Thursday 17 February 2011

Young people are already turning their backs on university | Education | The Guardian

Young people are already turning their backs on university

If you take a proper look at the university application figures, it's clear that many 18-year-olds are already shunning degrees and applying for apprenticeships

A survey of 500 companies by City & Guilds showed they offered greater value than graduates A survey of 500 companies by City & Guilds showed 52% of those already recruiting apprentices believed they offered greater value than graduates Photograph: Alamy

Are young people being turned off university? This may seem an odd question when the latest figures showed a record number of applicants. But closer analysis suggests that UK school-leavers are behaving differently from other groups over university admissions.

Indeed there is mounting evidence that apprenticeships are becoming a more attractive proposition for many 18-year-olds. And if that happens, then some universities could be in for a serious financial squeeze in the years ahead as the government forces them to rely on fee income instead of central grant to fund undergraduate courses.

On the face of it, the UK university application figures look healthy, showing an overall rise of 5.1% at the notional January deadline. This prompted the usual headlines about "record numbers" seeking university places. As this is the last year before the tuition fee cap is raised threefold, a surge in applications was expected.

Indeed it's precisely because commentators expected a rise in applications that they did not interrogate the figures. But if they did, they would find a different picture. For a start, the rise in applications is much smaller than at the same point in each of the last two admissions cycles. It is also much lower than as recently as last November, when applications were rising by 11.7%. Since then applications have nose-dived. By the summer there could even turn out to be no rise at all in UK-based applicants.

So what has happened? On 9 December parliament backed the government's plans to raise the tuition fee cap to a maximum of £9,000. The subsequent student protests ensured that everyone now knows about the fees rise. Add in widespread media coverage of graduate unemployment and perhaps some of those school-leavers decided not to fill out their Ucas applications after all.

Even though the fees rise does not affect this year's applicants, it has affected the debate about the value of a degree. This explains why applications from England were up by only 3.7% compared with applications from outside the EU (17%) and from non-UK countries within the EU (up 7.7%). Scotland, where the fees changes do not apply, had a rise of 6.5%.

When broken down by age, the differences are even starker. Indeed, the number of applicants aged 18 or under from England actually fell marginally, from 202,104 to 202,045. There were also falls from 18-year-olds in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

It's true that there are 3% fewer 18-year-olds in this year's cohort. But when there was a similar demographic decline in 2010, applications from 18-year-olds still shot up by almost 16,000. And with higher fees looming, it might have been expected that more school-leavers would delay their "gap year" and go for immediate entry.

One possible explanation for the slowing of applications might be that UK school-leavers are applying to universities on the European mainland, where fees are much lower and where several institutions are targeting UK applicants by offering courses taught in English.

But it's more likely that 18-year-olds are hearing what employers are saying. At a conference on employability skills, Jane Scott Paul, the head of the Association of Accounting Technicians, reported that "more and more of our employers are changing their recruitment policies, switching from graduates to training up their own school-leavers … could this be the tipping point for apprenticeships?"

Karen Liddle, who oversees financial recruitment at Procter & Gamble, says that, unlike many graduates, school-leaver recruits "genuinely want to be there, do not have unreasonable ambitions, and have no preconceptions". Applications to the company's finance apprenticeship for school-leavers doubled last year. Liddle says the pass rate for the apprentices is "much higher than for our graduates".

School-leavers are certainly applying in droves for apprenticeships. Last year 24,000 applied for the 220 places at BT and 65,000 applied for 600 apprenticeships at British Gas.

Of course, job scarcity partly explains these high figures. But there are other signs that employers are shifting to school-leaver recruitment. A survey of 500 companies by City & Guilds showed 52% of those already recruiting apprentices believed they offered greater value than graduates.

The government has promised to create 100,000 new apprenticeships. Not all will lure those who would otherwise apply for university, but the application figures for both apprenticeships and universities suggest we could indeed be at a tipping point.

