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Is The Teaching Profession so Black & White?
| “ I thought I was a good teacher and could not understand what was happening ” |
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If the £9,250 tuition fee had gone up in line with inflation it would now be over £12,000 but it is politically unpopular and has been capped. Sir Keir Starmer only recently dropped Labour's pledge to drop the fees.
Universities calculate that they are losing around £2,500 per home student and it is alleged that this is forcing them to increase the proportion of international students, and to syphon domestic students into less expensive courses that do not require expensive facilities such as laboratories.
The tuition fee system has been vexed ever since it was set up.
The industrialist Lord Browne, who reviewed it for the Blair government, envisioned a true market where there would be great variation in the fees charged - up to £14,000 for some courses.
But the government capped it with the result that almost all opted for the maximum £9,000.
When I was a lay member on the board of King's College London, a delegation from the National Union of Students pleaded to be charged the top rate. If not, they thought their qualifications would be valued less than those from other Russell Group universities.
Given all this negativity it is not surprising that the number of young people, aged 18-24, who think "university is a waste of time" has gone up a bit to 32% compared to 22% who disagree. Almost half of them don't know.
In reality, the picture is much brighter for universities here.
The UK is now close to hitting New Labour's aspiration of half of school leavers having gone to university by the age of 30.
By the Sunak government's utilitarian attitude, three-quarters of graduates are in work at or above the median national wage within 15 months of finishing their studies.
73% say their degree helped them find a job, and 75% say they built their skills while at university.
On average, graduates earn £10,000 a year more than those who didn't go to university. Those who go into law, banking, the energy sector and retailing do best.
Children who are the first generation in their family to go to university tend to earn more than other graduates - although those from private schools are still more represented in the highest-earning echelons than those who qualified for free school meals.
97% of bosses say they still look to recruit graduates. Some jobs require a degree for entry - including "the professions" such as medicine, accountancy, law, science, engineering, and of course, by definition, academia.
The rapidly developing tech sector, identified by Hays recruiters, may be the exception - Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg were both Harvard dropouts.
Thanks to a "buyers market" some employers were guilty of "qualifications inflation" by requiring degrees although they were not strictly relevant.
If that trend is ending so much the better.
Universities calculate that they are losing around £2,500 per home student and it is alleged that this is forcing them to increase the proportion of international students, and to syphon domestic students into less expensive courses that do not require expensive facilities such as laboratories.
The tuition fee system has been vexed ever since it was set up.
The industrialist Lord Browne, who reviewed it for the Blair government, envisioned a true market where there would be great variation in the fees charged - up to £14,000 for some courses.
But the government capped it with the result that almost all opted for the maximum £9,000.
When I was a lay member on the board of King's College London, a delegation from the National Union of Students pleaded to be charged the top rate. If not, they thought their qualifications would be valued less than those from other Russell Group universities.
Given all this negativity it is not surprising that the number of young people, aged 18-24, who think "university is a waste of time" has gone up a bit to 32% compared to 22% who disagree. Almost half of them don't know.
In reality, the picture is much brighter for universities here.
The UK is now close to hitting New Labour's aspiration of half of school leavers having gone to university by the age of 30.
By the Sunak government's utilitarian attitude, three-quarters of graduates are in work at or above the median national wage within 15 months of finishing their studies.
73% say their degree helped them find a job, and 75% say they built their skills while at university.
On average, graduates earn £10,000 a year more than those who didn't go to university. Those who go into law, banking, the energy sector and retailing do best.
Children who are the first generation in their family to go to university tend to earn more than other graduates - although those from private schools are still more represented in the highest-earning echelons than those who qualified for free school meals.
97% of bosses say they still look to recruit graduates. Some jobs require a degree for entry - including "the professions" such as medicine, accountancy, law, science, engineering, and of course, by definition, academia.
The rapidly developing tech sector, identified by Hays recruiters, may be the exception - Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg were both Harvard dropouts.
Thanks to a "buyers market" some employers were guilty of "qualifications inflation" by requiring degrees although they were not strictly relevant.
If that trend is ending so much the better.
Continued...
A' Level Normality? 43
A' Level Normality? 2