It’s hard to make the case for university as a place for personal development if it’s only serving to function as a jumped-up finishing school
The number of people enrolling in higher education is still hitting historic highs. Nearly 40 per cent of the UK’s 18-year-olds head into higher education, and Unesco’s first Higher Education Global Trends Report shows that the number of students enrolled worldwide has more than doubled during the past two decades, reaching 269mn in 2024.
With AI haunting our future prospects, and the employment market becoming increasingly distressed, students graduating from college at the moment are joining a Hunger Games-style market in which the scant few jobs on offer are going to the very best.
Does the degree hold any value? Sadly, it depends on where you go. A cursory glance through the successful pool of applicants to most junior jobs in most institutions will still reveal a bias towards those who went to the schools within the Russell Group or Ivy League. As university degrees become more widespread, estimations of their worth have diverged. Does an Oxbridge degree hold any value? It will certainly help if you want to work within my team.
At best, university forestalls the inevitable horror of having to enter the workplace. It’s a chance to flex some independent muscles and develop a personality that isn’t a clone of ma and pa. University is less about one’s field of study (unless you want to end up in academia) but learning how to navigate human behaviour, take initiatives and maybe finesse some basic meals. That said, the cost is increasingly prohibitive, especially when factoring in things such as empty-flat summer rent. And it’s hard to make the case for university as a place for personal development if it’s only serving to function as a jumped-up finishing school.