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“To me it’s definitely still worth going to university – absolutely it is,” says Nick Hillman, chief executive of the Higher Education Policy Institute thinktank. “I’ll certainly be urging my children to go on to higher education,” he adds. “Relative to everything else, it’s still a very, very good bet.”
Yet the national conversation around universities in recent months has been relentlessly negative. Rising tuition fees, spiralling student debt and the financial crisis gripping many institutions are more than enough to give pause to sixth-formers currently trying to decide whether it makes sense to go on to university.
Reports that graduate job vacancies in the UK have sunk to their lowest level since tracking began a decade ago have only added to the gloom. Just 8,383 jobs for people leaving university were advertised in July, according to the recruitment website Adzuna, down 45% compared with the same point last year, amid fears that AI is wiping out many entry-level roles.
So is university still the right choice? And how can undergraduates make the most of the experience and use it as a springboard to building a successful career?
According to Hillman, the current state of the graduate labour market actually makes the case for going to university even stronger. “When the labour market is in a bad place, it’s not a logical response to say, ‘I’m going to get fewer qualifications.’ The more qualifications you have the more insulated you are.
“Even if graduates are not doing as well as they did, people with no skills are doing much, much worse. And what are these alternatives that people are meant to be doing? Degree apprenticeships are wonderful, but they are incredibly hard to come by.
“Of course people should absolutely go into higher education with their eyes wide open,” he says. “But you don’t only go to higher education for the job at the end. You go to higher education to mature as a person and very often to have the best years of your life. It is an expensive thing to do, but normally it turns out to be an investment and you get more than your money back.”
Research published recently by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) attracted a lot of attention when it estimated that as many as one in four UK graduates can expect to be financially worse off as a result of going to university, especially those who take creative arts degrees.
The other side of the equation however, according to IFS projections, is that the majority of those who go on to university will be £100,000 better off over their lifetime, while some graduates will see far greater returns for their investment if they study economics or medicine, for example.
“There is risk involved and university does not pay off financially for everybody,” says Kate Ogden, senior research economist at the IFS. “But when you look at people who went to university in the recent past, it still looks like university is a good financial bet for most people.”
Choice of course is a critical factor. “You might go and do a creative arts degree because you love art and you really enjoy those three years,” says Ogden. “It might not get you a much better job at the end of it. But it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go and do an arts degree.”
Hillman advises young people to listen to their heart as well as their head as they try to decide on their degree course. “They need to think what matters to them.” Once at university, he urges them to take full advantage of all opportunities available to them.
“The most important thing is to make sure you are living a varied life when you are there. So you’re not just doing your course work or spending every spare hour working in paid employment,” though he acknowledges that the cost of living crisis makes it essential for many undergraduates to work. “You want to come out of university a rounded individual,” he says.
Young people considering going on to higher education may want to look at universities that are developing programmes to try to maximise employability among their graduates. The University of Manchester, for example, is promising work placements to all undergraduates regardless of their degree, to better equip them for the challenges of the job market. “We want every student to have the opportunity to apply what they are learning before they graduate,” the university says. “That could mean a placement, short internship, live employer project, or work with a public or community organisation.”
From this September, Sheffield Hallam University is guaranteeing its students a paid internship if they can’t find a job or are not engaged in further study 12 months after successfully completing their course. The university is also launching a campus recruitment agency, connecting students with part-time jobs, placement opportunities and graduate-level roles.
Dan Hawes, co-founder of the Graduate Recruitment Bureau, is confident going to university can still open doors and launch careers, especially where a degree is essential such as law, medicine, engineering or teaching. “Not only that, but the university experience offers personal growth through building social confidence, life skills and friendships.
“However, all degrees are not equal,” he warns, “so careful consideration must be given to the subject and the university chosen. Information is available to applicants on the employability rates by subject and institution.
“The jobs market is tough at the moment with the economy in poor shape. We feel that while, in the short term, AI may displace some roles in sectors which are very process-driven, in three years’ time, students will be graduating with common knowledge of AI and therefore put a premium on their skillset.”
Hawes thinks it’s imperative for students to make the most of their time at university in order to maximise their chances in the jobs market. “You should see day one at university as the start of your career,” he says. “While it may be unclear what you want to do when you leave university, you should think how you would like your CV to look by the end of your degree, work back from there and create a plan to hoard skills and learn new things. Research what skills employers value and speak with your tutors for guidance.”
Lewis Wilson, 24, got a 2:1 in law from the University of Sussex, and when he last checked was almost £60,000 in debt. “It’s a lot of money,” he says, “but there’s no replacement for a higher education. I had the best time ever. I had a world-class education from professors who are at the top of their game.
“But it’s way more than that – getting the chance to move away from home, live in a brand new city, make new friends and connections, and all of the extracurricular stuff as well.
“There’s a million and one other things you get from going. Going to university was the best decision that I’ve ever made, and I think it will be anyone else’s too.”
Wilson is now vice-president higher education (England) for the National Union of Students (NUS). His advice to those planning to go on to higher education? “Really throw yourself into uni life and take as many opportunities as you can, because it flies by. Oh, and read all the emails! I did not read my emails and I missed a lot of opportunities as a result.”