's comment

Comments in chronological order (Total 18 comments)

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  • Seagull5

    14 February 2011 7:24PM

    All well and good but in the long term will an apprenticeship from British Gas still have the same currency as a half decent degree from a half decent university? I doubt it.

    My dad completed a good apprenticeship in toolmaking in the 50s but was made redundant in the early 80s and found it very difficult to turn his hand to anything else. Sure we need both routes but the lack of anything such as a job for life these days also means that the apprenticeship route does not hold all of the answers. We need both routes and plenty of education options throughout life to facilitate a flexible workforce with the capability for lifelong learning.

  • TranscendingDoubt

    14 February 2011 7:42PM

    Actually it's parents that are turning their backs on university. The recent education boom was largely enabled by proud willing parents agreeing to support their kids, in what they considered a prestigious opportunity which many of them missed.

    Now attitudes have changed towards a degree's value. The vast majority of students do not qualify for means-tested maintenance loans. And students need to prove themselves financially independent for five years before their parents income ceases to be regarded as their potential "means." This basically leaves parents with a de facto veto, as the student support system is based on the expectation that they will be financially contributing. If they believe a degree is a bad idea, they have the economic leverage to persuade their kids against it.

  • Loredan

    14 February 2011 8:06PM

    Hold the front page!

    When broken down by age, the differences are even starker. Indeed, the number of applicants aged 18 or under from England actually fell marginally, from 202,104 to 202,045.

    There's a 0.029% decrease in applicants. Quick draw a trend, shout More Means Worse, run for the hills....

  • FumerTue

    14 February 2011 8:15PM

    Many employers are belatedly beginning to realise that for the type of work they do, a degree is not necessary. A case in point is chartered accountancy. Trainee accountants spend at least 3 years on formal courses. The qualification they gain is much more valuable in the employment market than a degree.

    A degree in Maths or English won't be of much help in passing the exams, not will it be of much use in the world of auditing and tax reporting.

    The so-called transferable skills argument is vastly overstated. These skills are inherent in anyone who is capable of getting to a university. At university, they will remain dormant.

  • jentho

    14 February 2011 8:17PM

    As parental incomes contract, bills increase, and the possibility of a part-time job for the student to use to support themselves recedes, the gap between the student loan and the student living costs becomes too wide for parents to bridge. I do not think it particularly good parenting to reward my child's hard work by consigning my child to three years of dubious-quality part-time study while living on less than income support and incurring £40,000 of debt. Better to simply have them stay home, sign on, and try for real jobs or training, or possibly an OU or other distance-learning degree.

    The university sector may do well- or may the next collapsed economic sector.

    It depends how fast the ConDems take fright at the youth unemployment figures, really.

  • Loredan

    14 February 2011 10:28PM

    FumerTue


    A degree in Maths or English won't be of much help in passing the exams, not will it be of much use in the world of auditing and tax reporting.

    But isn't that just it? What if the world of tax reporting isn't all there is to life?

    H G Wells wrote:

    A University stands not for material but for mental interests. It should function as the brain of a social body. Its business is with ideas. It maintains and develops the idea of the human community through its thinkers and investigators,

  • holzy

    15 February 2011 1:42AM

    So we've finally arrived at the point where learning is valued solely in terms of its 'earning potential'.

    The words 'decline' and 'civilisation' look increasingly inseparable.

  • FumerTue

    15 February 2011 3:10AM

    Loredan

    Right now, we have far too many students with little interest in HE beyond scraping a decent second class honours. I meet very few students who are interested in any form of postgraduate study, and these are students that enter with 3As. So please don't lecture me sanctimoniously about what HE should be. Whether you or I like it or not, most students (even the best) see HE as a route to high-earning employment.

    In any case, I would challenge your assumption about the currency of a degree. If you decide to change direction, how exactly would what little understanding you have left of Lebesgue measure or Galois Theory help? Outside doing research or going into a highly specialised role that requires a PhD (which would really limit your choices), I don't see how it would help at all.

