Let's get this straight: offering more university places isn't going to help anyone if there aren't the graduate-level jobs for students to feed into after their degree.
There's been a flurry of discussion about increasing university places this year, with Gordon Brown offering an extra 10,000 places, despite proposed cuts in the education budget. This year's improved A-level successes mean that more 18 year olds than ever before are competing for a place at university, thousands are being turned down and universities are calling for an expansion now for semester-based courses starting in the new year.
Professor Les Ebdon, Chair of Million+, has today published an article in the Telegraph insisting that university places be made available for all who want them. He highlights the disappointment of applicants who have been turned down, despite reaching or closely matching the grades required for entry.
The concern shown by schools, universities and politicians for those unable to obtain a place is laudable, but also problematic. The recession has cut the number of graduate places, so that this year's graduates are struggling to find jobs at a level suited to their educational achievements or, frankly, much lower than that level. Many are choosing to increase their already unthinkable debts by studying for a Master's degree in the hope that the world will magically have turned out right by next September, and the old joke about graduates flipping burgers at McDonald's has long ceased to be even wryly amusing for the many who are subsisting on part-time work in catering and call centres.
Let's apply some common sense to the scenario. Begin with the fact that there now aren't enough non-graduate jobs, so more 18 years olds want to go to university. Easy solution: expand university. More happy students, more university teachers (almost undoubtedly employed on short-term, part-time, hourly-based contracts, but that is a different story: for now they at least have some work, if not packages where they can benefit from sick pay, maternity leave, proper pensions and redundancy payments when their services are no longer required). Fewer people on the dole, so more happy policians. Result!
But what then? Even if the recession has ended and the number of graduate positions returned to pre-recession levels by the time this year's already-increased intake of students graduates, there will be even more graduates fighting for graduate-level jobs. Perhaps the number of graduate-level jobs will increase; but perhaps not. Or perhaps non-graduate jobs will also have increased to pre-recession levels by then and fewer 18 year olds will want to go to university: that's another easy solution, isn't it? Decrease the number of places again (and take away jobs from all those short-term, part-time, hourly-based teachers…). Perhaps, however, expectations will have been raised and they will still want to study for a degree. Will the funding be available for a permanent expansion of university places, or will today's 15 year olds be facing disappointment when their A-level results arrive?
The current situation is deeply unpleasant and pretty scary for many people (whatever their age), but pleas and demands for additional university places smack of short-term thinking just as much as the government's own "plans" to aid the economy by creating "soft jobs" and putting off migrant workers. With spending cuts about to come into force in education and elsewhere, how are these additional university places to be funded? If graduates don't find graduate-level jobs, they are unlikely to be earning enough to start repaying their loans (the threshold is currently £15,000 per annum) and thus to put money back into the system.
The point of having a degree is being lost within the debate about recession, unemployment and what to do about this summer's degree applicants. Someone needs to be looking much further ahead and offering clear long-term plans.
There's been a flurry of discussion about increasing university places this year, with Gordon Brown offering an extra 10,000 places, despite proposed cuts in the education budget. This year's improved A-level successes mean that more 18 year olds than ever before are competing for a place at university, thousands are being turned down and universities are calling for an expansion now for semester-based courses starting in the new year.
Professor Les Ebdon, Chair of Million+, has today published an article in the Telegraph insisting that university places be made available for all who want them. He highlights the disappointment of applicants who have been turned down, despite reaching or closely matching the grades required for entry.
The concern shown by schools, universities and politicians for those unable to obtain a place is laudable, but also problematic. The recession has cut the number of graduate places, so that this year's graduates are struggling to find jobs at a level suited to their educational achievements or, frankly, much lower than that level. Many are choosing to increase their already unthinkable debts by studying for a Master's degree in the hope that the world will magically have turned out right by next September, and the old joke about graduates flipping burgers at McDonald's has long ceased to be even wryly amusing for the many who are subsisting on part-time work in catering and call centres.
Let's apply some common sense to the scenario. Begin with the fact that there now aren't enough non-graduate jobs, so more 18 years olds want to go to university. Easy solution: expand university. More happy students, more university teachers (almost undoubtedly employed on short-term, part-time, hourly-based contracts, but that is a different story: for now they at least have some work, if not packages where they can benefit from sick pay, maternity leave, proper pensions and redundancy payments when their services are no longer required). Fewer people on the dole, so more happy policians. Result!
But what then? Even if the recession has ended and the number of graduate positions returned to pre-recession levels by the time this year's already-increased intake of students graduates, there will be even more graduates fighting for graduate-level jobs. Perhaps the number of graduate-level jobs will increase; but perhaps not. Or perhaps non-graduate jobs will also have increased to pre-recession levels by then and fewer 18 year olds will want to go to university: that's another easy solution, isn't it? Decrease the number of places again (and take away jobs from all those short-term, part-time, hourly-based teachers…). Perhaps, however, expectations will have been raised and they will still want to study for a degree. Will the funding be available for a permanent expansion of university places, or will today's 15 year olds be facing disappointment when their A-level results arrive?
The current situation is deeply unpleasant and pretty scary for many people (whatever their age), but pleas and demands for additional university places smack of short-term thinking just as much as the government's own "plans" to aid the economy by creating "soft jobs" and putting off migrant workers. With spending cuts about to come into force in education and elsewhere, how are these additional university places to be funded? If graduates don't find graduate-level jobs, they are unlikely to be earning enough to start repaying their loans (the threshold is currently £15,000 per annum) and thus to put money back into the system.
The point of having a degree is being lost within the debate about recession, unemployment and what to do about this summer's degree applicants. Someone needs to be looking much further ahead and offering clear long-term plans.
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