Electoral Colleges

‘IF you don’t get a degree you won’t get a good job. So says the Government, whose mission it to make graduates of us all, regardless of academic ability or a will to study.

And now we hear that a degree is not necessarily a passport to riches. As the Telegraph’s front-page headline announces: “A degree counts for less on job market.”

A report from the Department of Education has found that four years after graduating almost a third of graduates of “the class of 99” are either in “non-graduate jobs” or jobs deemed to be beneath them.

Amazing as it seems, not every media studies graduate is now producing the evening news on the BBC. Not everyone who took a business studies degree is running a large multi-national corporation? And not all geography students are being paid to count the number of dog turds on the street or teaching geography.

What’s more, the paper says there is now clear evidence that the “graduate earning premium” – what a degree is worth in real money terms – has begun to fall.

However, if we compare and contrast the wage packets of those with degrees against those without – showing our workings in the form of a Venn diagram and using the full page – the class of 99 earns nearly £4,000 a year more than non-graduates.

That’s just great. Having a degree does pay off. And it may even earn you enough to pay of the debts you ran up while studying for that BA Honours Degree in Dance – Performance-based Arts with Digital Media – at the renowned Doncaster College.

Perhaps students should try another approach. They could study for a degree and hold down a job. It’s the best of both worlds. Or the worst.

The Times has also seen the Department of Education’s study, and notes how working during course time can have an adverse effect on a student’s academic success.

The study found that twice as many first-class degrees were awarded to people who didn’t take a job during term time as those that did.

This wouldn’t be so bad if the students earning money were gainfully employed in something that will help them in their careers. Stacking shelves and working in the student bar are unlikely to help a student score that job as a dentist.

Although students on that aforesaid dance course in Doncaster may get some benefit from lap-dancing.

So there are the facts. But what to do? College might be a waste of time for many, but it is an easy option. Besides, it beats working – or not working and signing on the dole. Eh, Tony…’

Posted: 28th, October 2005 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink