Daily Junction.mobi portalWe should aim for 30–35% university participation (like Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands), with the rest doing apprenticeships or entering work.
Apprenticeships should be the default for most young people, not the exception. This requires:
Universities with low graduate employment rates (under 60%) should be closed or merged. They are scamming students by taking £60,000 for degrees that do not lead to jobs.
The UK has a shortage of STEM graduates, doctors, and nurses. Abolishing tuition fees for these degrees would encourage more students to study them, and it would be a better use of public money than subsidising humanities degrees.
Germany has dual education (vocational degrees that combine university and work). The UK should introduce similar degrees (e.g., engineering degrees with 2 years in university + 2 years in industry).
50% of graduates work in non-graduate jobs 5 years after graduation, earning less than apprentices who started working at 18 with no debt. Average student debt is £60,000 (3-year degree) but most graduates never repay in full — it's a graduate tax, not real debt, but it still limits life choices. Graduate premium (extra earnings from a degree) has collapsed from £10,000/year (2000) to £6,000/year (2024), while debt has tripled from £20,000 to £60,000. Only STEM, medicine, law, and economics degrees have positive ROI — humanities, arts, and social sciences degrees are financially worthless for most students. Apprenticeships offer better outcomes: earn while you learn, no debt, higher employment rates, and equivalent earnings by age 30 — but only 5% of school leavers take them. We have been lying to young people for 30 years. University is not worth it for most people, and we need to admit it. The 50% target was a mistake, degree inflation has devalued degrees, and low-quality universities are scamming students. Apprenticeships are a better route for most young people, but we have created a culture where university is the default and everything else is failure. It is time to stop lying. We need to promote apprenticeships, close low-quality universities, and stop pushing 50% of young people into £60,000 debt for degrees that do not lead to jobs.