FUTURE GRADUATES WILL BE “VERY ANGRY YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN INDEED”
A respected education expert has warned of a looming graduate “revolution” in the next few years, as hundreds of thousands of graduates discover that their degree is not worth what they paid for it. His comments come as new figures show that 15% of graduates are earning less than people who left school with only GCSEs.
Writing in the Evening Standard, Martin Stephen, former headmaster of top independent day school St Paul’s Boys wrote:
“This is the year the old order died as far as university entry is concerned – and it’s far from clear that the new order will be better. There is the potential for a massive shock.
“Students will be paying massively for their degrees and building up huge long-term debts. Those who pay more demand more, and this consumer pressure will run head-on into the fact that universities are strapped for cash and often unable to increase students’ ‘contact time’ with teachers. Though they have the will, they simply don’t have the money.
“The situation has all the ingredients necessary for a revolution.”
Stephen also raised concerns about the mis-match between the degrees that are popular with students – and those that are valued by employers, saying:
“Add to this the fact that there are too many universities offering degrees in subjects that students like but employers reject, and there is a serious risk that the graduates of the future will end up being very angry young men and women indeed.”
Meanwhile, the news that many graduates are earning less than those with only GCSEs or A-levels is unlikely to surprise readers of Graduate Fog. For over a year, you’ve been telling me that you’re not earning anywhere near the supposed “average” graduate salary of around £26,000. Too many salary surveys only question the top-earning graduates, and do not reflect the reality for the majority of you. Unpaid internships are dragging down wages too.
Now, finally, we have some numbers to prove what you lot have been saying for months. For what it’s worth, I think it’s good news that the truth is emerging at last. These statistics will be hard for politicians to ignore – making it more likely that more will be done to help graduates into the jobs you deserve.
*Is trouble brewing?
‘Revolution’ is a strong word – was Stephen being melodramatic? Or can you imagine some kind of graduate uprising, in the not-too-distant future? What will it take for graduates to get angry enough to revolt?
I say ‘go for it’, we’ve been too passive for too long. I’m fortunate in one sense, being a freelance writer, but for many they are just getting dumped, and its obvious that neither employers, nor universities nor the government really wants to listen. I don’t know what form this ‘trouble’ will take, but I do know this, it’s way past time when the UK’s graduates should have got together and demonstrated their strength. It’s time to revolt and time to start kicking some butt and I’d like to this happen sooner rather than later. That’s all I have to say in a nutshell.
@Robin Whitcock. I doubt a graduate revolution will happen because the ones who have their jobs can’t understand. They seem to love coming here defending internships, for example. I only know of one person who truly ‘made it’ after uni and got a great job. The rest of us were sold a lie and lapped it up!
Sadly, perhaps you’re right. But there’s no doubting graduates getting angry though… or is it just cynicsm? Meanwhile I just concentrate on getting on with developing my freelance writing business. I, for one, will not enslave myself in a call centre working for a corporation that’s busy raping the planet.
No – you’re right. If anything, I’ve learnt from this crap situation that my ultimate goal is to work for myself. It’s only a matter of time. One idea I was pursuing (environmental workshops for kids)was going really well and I think I could have made it into a good little business 7 years ago. Not much money around for that kind of stuff now. New plan in the pipeline however!
Wow, great. Go for it Joddle! The thing that gets me though you know is all those toerags on facebook who delight in slagging graduates off once you post a story like this on your status. Perhaps I shouldn’t have bothered, you know what they say, put your head above the parapet, get it shot off…
Hi folks,
To be honest I never believed before that graduates would start any kind of revolution – because I felt that the anger wasn’t there. I often expect graduates to be angrier than they are. Instead, they feel disappointed and frustrated – and their confidence is at rock bottom. I think graduates feel very disempowered – the universities have robbed them of their money, they’re back living at home and they spend most of their time writing letters and emails begging employers to give them a chance (which more often than not the employers wont’ respond to).
What they forget is that they actually exist in huge numbers – AND they have every right to be angry. If i’d spent £30,000 on a car that didnt’ start, you can bet I’d be furious! At the moment too many graduates just accept this as ‘the way it is’. And those who don’t just want to get on in life – they dont’ want to spend time ‘whingeing’. I suppose this is fair enough – but the shame is that if they dont’ start shouting about this then more and more young people will continue to make the same mistakes they did.
Perhaps GF will help empower them and bring this army together, so we can channel that anger and frustration and make some noise?
Actually, when i read stephen martin’s comments, the idea of some kind of ‘revolution’ didnt’ seem so ridiculous. Especially when the new youth unemployment figures came out. If graduates had a bit of focus and organisation, I think things could get pretty rowdy… We saw what happened with the tuition fees protests..!
I think a lot of people lack the thinking skills to be able to understand the magnitude of the problem. Such people can’t relate their personal experience to bigger forces beyond their control in the general labour market. If this were the case people would become aware that ‘If I work for free it takes removes a job from the labour market that would previously have been paid employment with rights’.
The more of us there are working for free; the more depression there is on wages.
When talking about the situation for grads / internships someone who graduated 10 years ago is always gonna come along and tell you how your experience is wrong, and that persistence will pay off.
Until we achieve *class consciousness we’ll continue taking it!
(Okay I accept I got a little carried away here!)
@Robin Whitcock I haven’t noticed the Facebook jibes yet. Perhaps my friends don’t really want to offend me; I only put job stuff or eco links on there. I’m a real FB bore…
@Joddle
I agree with this:
I think you’re right – there is a reluctance to admit that you are part of a cohort of people who are really up against it and struggling – the Jilted Generation – or (a term you all hate, and I don’t blame you) the ‘lost generation’. Admitting you are part of an cohort that has been spectacularly screwed over must be tough to swallow – and I think many grads fear that acknowledging themselves as such will automatically turn them into a ‘victim’, which if course it doesn’t. Nobody wants to think of themselves like that – I can quite understand that.
