One of the most difficult decisions that young people have to take as they leave secondary school is whether to continue with their studies at university. The advice from most parents who have education at heart is for their children to go to university and obtain a degree.
For decades the university population has been swelling in most EU countries, including Malta. Politicians often quote the increasing university population as a sign of their massive investment in the educational system. They expect people’s gratitude (and votes) for their magnanimous forwarding-looking strategies.
But keen observers interested in gauging the effectiveness of university education in most EU countries are discovering a new reality. In some countries like Italy, but even in the UK, fewer students are asking: “Is a university education still worth the time and money?” Many are deciding that the answer to this question is: “No”.
Two reports published in recent months indicate that the perception that a university education should be the holy grail of all young people is slowly evaporating. The Office of National Statistics found that “the UK has the fifth highest level of skills mismatch out of 24 countries studied. Thousands of graduates and other well-educated people are stuck in jobs for which they are over-qualified”.
Business leaders are warning that British universities are producing graduates faster than businesses can create jobs for them. This warning may sound contradictory when one considers that more foreign students, especially from Hong Kong, Malaysia and other Far East Asian countries, are still knocking on universities’ doors to follow a course of studies as a British degree is still considered a prestigious achievement in most countries.
The mantra that any university degree is worth studying for is no more than wishful thinking – if not an outright fallacy. A report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has found that English universities are failing to develop “quite basic” skills among students and that “many young people would be better off taking further education courses than studying for a degree”. The report further recommends that “some university undergraduates should instead be diverted into further education colleges as the best way of solving chronic skills shortages among school leavers”.
The mantra that any university degree is worth studying for is no more than wishful thinking – if not an outright fallacy
This report was commissioned by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills after research showed “young people in England had lower levels of skills than the previous generation”.
More alarmingly, the OECD found that 16- to 24-year-olds have literacy and numeracy levels no better than those of their grandparents’ generation. The OECD recommends more drastic action when it says that “it [should] be made harder for young people without qualifications such as a C [grade] in GCSE maths to enrol at university while universities should be stopped from allowing students to graduate while lacking basic skills”.
The situation in some other major EU countries is not much better. Many Italian students will have made major educational decisions before they realise that they have little competitive advantages to show for their efforts. In France, the bachelors’ degree from public universities is now considered so inferior that it is almost mandatory to continue on to a masters. In French public universities, 48 per cent of first-year entrants do not go on to the second year and just 38 per cent finish the three-year course. Italy has a drop-out rate of 45 per cent.
Despite the fact that UK university managers did not like the OECD findings, the UK government seems to be taking the right decisions by committing itself to dedicating more resources to the infrastructure of further educational colleges. The OECD argued that traditional three-year undergraduate degrees are “costly and unsuited to the educational needs of young people lacking numeracy and literacy”, while students graduating with poor basic skills “undermine the currency of an English university degree”.
This does not mean that university education is not worth the effort and cost for the majority of young people. But university education is not the only option and policy makers need to recognise that a technical and professional education is just as valuable.
I believe that our education policy makers are fully aware of the limitations of a strategy that considers that university education should be the objective for almost all students. It is more doubtful whether students themselves, as well as their parents, consider other further education options as more suitable for their competence levels.
More funds need to be channelled to further education colleges while public universities should aim for better quality rather than quantity.
johncassarwhite@yahoo.com