I graduated from university more than a decade ago with thousands of pounds of student loan debt and a degree in politics to show for it. A degree which no employer has ever asked about in any job interview I’ve done since.
I’d be willing to bet many other graduates who spent thousands on their courses in subjects like mine had a similar experience.
That’s not to say that university didn’t teach me things I find useful in my job as a journalist. But on reflection, shutting a group of sixth form students in a room with a stack of university prospectuses probably wasn’t the best way to lock us in to thousands of pounds of debt in the years after.
From sixth-form colleges to politicians to universities themselves, we could all be a bit more honest about the cost and the value of the higher education sector in the UK.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has admitted that universities are broken, calling them part of our “crumbling public realm”. The Education Secretary Bridget Philipson hasn’t denied that some might close if they are no longer financially viable, while Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has also questioned whether all universities provide value for money to students.
Yet despite a willingness to accept that the way universities are funded isn’t working, the broader conversation about what they’re for and who gets the most out of them is something politicians don’t seem willing to engage with. We are missing the why.
It is no secret that the funding model doesn’t work. Research from the House of Commons Library shows that over more than a decade the way universities are paid for has changed, with student fees now making up over 50 per cent of income from 2019, compared to 24 per cent in 2005.
Over the same period, central Government grants fell from 39 per cent to around 12 per cent, with institutions much more reliant on income from students. However the fees they pay have remained largely static since rising to £9,000 in 2012, despite rising inflation and increased staff and pension costs.
As a result, by 2022/23 over 30 per cent of publicly funded universities in England cost more to run than they made in income, a rate which has risen further in the last two years.
Add to this the increasing pressure on institutions to fund mental health support and pressure from the Government on overseas students, who help make up the gap in funding from UK-based applicants, and there’s a recipe for disaster which experts warn could see some universities close their doors altogether in the years to come.
So here’s where the honesty bit comes in. Given the cost pressures, universities are effectively incentivised to provide courses which don’t cost much to run – those with lower contact time and no specialist equipment. These are often the courses politicians take the biggest issue with; so-called Mickey Mouse degrees.
They are also the courses which students might find themselves taking if they have little idea what they’d like to do once they graduate, or if they don’t get much in the way of help when choosing which degree to take. In turn they tend to be the students who will need the most financial help and find themselves with large loans to pay off once they graduate – which their degree may not help them to do.
I was lucky. My university was good, I studied a good course and my degree relates directly to my job – though I didn’t choose it knowing that would be the case. But for many students the university route is an assumption based on an idea that it will provide a job that pays them more than if they didn’t go. If we allow the university sector to be skewed towards making ends meet by whatever means possible, this end of the bargain is no longer held up as securely as it once was.
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Read MoreUniversities have looked abroad to plug funding gaps in recent years, with overseas students making up large proportions of the fee income streams because they pay far more. But this has come with its own pressures and concerns, including the role of China’s Confucius Institutes, which have now been largely de-funded by the new Labour Government.
Labour has also said it will not ease new restrictions on dependents allowed to come to the UK with those applying here to study, which industry experts warn is already having an impact on the number of applications. Couple this with the fact that the extra cash by way of a hike in student fees has mostly been wiped out by a rise in employer national insurance contributions and the financial picture is more uncertain still.
Perhaps a funding squeeze which forces some universities to close might not be such a bad thing if the ones that are left deliver high quality results and, crucially, don’t saddle young people with debt that may not help them get ahead. Especially when Labour is pushing for skills gaps to be closed with home-grown talent – not all of which require a degree.
But who is telling those sixth formers like me, sitting in their common room with a stack of prospectuses and no idea what to choose, that there are alternative options held in equally high regard? When will we be honest with them, and ourselves, that university may not be the right choice for everyone and that other routes can be just as valuable and inspiring as a university degree?
Kate McCann is Political Editor at Times Radio
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