    A chartered accountancy qualification, on the other hand, makes you much more flexible and employable in many areas of the financial and public sectors. All companies, e.g., need accountants, financial officers, fund managers, etc..

    We have to lay to bed this silly notion that a degree in X will equip a person for life to do all things under the sun. That is not meant to be the purpose of a degree, no matter what the propaganda in university prospectuses says. The idea of transferable skills was dreamed up by university administrators to get bums on seats and keep the cash flowing in.

    Graduate employers have to question whether their employees actually need a degree to perform their work adequately. I suspect most don't.

    Students simultaneously have to ask themselves if a degree in an academic discipline is the best way to gain the kind of employment they want.

  • beefsteak

    15 February 2011 4:19AM

    @FumerTue

    Good post. I work with many kids who have been fed this line that the only way to succeed in life is to get a degree. They sign themselves up for extremely academic courses, despite having little interest in reading, writing essays and doing experiments, which is essentially what university is about. The scientists assume that there will be a job at the end of it, as we all 'know' that the country is short of scientists. I hope that the prospect of leaving university £40k in debt should focus the mind, although without honest careers advice, these kids could end up doing nothing. However, this is better than accruing a £40k debt and then being able to do nothing...

    I am an Oxbidge Science graduate. I entered into this degree as I found it fascinating, and fully intended to do postgraduate work. Sadly, whilst at university I became clinically depressed, leaving with a 2:2. I will not be allowed to do a PhD, I am not elligible for most graduate schemes and a pure Science degree carries no accreditations to do jobs in industry or for the state. (I cannot afford to do a Masters, and doubt whether it would get me anywhere). Whilst I loved my course, if a tutor had told me (a naive working class kid, the first of my family to go to university) just how unemployable I'd be, I may have left and either returned once I'd recovered, or done something vocational. The best a careers advisor could say was, "Don't you know someone who can get you a job?" Nope. I don't have those type of connections.

    In today's market, a poor degree from an excellent university is not much use. I expect the same is true of average degrees from poor univerisities. One good side of the £40k degree may be that people ask more questions, consider where it will get them and whether it is value for money. I wish I had!

  • Loredan

    15 February 2011 6:56AM

    FumerTue

    That's the point - currency or even transferable skills can't be what a great degree should consist of. Learning to learn is what we should be doing: in that way, those parts of the curriculum you've learnt at the cutting edge won't matter if you don't keep them up. Only graduates that stay with their disciplines could do that.

    A law graduate has learnt more than the law - many practice law and stay up with it daily. Many will never touch cases or statutes again.

    Degrees that pretend to be apprenticeships can be phased out. Now that is not more means worse talk - that's saying that if it is higher education it ought to be higher.

  • firthoffifth

    15 February 2011 8:51AM

    At last...the country is beginning to wake up to the fact that a degree doesn't give someone a God given right to walk into a highly paid job or a junior management role. In many cases employers actually prefer the skills gained in an Apprenticeship to those 'academic' skills gained at University.

    I was talking to an (unemployed) graduate yesterday who wanted to join the Police after leaving university...after finishing their degree in 'American Studies'. They now want to become an Accountant.
    A laughable situation where the lack of guidance has been frightening - but at least the school, college and university got their ticks in the 'job well done' boxes.

    Now will someone please tell the schools that herding as many young people down the A-Level and University pathway (without giving them all of the options) is going to create some major worklessness issue in a few years time? Already 1 in 5 graduates are unemployed.

  • FumerTue

    15 February 2011 11:29AM

    beafsteak

    I wouldn't give up so easily on doing a PhD if you really want to. PhD students can be extremely difficult to find, even when the funding is in place. Almost always, the funding is restricted to UK/EU, whereas the majority of applicants in science/maths are overseas.

    It is true that many universities will not accept a 2.2, even if the potential supervisor is willing. There are, however, many universities that would. A good thing to do is send your CV to the named contact for advice on whether to apply, but check the requirements on the department website first.