But the reality is that all the positive thinking in the world isn’t going to be enough to find good, well-paid jobs with good prospects for all of you in the industries you’ve chosen. Many will make it – but many more will miss out. This is NOT all your fault – it is the fault of a succession of short-sighted policies that have systematically screwed you over. The universities, schools and even your parents (sorry!) have been accomplices in peddling the myth that a degree automatically leads to a better (and better paid) job, when it not longer does. It is also the politicians who are failing to enforce the minimum wage laws for interns, which are there to protect you.
In short, I hope graduates will find a way to acknowledge that there is a big reason why they’re finding it so tough to get their careers started – and most of it is the fault of politicians and universities, not their own.
Graduates who DO see themselves in the context of the ‘big picture’ often get accused of being whingers – but I think that’s so unfair. Acknowledging the truth doesn’t make you a victim. You can still do your best to get a job and forge a career for yourself, you’re just saying that you see it in context too.
Actually, I don’t see why graduates can’t be part of both camps. Why can’t you dedicate yourself 100% to finding a good job, whilst also acknowledging that you are part of a generation that is going to find it tougher than any other before you?
@Joddle and Tanya, this is the kind of thing I have to put up with when I put these kind of stories on Facebook, this from a friend of mine who is herself a graduate and doing/done a masters:
“Having s degree means absolutely nothing! Well it means you’ve eaten kebabs and partied hard for 3 years and somehow managed to remember enough info to get through a 3 hour exam. A strong work ethic, ability to understand and learn from those who know the role and being good team player are key attributes and are what should be rewarded and if those rewards go to the ‘dunderhead thicko’ who only got GCSEs then fair play!”
I was spitting blood when I read this, but there again she’s a wealthy householder who’s been able to put solar panels on her house, perhaps she thinks getting a degree is a hobby:
“I am getting a masters because I enjoy the subject matter and want to learn more, not because it will get me better job cos it won’t.”
With that kind of attitude, coming from people who are themselves graduates, what hope is there? Perhaps degrees have become the latest upper middle class fad…
@Robin Whitcock unfriend this person quickly! Eating kebabs etc doesn’t represent my time at univeristy. Grads love to trash the value of a degree they can’t help themselves
@Tanya you’re right the confidence of grads has taken a bashing. What we need to do is support each other more (and when our friends and family can’t offer support or understand we should turn to Graduate Fog!)
@Joddle – I ought to really! I’ve known her a long time and I didn’t think she could be that venal, perhaps she’ll do me a favour and unfriend me first, I’ve certainly had a go back though, I can get quite irrascible myself, especially when graduates are insulted.
@Robin Whitlock- In reference to your “friend” who said “I am getting a masters because I enjoy the subject matter and want to learn more, not because it will get me better job cos it won’t.” You should advise her that there are cheaper ways to learn skills. Like going to your local community center, teaching English in a developing nation, volunteer, or even a private tutor. Those are all cheaper than a Master’s.
People get their Master’s not just to learn but because of the prestige associated with it and the understanding that you will get a higher paying better job. “Piece of paper” or not, it shows that you stuck it out for a couple of years writing essays, researching, and in some cases even doing extensive field work to be better prepared for the workforce. If I want to learn about Computer Science or French, it would be cheaper for me to be an Au Pair or take some courses at the local Community College than to devote a Master’s to it.
Hate to be blunt but whoever says they are doing a Master’s solely “to learn” is either incredibly naive or incredibly stupid.
Thanks for that Ivana, I have to say I agree. Knowing R fairly well, she has a high earning husband and I somehow suspect she took it to keep up with him though she would probably never admit it. They’ve recently put solar panels on their roof, or about to, so I also suspect she did it through the Open University from the comforts of home, thus reinforcing her stereotyped image of students by virtue of the fact that she never had to really ‘mix’ with them. I’m making incredible assumptions here, but I wouldn’t be totally surprised if that were the case. ‘Bored housewife’ syndrome perhaps….
As I suspected she would, that ‘friend’ I referred to has ‘de-friended’ me. Ah well, no great loss. I guess some people can’t handle a graduate who bites back….
When I attended, absolutely everyone successful in school was being herded into college/uni, but there was no discussion about what happened later. The ‘line’ we got was that employers would snap us up, because we were so bright, hard-working, and capable – as evidenced by graduating uni! – no matter which uni or degree. This does not square with reality as it was then, and certainly less now. I’ve seen some rebuttals about these discussions of the ‘value’ of an education from academics, reminding us that it should not be about the money (some sound a bit like Robin’s unfriend) but the fact is that arguments to convince school leavers to take on another level of education – from educators and yes, even university academics – often are about exactly that.
Admittedly, there is to my mind a psychological advantage to having a degree in the sense of self-esteem and the elevated status it brings you. Or at least that was the case years ago, but the problem now is that ‘status’ is overwhelmingly now associated with money, not education or intelligence or qualifications, and that essentially helps to negate the afore mentioned psychological advantages to some extent.
Yeah I’ve never earned even half of the average 26000 that is stated as the average, I’d like to know where was surveyed to get this number!?
I have bachelors and masters degrees both in criminology. The police will not hire anyone these days, believe me I tried over 20 times, they don’t even take volunteers anymore!
Just been made redundant from my last job because my sales figures weren’t good enough, it really is hard to give a rats behind when you feel undervalued and underpaid.
Been on antidepressants since 2011 the year after I graduated the first time. Here’s a solution how about the government save the NHS money by creating jobs for graduates that actually mean something then maybe they wouldn’t need so much support from mental health services.
I try not to let the depression win but it does more often than not these days.
Back to jobhunting and being ignored again…