Society

Is university worth the cost?

Yes, because it’s about more than money

August 25, 2016
Students from Sullivan Upper School, Holywood, with their A-Level results, 18th August 2016 ©Brian Lawless/PA Wire/Press Association Images
Students from Sullivan Upper School, Holywood, with their A-Level results, 18th August 2016 ©Brian Lawless/PA Wire/Press Association Images
Read more: The London schools revolution

This year’s A-Level students have picked up their results. Nearly half of them will go on to university, but in these times, they may be asking whether their higher education will be worth the cost. On current trends, it seems that the traditional gateway to success—the graduation picture on the mantelpiece—is no longer tied to affluence and social mobility.

Research by the Sutton Trust estimates that the average student graduating in England this year will owe around £44,000. Some would argue that, with this kind of debt, there is now no point in going to university unless it leads to well-paying employment. Many of these people are disillusioned graduates, who have found that this path was not the right one for them.

The price of a university education now forces a decision about return-on-investment from people at an age when most would not qualify for a loan for a car. How can a young person know what a future economy will need? In the rapidly changing world of work, they may be competing with an automated worker who will never need sick leave, maternity pay or a pension.

Tuition fees of £27,000, plus living expenses, are a lot to borrow for an unknown return. And yet young people are right to think that the option of not going to university may be even more precarious. And for those of us who are parents, we would pay whatever we can for the chance to help our children achieve their potential, try out adulthood in relative safety, perhaps meet a partner, or simply leave the house.

But taxpayers are still paying for higher education too. The loan system that is costing our students so heavily is also draining the public purse. In our attempt to work out the true price of higher education, and make our students pay it, we have created the worst of both worlds.

In this climate, how can we make universities work better for both students and society? The government, which is driving through a Higher Education and Resarch Bill, believes that competition and marketisation are the answer, and that turning students into savvy consumers will drive change. I don't believe that this approach will work.

In the United States, where higher education is already more of a market, nearly a fifth of students major in business. Other popular courses are law and medicine, longstanding routes to respectability and income. But what if we don't need that many lawyers, and we need chemists, computer scientists, engineers or builders instead? Choice based on individual financial incentives is no guarantee of what the country needs. The government and employers must not leave everything to the market.

As I have said to students all my working life, I believe that university can be the most wonderful place of opportunity—if they work damn hard to make it so. But I also want to address those who feel that university is not for them, or who resent the costs of higher education on society. I would say to them, you still need the wealth and economic growth that universities create. The quality of study and research done in universities affects everything in society from pension returns to healthcare.

We need an integrated vision that doesn't load the young with debt when they have barely started their lives, and an economy that has good jobs to offer whenever they leave education. We need a strategy for education that reconnects its purpose with public benefit. Many of us are trying to do just this—for instance, developing sponsored degree apprenticeships in engineering and ensuring research has the maximum impact on our economy. But neither of those examples make us money.

Universities do not just represent an investment in time and money, but something more. They bring vital national benefits. They are where we train our professions and develop the research to answer the needs of industry. They defend and preserve society while also enlarging it and connecting it to the world. Without the right training and education, everything will come at a greater price.