Students

Students go on the warpath over tuition fees, the press are shouting from the roof tops that these students are wrong in what they are doing. Unfortunately the truth has been mired by what has happened, if you asked most people why the students are demonstrating they would probably say it is because these students are going to have to pay £9000 per year in fees. To most people that seems outrages that they are going to have to pay so much for an education. As usual there are more issues than this one simple point.

At the moment about 50 per cent of all school leavers go onto higher education, which if I am honest is far to many. If we go back in time to the mid 70's about 12 per cent of all school leavers went onto university, this of course meant those who graduated were likely to walk into a good job. Move forward to 2010 only a very few of those leaving after spending 3 years at university will end up with a good job. We are constantly told that those who go to university will earn more over their lifetime than someone who doesn't, to a certain point that may be true. If 50 per cent leave university with a degree they are likely to get a job eventually. Of the other 50 per cent who don't go to university some will get a job that isn't all that great, some will start at the bottom and work their way up and eventually earn a good wage and some will never work. If you take it as an average, yes those who do go to university will earn more than those who don't. But if you take those who leave school and get a job and put them against those who have got a run of the mill degree you will probably find that the university graduate does not earn anymore than the one who didn't get a degree.

In the 1970's and 80's Britain could afford to pay for people to go onto university because there were so few who were doing this, but with so many going onto university this is no longer possible. The question has to be asked, do we need so many people with degrees? And the simple answer is no, if all these people had a qualification which was of any use I would agree that it was a good idea for them to go to university. Those with degrees in engineering, science, Maths, law, etc can probably be sure they will eventually get a reasonable job. Those who have what is called a 'mickey mouse degree' from a 'mickey mouse university' will probably struggle to find any useful employment, that is the truth. I know many people with degrees and the majority of them do not earn any more than me, and will probably never do, and I do not earn a good wage, and that is my point. There has to be a point to going to university, I have discussed this point before so if you want to see what I think please look at my posting from May.

One of the placards which the students were holding said that they have the right to a free education, and they would be right. Up until the age of 18 they get a free education, after that they have a choice, either go and get a job or go onto higher education. Many would argue that because they are more likely to get a good job they will pay more in tax over the years in employment so they should be entitled to free university education. Of course as we know that is no longer the case, as I have said above. Some would argue that only the richest will be able to afford to do this, but that is not true, they do not have to pay the money up front and secondly they will only pay back the money if they get a job which pays over £21,000 a year. And once they start earning more than that they will only have to pay back about £7 a month, that doesn't sound too bad to me.

I believe our education system needs to be looked at and reformed, from the bottom up, many eleven year olds are leaving primary school not able to read, and we have far to many children getting such high results in their GCSE's. Surely that is a good thing? I hear you cry, but the problem is we have so many young people with A's and A*'s at GCSE and A Level it is very difficult to differentiate between those who are talented and who are not. It's almost like our school sports days in which everyone is given a prize and no one is allowed to be a loser.

We have so many universities now it is almost impossible to tell what is a good degree and what isn't, in the late 80's all polytechnics were allowed to call themselves university's so we have now ended up with too many pointless universities dishing out worthless degrees. It is about time our politicians spoke out about this, it is about time our education system was totally reformed, unfortunately I cannot see this happening, so the problems will continue.

We do have an unequal system in the United Kingdom, in Scotland students do not pay for their university education. If you come from a country within the EU and go to a Scottish university you do not pay, if you come from England and go to a Scottish University you pay, that does seem wrong to me. If you are Welsh you won't have to pay from next year, again that does seem rather unfair, so if you are a British tax payer and are English you are paying for the Scots and Welsh to get a free university education. I do think it strange that so many degrees run over 3 years when I am sure they could be reduced and secondly, having known a lot of people who have gone to university and seeing how much free time they have, surely they could get a part time job and work and pay for themselves.

I wrote about broken promises in my previous blog, and I do think Nick Clegg and his MP's who signed a pledge not to raise tuition fees have a lot to answer for. I don't think their excuses about not knowing the financial situation and about compromise hold much wait. The simple truth is they did not stick to their promise and I think this will come back to haunt them at the next election.

In September 2009 400,000 people graduated from university, this year it is even more, that means over the last year more than 800,000 young people entered the workplace and many of them will never put their degree to any use whatsoever. That seems to me to be a waste of three years, I would say to anyone thinking about going to university, don't take the decision lightly. And don't complain when after three years there isn't an employer with arms open and a job waiting. That might sound rather negative, but that is the truth.