"Some months ago, I was at my old university, speaking to prospective sixth-form and college students about taking a degree in the arts and what future careers they could expect. It was a cohort of teenagers from underrepresented backgrounds: all of them had that glint of ambition in their eyes, a desire to better their circumstances. After the talk, they showed me their precocious LinkedIn profiles already advertising their talents to future employers."
"There was a time when university was considered a reliable mechanism of social mobility. It was a philosophy inculcated under New Labour, with the then prime minister, Tony Blair, announcing in 1999 his intention for 50% of young adults going into higher education in the next century (a figure that sat at just 20% in 1990). The idea was simple: a knowledge-based economy would create the jobs of the future, and it was the country's duty to prepare young people for it."
A cohort of prospective sixth-form and college students from underrepresented backgrounds questioned whether attending university remains worthwhile given graduate recruitment problems and crippling student debt. Many such students already prepare professional profiles despite uncertainty about higher education returns. The graduate recruitment crisis and rising debts create a sense that a university degree may offer diminishing financial and professional returns. University participation rose substantially under policies aiming for a more skilled workforce, reaching the 50% target for under-30s in England in 2017/18. However, professional and high-skilled job growth has not matched increased graduate numbers, undermining the degree's role as a clear pathway to middle-class employment.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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