University is more than just a springboard to higher earning power

As school leavers around the world get ready to pack saucepans and pencil cases for their first term at university, the perennial debate about the value of a degree has been sharpened by a number of employers announcing their jobs no longer require a degree. The cereal and snacks group Kellogg made its move in June. This summer, Rishi Sunak, UK prime minister, announced a crackdown on “rip-off degrees”. “Too many students,” he said, “are being sold a university education that won’t get them a decent job at the end of it.”

Yet degrees do tend to boost earnings. According to the UK’s Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), a think-tank, male graduates will be £130,000 better off over their careers (after subtracting taxes and student loan repayments) – women will be £100,000 wealthier.

Universities can be a powerful driver of social mobility. Another study by the IFS found that those on free school meals who went to university were almost four times more likely to be in the highest 20 per cent of earners at 30 than those who did not. Sarah Atkinson, chief executive of the Social Mobility Foundation, says: “Beyond the financial stability this can bring, a university can open access to important networks that can provide a lifelong career advantage.”

Artificial intelligence does not just require computer scientists and mathematicians but also humanities and arts graduates

Salaries are a crude metric, says Charlie Ball, senior consultant in labour market intelligence at Jisc, a UK-based non-profit technology provider. “It is effectively an external arbiter imposing its own value on workers.” When graduates were asked about satisfaction, the overwhelming majority felt they were in a meaningful job.

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Going to university at 18 is not necessarily better than entering the workforce, but it does give youngsters an opportunity to broaden their learning beyond narrow vocational tracks. A survey of FTSE 350 senior figures by UUK, representing universities, found that 51 per cent believed “graduates with critical thinking skills will be more important to the workforce than ever should AI be used to automate more white-collar jobs”.

Artificial intelligence does not just require computer scientists and mathematicians but also humanities and arts graduates.

Yet, it could be liberating if more employers ignore degrees when recruiting. It doesn’t just widen the pool of candidates, but unshackles universities from the Gradgrindian pursuit of education as a pathway to jobs, an ethos that has only intensified in step with student loans.

How can a 17-year-old really know what it is to be a lawyer or a banker?

A friend recalls the horror of watching a philosophy professor try to make the case for the broader benefits to a sceptical candidate’s mother inquiring about job prospects. “I can see I haven’t convinced you,” he said forlornly. No, he had not.

Viewing degrees purely as a springboard to a job means teenagers make decisions about courses by guesswork. How can a 17-year-old really know what it is to be a lawyer or a banker?

What if education was not just a stepping stone to a job but three years of learning, exploring new ideas? Not just in supervisions and lecture halls but with friends – after all, students will be a long time working as retirement ages rise across the globe. It is an opportunity to grow up.

The first time I went to a supermarket while at university, I added cat food to my basket. I was so used to shopping with my family, I had no idea what to buy for myself. A friend who is a university lecturer tells me that when he talks to parents at graduation ceremonies, “they are gently surprised by the person their child has become”.

The value of university is not only about the individual but also public good. Education should help inform citizens, vital in an age of disinformation.

A few years ago, Nancy Rothwell wrote in the FT that she considers graduating students have been failed if they leave only with “a degree and greater ‘earning power’ ... A university experience should be about so much more than this.” It’s hard to disagree. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023