(AND NO, THEY DON’T HAVE TO PAY IT BACK WHEN THEY GRADUATE)
Is it fair that students are burdened with the entire cost of their degree, when some of the world’s biggest firms also benefit – and profit – from that education?
Professional services firm EY (formerly Ernst & Young) appears to think not – and that companies with deep pockets could – and should – be doing more to help young people manage the spiralling cost of higher eduction. Yesterday, it launched a new programme which will see 60 students receive up to £40,000 over the course of their degree course, to help out with their university costs.
The EY Assurance Scholarship programme works like this. Students studying for a degree in Accounting, Auditing & Finance at Lancaster University, and Accounting and Finance at the University of Bath and the University of Warwick will be eligible to apply, with £5,000 a year on offer to help with the upfront costs of attending university.
Students will also benefit from a paid summer work placement at one of EY’s UK offices in their second year, and a year-long industrial placement in their third year of study.
A further £1,000 per year will be offered to selected students who meet the criteria for widening access to higher education.
Hywel Ball, EY’s Managing Partner for Assurance in the UK & Ireland, said the programme was a great opportunity for young people to “earn while they learn.” Graduate Fog understands that other firms have experimented with special sponsored programmes, but none has yet offered to fund students on existing courses at independent universities, where they will learn alongside regular students. Ball explained:
“Many of today’s graduates enter the workplace with sizeable student loan repayments that last for a large part of their working lives. The EY Assurance Scholarship will give students a financial leg-up, to ensure they are able to focus on making the most of their time at university.”
Students will find that the cash comes in handy, but the (paid) work experience on offer is another big bonus, Ball said:
“Employability skills are essential for today’s graduates and work experience is now considered to be pre-requisite for many graduate employers. Combined with the academic qualifications, skills such as team working, time management and real life client interactions, will help graduates of the EY Assurance Scholarship scheme to stand out in a competitive jobs market.”
But – hang on – what happens if students change their mind about accountancy, or EY, when they graduate? Do they have to pay it all back? Nope – we checked. EY told Graduate Fog they view the investment as more like a bursary than a loan.
While they accept that it’s possible a fraction of the students may drop out, they have factored in a small ‘attrition’ (drop-out) rate when doing their sums. (Which you’d probably expect, with EY being an accounting firm). Besides, they feel confident that their selection process should minimise this risk – so they view any about-turns as their responsibility, not the students’.
Graduate Fog thinks sponsored degrees are an interesting idea – and we’ll be watching developments closely. Although many of our readers have already graduated, we know you take an interest in university funding – and plus, many of you have younger siblings you would like to advise on whether university is ‘worth it’.
Like you, we have witnessed how the cost of higher education has spiralled in recent years. The hike in tuition fees isn’t the only problem – living costs (rent, bills, food, etc) have jumped too, so students are racking up more debt than ever during their time studying. Then there are the unpaid internships too many graduates are expected to do before they’ll be considered for paid work. (And then some of you are even being asked to pay £300 for a reference from your internship – STOP THE MADNESS!)
While we’re unsure about schemes that lock in students to careers or employers they may change their minds about later, carefully planned programmes that are risk-free to students and graduates do seem like a good idea. The big question is, will other employers follow suit?
*DO YOU WISH YOU’D DONE A SPONSORED DEGREE?
Should more firms follow EY’s example and help students out with the cost of going to university? Or are you suspicious of their motives? Is it right that big firms pay towards higher education – or should graduates consider their salary payment enough?
Okay, I’ll kick off with what I think…
– Employers should contribute more than they currently do towards higher education, since they benefit from it. At present, the burden is much too heavily placed on the shoulders of the students and graduates, who are being asked to ‘invest’ (read: pay) more and more money in order to be considered for a job when their studies end. It’s getting ridiculous!
– You could argue that employers DO pay towards university degrees already – in the form of the salaries that their graduates receive (and then subsequently use to pay off their student debt). However, the salaries offered have not increased in line with the rise in the cost of university / student debt. In other words, employers have been getting a very good deal for the last few years, while students and graduates have absorbed the extra costs demanded by universities, and piled on as the cost of living has risen.