  • holzy

    15 February 2011 11:41AM

    @FumerTue:

    OK, in open competition your 2:2 isn't going to shine, but I know people with 2:2s on full-time funded PhDs (1+3s so covering MAs) ...

    It's a case of putting yourself out there so that people know you exist - but I don't ythink ou need to worry about getting bogged down in some intense networking task.

    But if you want to undertake a funded PhD you will need to appraoch a few people directly and get them onboard (potential supervisor/s and perhaps head of dept) - and I think this is entirely possible.

    Best of luck.

  • flaneuse

    15 February 2011 1:30PM

    FumerTue, are you an accountant? Genuine question.

    The chartered accountants I know did their degrees in Law and English respectively, and I know neither of them wishes they'd gone straight into accountancy from school. They both feel that their degrees helped their ability to focus and retain large amounts of information, and would have found their accountancy training much, much harder without it. They also wouldn't have been capable of going straight in at the level graduate accountancy trainees start at, where they are expected to take a lot of responsibility very early on. A non-graduate accountancy traineeship is structured very differently.

    I am going to be very interested to see whether the big accountancy firms start recruiting school-leavers, though, and if so, how they go about targeting them. It's already the case that the Big Four focus their marketing and recruitment on a fairly narrow selection of universities, and I wonder whether one of the appeals of the graduate recruitment is simply more people in fewer places.

  • NewLabourMarxist

    15 February 2011 4:27PM

    StudentStew,

    I must be one of the few people who has experience of an apprenticeship and a university education and career. I left school at 16, did an apprenticeship as a Coppersmith (a fancy term for a pipefitter and welder) in Portsmouth Naval Base, followed by 3 years as a qualified craftsman. I then went to Ruskin College in Oxford (up the workers!) followed by a university degree in Politics and History and a PhD in Politics. I have worked in a university since 2001 as a Politics Lecturer and in the Careers and Employment Centre. What have I learnt? Some of the most creative, intelligent, innovative people I have ever met worked in the Naval Base; some of the most stupid, ignorant, conservative, nay reactionary, people I have ever met studied or worked at the university. One more thing - If I hear the patronising, "...but we need more plumbers/painters/electricians (so long as we understand that I'm not talking about my little Aarabella or Tarquin)..." argument I will combust...

  • FumerTue

    15 February 2011 7:32PM

    holzy

    It's beafsteak you need to direct the advice to.

    flaneuse

    I'm not an accountant now but I was once (never finished the qualification).

    I think your friends would have got through anyway. They clearly had the ability to retain large amounts of info before doing their degrees if they got through their A levels.

    Not that long ago, A levels and O levels were enough to get into accountancy. Many senior managers and partners don't have degrees. It is clearly no barrier to success. The students who went straight from A or O level were no less able than most graduates of today; there simply wasn't the pressure on them to continue onto degree level.

  • Archivity1

    16 February 2011 12:51PM

    I graduated from University with a degree in History in 2008. For my chosen career as an Archivist a degree was essential as to get onto a Masters programme in order to be a qualified Archivist, you need to have completed a years traineeship and every single traineeship required a degree in a related subject. I did find a real difference between my Masters which trained me for a specific vocation and my degree. To start with the number of lectures is staggeringly different. For my Masters I was in University 4 days out of 5 and for my Batchelors if I was lucky I received 6 hours of lectures per week.
    I think the skills I gained at University have been invaluable though- involvement in societies (as President of two of them), interaction with people, budgeting and time-management (I worked two jobs in addition to my degree). All of these enable me to show at Interviews and in job applications that I have a good skills-set. Consequently I have been in my current job for 6 months and my employers stated that they picked me over more experienced candidates who did not have a degree, because the skills I had gained at University meant I could pick things up quickly, suggest new ways of doing things and communicate with Stakeholders. The experience of living away from home is also invaluable-there were students in my First year who couldn't even boil an egg, but by the time they left had developed sufficient skills in the kitchen. All of which if you're living at home at 18 there is no incentive to develop.

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