The other change is welcome, a shift of emphasis from higher to further education, towards so-called technical colleges. The crushing of Britain’s skills-oriented college sector over the past decade – down by 16% – has been a scandal. The Office for National Statistics claims that a third of all graduates – including scientists – are not in “graduate level” jobs, while many skills are in acutely short supply. There are a mere 10,000 degree-grade apprenticeships in Britain each year, against 300,000 university places. This is absurd. Somehow the binary structure of post-school education must be restored. [...]
The question of whether a university is a scholarly retreat, a national investment, or a finishing school for the aspiring rich has never been answered. When, a century ago, universities were tiny establishment kindergartens, it did not matter much. Doctors, lawyers, bankers and architects got by well enough without them. Now that they divide society down the middle, in terms of who goes, taxpayers are entitled to challenge their value. Likewise students, burdened with debt, will ask whether an unmarketable degree is really worth idling away three years of their youth or enduring exam-related stress.
Spending money on higher education is like spending it on defence. You suspect half of it is wasted, but you cannot tell which half. No causal relationship has been proved between graduates – even science ones – and national wealth. A good university is still the nearest a secular society gets to a sacred institution. That is why I prefer traditionalists such as historian Stefan Collini, who see universities as intrinsic goods, devoted to “inculcating the spirit of the humanities”, and infusing society with their occasional wisdom. While perhaps immeasurable, this value should at least be articulated, and Collini does that.
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