When the UK government said it wanted to send half of Britain’s school-leavers to university, there was always a risk it would create a workforce of overqualified shelf-stackers and shop assistants.
Now it turns out the policy has given youngsters false hope. Demand for degree courses is outstripping supply, depriving many of their ambition.
Faced with all the other calls on public spending, the government has put a cap on college entries, limiting this year’s expansion in the student base to 10,000 even though that will leave some universities operating below capacity.
Yet if it prevents a generation of young people from accumulating debt to pursue degrees of limited value that delay their careers by three years without providing qualifications that compensate, the collision with reality will be useful for both the country and the individual.
Ironically, recession is partly responsible for the increased demand. Just as it has resulted in higher recruitment to the armed forces, extended education offers a safe haven until employment is easier to find.
But higher education fosters the false belief that those with degrees will be at the front of the queue for available jobs. It adds to the inflation in qualifications and the devaluation of academic awards.
People are not bright because they go to university: they go to university because they are already bright and not attending does not make them less intelligent.
The reaction to this excess of demand for degrees must be to recruit the brightest and to concentrate on courses that improve the country’s economic or cultural base. If universities produce the qualifications that employers want, students will find the jobs and pay they crave.
That means maintaining the supply of subjects such as science so that students switch from courses that do not lead to careers and which should be curtailed.
Universities should concentrate on studies that educate rather than entertain, providing a foundation for building careers.
But this is not the same as vocational training — the supply of doctors already exceeds demand because the desire to study has not matched the needs of employers.
Training is important but universities have no monopoly on its provision. Some degrees can be downgraded to more fitting qualifications that are more efficiently taught and provide better proof of ability. Apprenticeships are an ideal way to provide the country with the skills it requires and to provide young people with the skills to enhance their job prospects and earnings.
Britain’s 200,000 apprenticeships are still far outnumbered by the million-strong army of university students. Waiving the 50 per cent target and redressing that balance would help everyone. Degrees are not the only qualification.
(Pic Josh Thompson cc2.0)
