University 2011
When I left college six years ago I was excited to be going off to university. The university I was going to was brilliant and building a good reputation after becoming a stand alone uni from somewhere else. There were pleanty of places at the uni and I know that many people were able to get in as an insurance choice or clearing. This week, that same university is having to turn away even some insurance places and there is no chance of it going into clearing.
Yes the reputation of this particular uni is even better now than it was before, but the reason this uni and so many like it are inundated with applicants this year is because more people are determined to attend before the fees go up in 2012. This is the main issue, but the figures are just crazy.
Currently there are 189,992 A-Level students eligible for 29,409 vacancies. There is no chance that the majority of these people will be able to get into uni this year and they may be put off by higher fees next year. On top of that, universities cannot accept extra students as each one has a cap on numbers. This cap is across the board, not just for the first year, so as an example, if a university is allowed 6000 students, that is the total number of undergrads over the (usually) three or four years. For every student that a uni goes over their cap the uni is charged over £3000 per student! This does not make it viable for them to take on extra students.
When I went to uni back in 2005 we were all promised lucrative graduate jobs at the end of our course. We were promised that we would all be earning over £20,000 in no time. By the time I graduated in 2008 these graduate vacancies had begun to drop off dramatically as the financial troubles began to bite. In fact I ended up working in local government (which I genuinely enjoy), but I am still no where near earning the levels that we were promised at uni. I know local government has never paid as highly as private sector work, as I have said a million times before, but shortly after I came to work in the public sector, all the graduate programmes became limited and eventually appeared to die a death.
My brother is among the thousands of graduates out looking for work this year. So far he has applied for an average of fifteen jobs a week and as yet has not had any luck at all. He has found a couple of graduate schemes and some good looking admin style jobs, but so far no joy. I know it is early days yet, but at the moment he is on job seekers and volunteering. My boyfriend is lucky enough to be working 22 hours a week for a local supermarket as he has all through uni, but he graduated two years ago and has had no joy in all that time for full time employment.
My advice to anyone who didn't make it into uni would be this. Re-train as a plumber or electrician. These are jobs that will always be needed. Do not worry about uni, you will be earning more than me in a year. In fact a part of me wonders why I have never re-trained.
Also to anyone who says that A-Levels are getting easier, no they are not. They are as hard as ever, but people know they need the grades for university or work and so are working harder. Also with the A* grades it is supposed to be easier for unis to differentiate between potential students, but that is not working either as so many are getting all A*s and As.
What we need to look at is whether it is right for everyone to go to university and if it is there needs to be more fairness, an incentive of work when the students leave and proper funding available for courses, especially in things like science and maths.
Yes the reputation of this particular uni is even better now than it was before, but the reason this uni and so many like it are inundated with applicants this year is because more people are determined to attend before the fees go up in 2012. This is the main issue, but the figures are just crazy.
Currently there are 189,992 A-Level students eligible for 29,409 vacancies. There is no chance that the majority of these people will be able to get into uni this year and they may be put off by higher fees next year. On top of that, universities cannot accept extra students as each one has a cap on numbers. This cap is across the board, not just for the first year, so as an example, if a university is allowed 6000 students, that is the total number of undergrads over the (usually) three or four years. For every student that a uni goes over their cap the uni is charged over £3000 per student! This does not make it viable for them to take on extra students.
When I went to uni back in 2005 we were all promised lucrative graduate jobs at the end of our course. We were promised that we would all be earning over £20,000 in no time. By the time I graduated in 2008 these graduate vacancies had begun to drop off dramatically as the financial troubles began to bite. In fact I ended up working in local government (which I genuinely enjoy), but I am still no where near earning the levels that we were promised at uni. I know local government has never paid as highly as private sector work, as I have said a million times before, but shortly after I came to work in the public sector, all the graduate programmes became limited and eventually appeared to die a death.
My brother is among the thousands of graduates out looking for work this year. So far he has applied for an average of fifteen jobs a week and as yet has not had any luck at all. He has found a couple of graduate schemes and some good looking admin style jobs, but so far no joy. I know it is early days yet, but at the moment he is on job seekers and volunteering. My boyfriend is lucky enough to be working 22 hours a week for a local supermarket as he has all through uni, but he graduated two years ago and has had no joy in all that time for full time employment.
My advice to anyone who didn't make it into uni would be this. Re-train as a plumber or electrician. These are jobs that will always be needed. Do not worry about uni, you will be earning more than me in a year. In fact a part of me wonders why I have never re-trained.
Also to anyone who says that A-Levels are getting easier, no they are not. They are as hard as ever, but people know they need the grades for university or work and so are working harder. Also with the A* grades it is supposed to be easier for unis to differentiate between potential students, but that is not working either as so many are getting all A*s and As.
What we need to look at is whether it is right for everyone to go to university and if it is there needs to be more fairness, an incentive of work when the students leave and proper funding available for courses, especially in things like science and maths.
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