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Ministers have “played a confidence trick” on a generation of students to go to university with the false promise they will earn more as graduates, leading private schools warned today.
The Government justified tuition fees of £3,225 per year with claims that graduates earn hundreds of thousands of pounds more than workers without degrees.
Many students feel university has given them little more than “an expensive library ticket” as graduate unemployment soars, said Andrew Grant, the new chairman of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.
“There's been a confidence trick played on young people,” he said. “The Government has used historical and partial data to justify the introduction of tuition fees on the grounds there is a premium on graduate earnings. Yes, there was — when graduates were fairly scarce on the jobs market.
“I suspect quite a few have got themselves into university only to find they might not increase their career earnings and find themselves with £23,000 of debt.”
Labour and the Tories have both pledged to expand university education to meet growing demand for places. Increasing numbers of graduates are unemployed as employers cut back on jobs. Many must take bar or supermarket jobs or work for nothing.
Demand for university courses is higher than ever as the recession drives more mature students back to study. An extra 60,000 candidates applied this year. Tens of thousands have struggled to get loans and grants on time because the student loans agency has been unable to cope with the surge. Vice-chancellors are lobbying for the power to increase tuition fees above the £3,225 cap. Many want to charge fees of about £7,000 per year. A government review of the system is to begin within weeks.
Mr Grant said higher fees would lead students to take a “consumerist” approach. He said: “Particularly in the arts, it's not uncommon for students to come away with what they view as a very expensive library ticket and reading list.” Mr Grant was speaking as the HMC's 250 members, who include the heads of Eton, Harrow and Winchester, gathered in Liverpool for the association's annual conference.
A Department for Business, Innovation and Skills spokeswoman said: “A degree is a strong investment which stands graduates in good stead for a long and successful career. Graduates continue to do better than those with lower qualifications.”
Not being able to get a job now has made me worried about later'
Lucy Berry started university this week, but said she is already worrying about her job prospects and finances.
The 19-year-old chose to do government and history at London School of Economics and wants to work abroad as a lawyer or for the Foreign Office. Record numbers of school leavers going into higher education and the job market are making her nervous she will not get work.
“Not being able to get a job over summer has made me worried about later. I feel like I need to get the best possible degree to be the best graduate,” said Miss Berry, from Sevenoaks. “Going to university is the expected thing now. From my school there were only two people who didn't go and that was because they were joining the Forces.” Miss Berry has not received her student loan and maintenance grant, despite applying six months ago. When it arrives she will get about £8,000 for the year to cover her tuition fees, living costs and accommodation.
“The Student Loans Company has been rubbish. They've told me I've got the money, I signed something and haven't heard from them. My parents have given me some money and I'm using my overdraft.” More than half the students she has met during freshers' week have either got jobs or are thinking about getting one, she said.
Reader views (11)
this article is spot on ...
Labour at the time top-up fees were introduced claimed graduates would earn £400k more over a lifetime than a non-graduate. This was always controversial and has since been revised down to £160k (in fact one wonders what the graduate premium is when doctors, lawyers and accountants etc are excluded).
- Bernard, london
Surely this has also got a lot to do with dumbing down of exams? In my day only the genuinely intelligent went onto university. These days the borderline mentally subnormal get A grades as a matter of course. I am sure the intelligent, well spoken graduates will eventually get good jobs. The trouble is all the badly spoken, dimwitted mollusks who've got their pathetic little D grades and gone onto do some made up course have been made the same promises and are now sulking about it. Maybe they should be grateful they've had a few years where they could lie in bed until midday, only to get up and watch kids' TV before knuckling down for another night of drinking in their subsidized bars, instead of being sent to work on factory production lines as their sort would have been 20 odd years ago, or into service as they would have been 50 years ago. But oh no, silly me, I forgot, we've got Equal Opportunities now haven't we and must spoon feed everyone regardless of how useless they are!
- Sarah Bradshaw, Enfield, Middx
It was plain to see that the whole premise of imposing student fees on the basis that students will earn more than those who go to uni.
They will also pay more tax as a result of the higher earnings but this seems to have been ignored.
- Peter, Harrow, UK
To Liberal And Proud, if people want to study for the sake of studying and not with the aim of getting a good job they can go to college which is much cheaper- university is very expensive.
- Louise, London
IT WAS OBVIOUS IT WAS JUST A METHOD OF KEEPING THE UNEMPLOYMENT FIGURES DOWN AND ALSO NOT PAYING DOLE OUT THE SAD THING IS THEY HAVE CONNED A GENERATION OF PEOPLE INTO THINKING THERE WAS A DECENT JOB IF YOU STUDIED SHAME ON YOU LABOUR
- Anon, leicestershire
If they were not at Uni they would be on the streets, looking for jobs that dont exist.
So the government charges them to have fun and carry on studying, then 3 years later, they leave carrying a debt of £20,000 plus and are back onto the streets looking for jobs that dont exist.
- Mr S.Port, London
Whatever happened to the idea that education was worth doing for educations sake? Just because a graduate may end up working in a supermarket (which probably has more to do with their own confidence and ability to write applications and perform at interviews), surely education is a good thing regardless?
I didn't do four years at uni solely because I thought I might earn more, I did it because I believe in bettering myself.
Anyone who says education is a waste of time is either uneducated themselves or wishes others to remain uneducated to further their own ends.
Go and watch Educating Rita for gods sake.
- Liberal And Proud, London, UK
Good degree gets you a good job. A poor degree.. well you work it out.
- Dan, Manchester
With respect to all involved it's ALWAYS been a confidence trick, offering a big carrot on a stick with no guarantees whatsoever is what it's amounted to, and has always been for the benefit of the employers who now can't deliver because they aren't recruiting.
- Jd, London
Bring back manufacturing industry in the UK, Bring back apprenticeships and end this continued lie that a desk job is somehow productive.
A desk job is only of benefit when it serves the exported production output. Every other form of income that is not production based is parasitic upon the earnings of those that through export endeavour have created wealth for England.
Therefore if you have a parasitic qualification in say leisure or media studies, even law and non-production economics you are parasites on the backs of those that create export wealth.
So if we cannot produce goods for export the parasites are unable to feed and therefore have wasted theirs and our money in time in idle speculative education.
Make things, do things, earn and an honest income.
- James, City of London
It is an expensive lesson, but taking anything a politician says at face value is. The whole exercise was designed to mask a predicted boom in youth unemployment. Getting the kids to pay for it themselves and even more, still feel they are benefiting, is the real trick.
- Threaded, Roskilde, Denmark