The Radcliffe Camera, Oxford University: available only to few? Photocredit: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/801213
A level results were announced yesterday, and it’s been another record year for passes, with 97.8 percent doing so. Boys have achieved as many top results as girls. But now there is an unseemly scramble for university places. With a total of 673,570 applicants competing for 479,000 university places, after results there are now 185,000 candidates rushing to compete for 29,000 unfilled university places. The mass of applicants caused the UCAS application system website to crash. Britain’s universities are to charge full fees for the first time next year (of £9,000 per annum). Many students are applying now to avoid paying the full quota.
Britain’s university system has long been subsidised by the state. But is such a situation still sustainable? Labour promised 50 per cent of students a place at university, but was that the right thing to do? And what can we possibly do about this generation of hard-working teenagers who now have nowhere to go?
- It’s a maelstrom. Andrew Cunningham in The Daily Telegraph said there’s “a revolution in higher education.” The system is hard-pressed, with record numbers applying. Dropping only one grade could throw you “into the maelstrom of clearing.” The main reason for this is the introduction of £9,000 tutition fees. It was not ever thus – he remembers teaching a girl in the 1990s, when “a C grade in English was a reasonable result.” It’s Labour’s fault – they offered university to all, without considering whether students were suited to academics. Now the odds are stacked against pupils. This generation is “desperately unlucky.” They work exceptionally hard, yet their hopes are destroyed. And now even if you’re a graduate you’re not guaranteed a job. Degree courses should be much more carefully considered. This generation has been a “guinea-pig”, but stability will come. A “two-tier” system is emerging, with the Russell Group on top. And who’s going to want a degree from a non-Russell Group organisation? “[W]e need a new honesty – and a new realism – about what university is for.”
- There are few other options than university. Don’t be silly, said Jenni Russell on The Guardian. A Level results should be good news for a country that’s “desperate” for “a better-educated, globally competitive population?” But the government doesn’t want everyone to go to university. All these people applying think university’s a “key to a better life.” If you don’t, you’re seen as “below average.” David Willetts recommends “apprenticeships, working while studying part-time, or reapplying in the future.” In fact it’s as hard to win an apprenticeship as it is a place at Balliol College, Oxford. Very few firms even offer apprenticeships, and some don’t even offer training. And starting work is “equally problematic”. Youth unemployment is 20 percent. Places like PricewaterhouseCoopers, which runs an A-level entry scheme, are experiencing application overload. As for waiting – hah! Of course, it’s the less advantaged who lose out. And this is because of money. The government thinks it can’t subsidise education – but what’s the alternative? We’re telling a generation “you’re on your own. It’s a foolish, short-sighted, rotten way to be running either the country or the education system.”
- Go the American way! Terence Kealy in The Times said that over the past twenty years, governments, though hardly increasing funding, have “forced the universities into doubling their student numbers.” Student/staff ratios have almost doubled, and the quality of our universities, after polytechnics were granted similar status, is in doubt. We should look to America – their universities charge fees. “No wonder they thrive.” Finally, Britain’s universities are seeing sense. The “needs-blind” admissions of America are sensible – poor students are then offerred bursaries.American unversities have “massive endowments”, whereas ours have “nothing comparable”. We do have the state – but it should “restrict itself to supporting students.” The state needs graduates more than universities need state intereference. If the universities “were to declare independence, they would find the Government scurrying round with concessions. They should go for it.”
- We need to build character. Anthony Seldon, also in The Times, said our children are spending too much time on exams. Schools need to put greater emphasis on the building of “character”. This has traditionally been the “domain of English public schools,” whilst the Left tends to “shy away” from such notions. Blame for poor behaviour is placed on the circumstances of offenders, so insufficient attention is paid to moral standards. But now “both Left and Right are realising that we have a moral vacuum in our schools.” If people have good exam results, they also need community loyalty and to know the difference between right and wrong. “Who wants a lout with ten A*s? Not employers, certainly.” We need to “redesign our schools around building character.” Schools must have values at their core. Youth must respect their teachers, and be taught politeness, leadership and civility. School cadet forces should be made available to the state system, and competitive sport and volunteering in the community should be compulsory. “Now for the ace. If schools adopted this programme, they would find that their exam results would not fall, but improve.”
- What about our friends in the north? It’s a class thing, said Joan Smith in The Independent. We watch Tamaras and Charlottes leaping around enjoying their A*s – but where are the hoodies? It’s “absolutely shocking” the way that privilege and geography shape people’s lives. Private school pupils – which, let us not forget, educate only 6.5 percent of the country – gained 30 percent of A*s at A-level. The Southeast achieved 23 percent of A* grades. Because of where they live, children from the North are far less likely to sit A-levels. This annual “frenzy” over results takes attention away from hundreds of thousands of young adults who have no qualifications and no chance of a job. We’ve seen pictures of rioters, and pictures of glossy students about to enter high profile careers. “Neither tells the whole truth about young people in this country, but they’re a reminder we live in a society where class and geography matter as much as ability.”