Today universities are back in the press, BBC is presenting it in the usual format which seems to make up most of the ‘half news’ that constantly pours out 24 hours mediums such as BBC News 24. Person A changes something, Person B doesn’t like it and is invited on to give their opinion, then Person C counters and we move on… hmm does this sound familiar?
However there was in interesting statistic from the BBC’s reporting, almost 40% of young people now go to university, up from 4% a while ago. Being a fresh graduate this gives me mixed feelings. Whilst part of me thinks all people should be provided with every opportunity to go to university and broaden their mind in the way which university provides and have the chance to specialise in a field they’re passionate about I wonder what long term effect this will have? It already seems that here in Britain we have an attitude towards life that we deserve all our luxuries, that at whatever cost it’s our right to have such a broad, luxurious diet, to have the latest TV and the shiniest car, somehow we’re better than those who don’t (deserve) these things. But how will this affect all those people that go into university expecting to get a highly paid job in the field in which they studied? Do 50% of jobs really require a degree, we can’t just keep outsource the essential, but unskilled jobs needed to support our society.
Are we going to find that a majority of the people that leave university not being successful in their field become disillusioned only to find themselves still looking for work, but also being over qualified for the work that’s available?
University should be a place for safe, experimental ideas, a place which recognises the value of failure in creating masterpieces; a genius has to fall flat on their face before the apple falls on their head. This kind of attitude is what we need to be pushing, even more so in the creative subjects. Hitting grades and targets, whilst important training for the real world shouldn’t be the priority, we need to encourage unrestrained creativity and exploration, not churning out graded grey suits ready for the job centre queue.
So where is this going to lead us? Obviously we need to keep raising the bar at one point we didn’t have free education, people denounced teaching all children to read and write, time moves on and we need to provide better education and higher standards, one day a university education may become just as common and expected as college is now, and whilst in theory this is a good thing, is it worth the debt and the short comings of the job market?
A more educated and informed public is important, but at what cost, definitely not £20,000 per year like some universities want…
