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MPs urge students to take maths or science for better job prospects
Tim Ross, Education Correspondent3 Aug 2009
Sixth-formers were warned to choose their university courses more carefully today amid fears that dumbed-down degrees will fail to win them jobs.
Too many arts students end up unemployed because firms do not rate their qualifications, the Commons universities committee said.
Phil Willis, chairman of the committee, said students must be far more discerning in their choice of courses and urged more to study maths and science.
The warnings come as hundreds of thousands of sixth-formers await their A-level results this month. They face record competition for places this year after almost 600,000 people applied to start degree courses, up from 540,000 last year.
The MPs warned that universities have failed to tackle fears that standards have slipped and are not consistent between different institutions.
Mr Willis told the Standard: "This is a wake-up call to every single student. We are seeing a very significant number of graduates going into unemployment. Part of that is the economic crisis but part of it is because they are doing degrees for which there is not a great deal of demand. We have in the arts, social sciences and humanities a very significant number of well qualified graduates for whom there is no employment route It's never a loss to do a degree but you have to recognise that some degrees are far more marketable than others."
He urged 18 and 19-year olds to consider "very carefully" the "economic benefits" a particular degree would bring them, as well as how much they would enjoy their subject.
"I am plugging strongly the need for students to look at science and maths because that is where there is a huge shortage," he said.
The cross-party group of MPs found that the proportion of graduates awarded a first class degree rose from 7.7per cent in 1996-97 to 13.3per cent in 2007-08. They suggested that "different levels of effort" were required to obtain similar degrees at different universities. Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said: "I don't recognise the committee's description of our higher education sector."
There are also concerns that London has too many universities. A recent report from the Policy Exchange think-tank found that many of the 42 higher education institutions in London were competing for the same students and suggested that struggling universities should be allowed to go to the wall.
The Conservatives have pledged to tackle fears that GCSEs and A-levels have been dumbed down by setting up an online library of old papers to expose the decline in standards.
Reader views (5)
"Too many arts students end up unemployed"
No, I think you'll find that not enough of them do, McDonalds are always in need of staff.
- Bob, Cheam, 04/08/2009 09:36
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Why study for anything?
Join the rest of the parasites as an MP and you will be a millionaire in five years FOR DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING - except for counting your obscene expenses.
- Reuben Camara, Republic of Morecambe, UK, 03/08/2009 17:40
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"MPs urge students to take maths or science for better job prospects"
One plus one equals two. Reasonable education for practical evidence of intellectual ability equals greater job prospects. Simple arithmetic, not rocket science.
Pity it took the disintegration of society and pending defeat in the polls for them to give at least lip-service to non-political agenda based education needs.
- Rogan, Irving, 03/08/2009 17:03
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Perhaps a quick check round to see how many of the sitting MP's (those with their ugly bloated snouts in the trough) have maths or science degrees or similar qualifications. Not many but if a check on the number of illiterate trade union tossers and social workers who are in the House of Commonms might well prove to be more interesting. Let's face it you will not get a more cushy well paid job requiring little or no ability/devotion to duty than being a back bench MP.
- Nick Holland, glasgow, 03/08/2009 16:39
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AS USUAL MPS HAVE NOT GOT A CLUE WHEN THEY SUGGEST STUDENTS SHOULD STUDY MATHS. AFTER SEVEN YEARS HARD STUDY AT UNIVERSITY OF MATHS AND ACCUMULATING A MASSIVE DEBT MY GRANDSON HAS SO FAR IN THREE YEARS BEEN MADE REDUNDANT TWICE.
WHEN WILL OUR MPS GRASP THAT THE BASIS OF ALL EMPLOYMENT IS MANUFACTURING. THIS GOVERNMENT, UNLIKE FRANCE, ITALY, GERMANY, SPAIN, HAS DONE NOTHING TO SUPPORT MANUFACTURING, WITNESS LEYLAND AND OTHER BRITISH MANUFACTURES, AGAINST VOLKSWAGEN, FIAT, CITOEN, RENAULT. THEY WILL NOT EVEN SUPPORT OUR LAST WIND TURBINE COMPANY WHICH IS MENT TO BE ONE OF THE SUCESS STORIES OF THE FUTURE.
WISPER IT QUIETLY, REMEMBER SUCH GIANTS AS MARCONI, COURTAULDS, ICI.
- Alan Green, Woodford Green, 03/08/2009 16:31
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