The majority of young people have no need to go to university. It used to be that only those who wished to join one of the professions – doctor, vet, lawyer or teacher, had a university education, a far better idea.
Then along came Tony Blair who declared that all should be able to go to university, and introduced fees which meant that those who chose to go were lumbered for years to come with massive debts.
The majority of young people have no need for a university education and would be far better going straight into work on leaving school, as used to be the case.
Now, after three or four years of studying for Mickey Mouse degrees like media studies or history of art, they come out with second-rate degrees, massive debts and huge expectations that the world owes them a living because they have a degree.
It is a case of the Emperor’s New Clothes. Students and their parents have been conned into the idea that they need to go to university. University chancellors who are earning up to half a million pounds are encouraging as many young people as they can to attend university. Teachers too encourage youngsters as the more students they can persuade to go into higher education, the better it reflects on them.
Parents are influenced, believing that their children are highly intelligent, after all, for many families this will be the first generation to attend university.
They don’t realise that standards have dropped to achieve the more than 50% university attendance. Teaching hasn’t improved that much, those results have occurred by lowering the qualifying criteria.
We have a generation who have been indoctrinated into believing that they must attend university even though the majority have no idea what they want to do when they leave, and end up working in shops and offices, jobs which they could have done without wasting three or four years of their lives and accruing huge debts which will hold them back from getting on the property ladder.
It was bad enough when they were personally responsible for these debts, but now Reform Jersey expect all taxpayers to shoulder that unnecessary burden.
