March 17, 2010
Is it better to have a degree and no job, or no university place? It's not a good time to be a student - or to want to be one.....
It sometimes feels like only a wunderkind has a chance....
Eleanor Rushton, who has all the requisite As and A*s writes below about life as a graduate in these difficult times. It's a depressing, moving piece, and makes me glad that I'm no longer 22 (like her), or 17, 18, 19, 20, or 21 for that matter. Despite my advancing years (no zimmer frame as yet, thank goodness), and despite sometimes wishing to be younger, it can't be great to be leaving school or university now. The jobs aren't there, and neither, sadly, are the university places.Over the next few years, universities are going to have to change. They're being forced to by the recession, and the huge demand for places. Too many talented students are not being offered a university place at all. Won't something have to give?
So what's it like to graduate now? It's not a good time to be a student, is it? And it's not a good time to want to be one, either....
Eleanor (whom you can see in the picture) graduated from New College, Oxford last year with a degree in English. Here's her personal view of the times we are in.
"The difficulty of finding new work in the recession is well documented. ‘Finding new work’ implicates those who are already in the job market; the casualties of mass job-cuts and redundancy. The situation looks even bleaker for those without much on their CVs yet. Graduates, fresh from university and raring to kick-start their careers, are finding that jobs are simply not there for them.
I graduated in June ’09 and only a small handful of my friends have managed to secure employment, at least in their chosen fields. A huge number have opted for post-graduate study instead. This is not due to rejuvenated interest in academia so much as the desire to avoid the black hole of unemployment for as long as possible. The academic field is one where they have proven themselves, at least a bit, while few have much to distinguish them from the legions of other degree-holders flooding the job market.
The average student, who has moved straight from school to university, will not have much solid work experience and many who do ,have impressive weeks here and there will be lacking in employment experience. It sometimes feels like only a wunderkind, who managed to juggle their Oxbridge degree with running a successful internet company, interning at the UN and helping on the Obama campaign has a chance.
Post-graduate study is not an option for everyone however. Quite apart from required academic credentials, the expense of courses means they are only feasible for those who gain funding, be it from public bodies or parents eager (and able) to help. Many are having gap-years in order to raise the funds for a post-grad course and some of my highest-flying friends have applied to overseas universities. Given the free flights, holidays-cum-open-days and generous salaries on offer, I do not blame them!
There is also another bomb set to explode this year. It now looks as though thousands of would-be students will not even have university, let alone post-graduate study, to help them ride out the recession.
The Times reported today that ‘analysis shows that at least 50,000 more sixth-formers with good grades will fail to get on a course this autumn compared with last year’. Since top-up fees came in, the benefits of going to university have had to be weighed against the massive debts it will incur: my own personal total is gaining on £21,000.
In 2010 this decision will be taken out of the hands of many. Forced cuts in numbers, and in whole courses, have erased thousands of potential places. I was tucked safely away at university for the first year of the recession and, even in this dire job market, at least I can blame any gaps in my CV on the fact that I graduated when I did. For the thousands of seventeen and eighteen year-olds who cannot hide out for a few years, ‘pre-packaged’ options are scarce.
Overshadowing all this is the problem of degrees now being worth less anyway, due to sheer numbers, lower entrance requirements and ‘soft’ courses.Post-grad courses are becoming tools to help us stand out in the crowd, which could well result in a similar devaluation. This qualification inflation might actually mean that waiting to go to university, as UCAS chief executive Mary Curnock Cook has suggested, could start to mark you out again.
University cannot be, this year at least, the go-to option that it certainly was for me. Is it better to have a degree, that still does not bag you a job, or no university place? It is hard to say what the ideal situation is for anyone of my age but it is clear that we are all going to have to think of some weird and wonderful ways to set ourselves apart, degree or no degree."
Read School Gate:
http://timesonline.typepad.com/schoolgate/2010/03/is-it-better-to-have-a-degree-and-no-job-or-no-university-place-its-not-a-good-time-to-be-a-student-.html
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