Two stories on the Beeb Young Ones or rich kids? and One in seven UK students drop out
Obviously, being relatively short pieces, they over-simplify the issues. Undeterred, I will simplify further.
Years ago, when I were a stude, my cousin came to visit (and collect me) from my Hall of Residence, and commented on the high level of TV sets and cars. I pointed out that most people had received their TVs as presents. Many of the cars belonged to Ph. D students sponsored on a living wage by industry.
Then and now, students reflected considerable wealth disparities. East Midlands Finishing School, my alma mater, was renowned for its high proportion of Oxbridge rejects, and its very high intake from independent schools. The drop-out rate there is 2.5% compared to 14% nationally. Then, and I suspect now, a high proportion of students had been brought up to expect a University education - although not rich, as the daughter of graduates, I took it for granted.
I don't think dropping-out is necessarily something to be alarmed about. It depends on the reasons. My sister dropped out, as did two cousins - from different families. In each case, it was right that they went, and right that they didn't continue. And they had the maturity to make a mature decision.
I don't suppose the youngsters of today are much different from (ouch) eighteen years ago, when some of my contemporaries were funded by rich grandparents, others by parents suddenly relieved of the financial burden of school fees, others by parents who were plain straightforward rich.
Others struggled financially because there wasn't money to spare at home. Most of us worked, although spasmodically during term time. University rules forbade employment for more than two weeks during the entire year - I have no knowledge of that ever being enforced or even alluded to.
Student debt is crippling - and even, eighteen years ago, we were conscious of how cheap rent was in Nottingham compared to very many other cities, especially, but not exclusively London. Yet we calculated we couldn't live on the grant (or advised parental contribution) alone.
I think the expansion of Higher Education is a double-edged sword. Like Neil Kinnock, my mother was the first in a thousand generations to go to University. Come to think of it, my great-aunts attending, but being denied degrees from Cambridge was pretty groundbreaking in the immediate post WW1 years. They were driven and able, but many people of their ability and age-group did not get that opportunity.
The opportunity is there now for people with less academic ability, and, arguably, less drive. Perhpas it's the wrong choice for many people, who begin to realise that they are suited to a skilled trade or profession, not necessarily to academia. I think it's right that people should get that chance, but I suspect that careers advisers are often steering people into courses that award a degree, because they are seen as better than getting a skill which would give them a better job, with better pay, more job satisfaction, and making a greater contribution to society.
I think especially of the skilled end of the construction industry, which used to be attractive to intelligent young men, but no longer has that pull, so they do Computer Studies or Business Studies, or Accountancy, which leaves them with few skills, and no better educated than at eighteen.
The lowest dropout rate was the Royal Veterinary College - well, you need better grades to be a vet than you do be a doctor.
