the industry it serves,” said Geoff.

“Specialist land‑based degrees – such as golf course management and sports turf management – are academically robust and essential to sectors facing acute skills shortages. Graduates enter a sector with strong employment rates and clear career pathways into some of the most iconic sporting venues in the world, from St Andrews to Headingley.

“These are science-driven, technically demanding programmes. Our professionals maintain the surfaces that make sport possible at every level – from community pitches to Premier League stadiums. Without them, sport simply does not happen.

“We strongly support apprenticeships as a vital route into the profession, but university degrees are equally essential, and the two are not in competition. What the sector needs is more people entering through all available pathways, not rhetoric that deters them.”

Well said Geoff.

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