Degrees of confusion over university education
THE American rock and roll singer Fats Domino once observed that: "A lot of fellows nowadays have a BA, MD, or PhD. Unfortunately, they don't have a JOB."
Fats also sang: "Ain't that a shame."
It is hard not to have sympathy for today's 18-year-olds. Like so much else left in Labour's wake, university education is in a bit of a mess. Untangling it will be no easy business and in the process thousands of young people, through no fault of their own, will have their hopes and expectations dashed.
A big part of the problem was the New Labour's dash to get 50 per cent of the population to attend university.
The rationale for this policy was always a little hazy. "Half the population" is a great campaigning slogan, but it never really linked up to any real need or demand.
With hindsight it looks as though the policy was little more than another exercise in expanding the public sector combined with an ill-considered ideological assault on a system that the sisters of Islington considered a trifle elitist.
Quite how all this extra university education was to be paid for was never really thought through, meaning that students now have the additional burden of fretting about an endlessly changing system of fees and loans as well as graduate unemployment rates.
A decade on and we are still not able to tell young people with certainty how their education will have to be paid for and graduates face the prospect of beginning their careers with a 25,000 debt, effectively putting a university education out of the reach of many intelligent young people from poorer backgrounds.
The idea floating about is a "graduate tax"; an idea that has an awful lot of devil and very little detail.
Graduates who use their degree to fire up high flying careers are going to pay more tax over their lifetime; I can see no rationale for taxing them further. A graduate tax might just make a career overseas more attractive. A brain drain, even of wannabe bankers, will lower the overall tax take and weaken the economy. Not a good idea.
Graduates who choose to use their skills for socially useful but lower paid jobs are already contributing to society, so hitting them with an extra dose of tax just looks unfair.
On the other hand it is hard to make a case that someone who chooses to spend three years studying equestrian psychology (apparently "The programme investigates the unique partnership between horse and rider during husbandry, training and competition.") should not have to pay for the privilege in some shape or form.
The sudden expansion of the university sector has also diluted the quality of some of the education.
In recent years the phrase "Mickey Mouse degree" has slipped into common parlance. Usually this refers to degree subjects such as outdoor adventure with philosophy, martial arts with adventure tourism, the aforementioned equestrian psychology and everybody's favourite academic whipping boy, media studies.
Though are these weird and wonderful courses really less relevant than ‘greats’, the Oxford University degree in classical languages and philosophy which is revered as the training ground for the great and the good?
The obsession with “university degrees uber alles” has also left the impression that other post-secondary education and training options such as vocational courses or apprenticeships are all but worthless. This is a perception that must be reversed if we are to rebuild our manufacturing sector.
The soaring university dropout rate suggests that many people who would have thrived elsewhere but who did not really possess the inclination or aptitude for university have been shoehorned into the system. That cannot be right.
The university entrance procedure has also become something of a quagmire.
The previously gold standard A-level system has been mucked about with to the point that no one really understands what the grades are worth anymore. As a result universities are increasingly relying on entrance exams and interviews instead. A dramatic example of this trend is the UK Clinical Aptitude Test, a test used by a consortium of universities, including Queen’s, to assess potential students suitability to train as doctors or dentists, irrespective of their A-level grades.
The system desperately needs to be fixed, and it needs to be done quickly with a minimum of political dogma or interference. The economic climate is creating enough uncertainty and a confused and potentially dysfunctional university system is only further undermining the confidence of our young people. A good starting point might be to listen to the views of the universities and maybe to give those that want it a bit more independence.
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