– I think sponsored degrees (if that’s what we’re calling them) are a good idea that needs exploring further. My gut feeling is that they will map on to some industries better that others. In particular, I can see science and technology companies looking seriously at the model. There’s only so long that they can keep complaining that they don’t have enough candidates for their roles. Stumping up some cash to encourage more young people to study these subjects is a good way to encourage them towards careers in those industries
– If sponsored degrees become the norm, are we in danger of turning university into a hot-house for jobs, rather than a place of learning, expanding the mind, etc?
– Could there be a class split between students who take sponsored and non-sponsored degrees? Are poorer students more likely to seek out sponsored degrees, whereas only the wealthiest students can afford to do non-sponsored degrees?
– I am nervous about schemes where students are given money up front but then asked to repay it if they change their mind about their career once they graduate. (Although perhaps it’s fair to ask for it back if the student simply goes on to work for the sponsor’s main competitor?!). In the UK, people are asked to sign up for their degree course when they are 17 / 18, and a lot can change in the next few years. It would be unfair for them to be penalised heavily for changing their minds. It’s what people do, especially around that age.
Whilst this is fantastic news(I may be somewhat selfish in voicing this) this is great news for school leavers around 18 yrs age. This age group I feel has received far better careers advice and explanation of opportunities compared to my age group (early to mid twenties).
The average 16-18 year old has seen the failure of the ‘50% into university’ scam that my generation were pushed into, and have had the benefit of well paid apprenticeships,a healthy dose of reality in relation to what courses to study (STEM subjects) at GCSE, Alevel) and an increase in sponsored degree job programs.
Discussing this with friends we all reflected on being breezed through GCSE and Alevel with scant careers advice, being urged that to not go to university was sure failure, but study anything, you like!, anything at all!, and you will definitely land a 25,000 job minimum(!), with loan repayments barely touching you.
5+ years in the real world later we of course are now aware that a degree in any humanities/art studies, from anywhere means little competing against thousands of others like you, scrabbling around for something resembling an adult job, that will most be some directionless admin role if you are lucky.
Maybe I am bitter saying it, but the problem is not the 18 year olds of today, they are a big political agenda- the push is on for them to receive proper training, apprenticeships, and graduate jobs if they are academically inclined.
The real problem is the age group who came up before them who fell for the study anything con, and are caught between being too inexperienced,poorly connected and not having the technical qualifications to land decent jobs, but find themselves now too old to be the target of shiny new apprenticeships rollouts and sponsored graduate schemes that are aimed at 18 year olds.
It’s like our age group are an embarrassing reminder of the ‘50% into university’ hysteria that is now discredited, so we’ve just been left to quietly rot in unemployment and insecure admin/customer roles. It to me is a ticking mental health bomb- a lot of 20 somethings who believed what they were advised, only to realize it’s BS and they have little to no skills particularly worth anything after years of education and thousands of pounds worth of debt.
These people and their stunted lives are not going away, it needs to be addressed, but politicians seem to think politics relating to ‘young people’ means focus on training/skill for 16-18+ and focus on lack of homes/jobs for 20 somethings- but how do get a decent job, to afford a decent home, if your expensive irrelevant (unless you have connections) degree qualifies you for nothing?
20somethings who were failed by poor political/educational policies, need as much back to basics education/training and deserve a second chance not only for themselves but also the sake of the country. We have an ageing population, if homegrown talent is not upskilled, it simply will be wasted, and an expensive welfare and mental health cost, whilst more foreign talent will need to be imported to plug the gap.
We are politically inconvenient and uninteresting to politicians however- too old to be the future worth talking about and doing photo ops at colleges with,
and too young to be worth politically courting (low levels of home-ownership rates/voting/ stake in society power.
@Zaza
Thanks for your comment. I agree it’s a really interesting development that society / employers / politicians suddenly seem so interested in 18-year-olds, and you’re right that you could see this agegroup’s gain as the older agegroup’s loss.
I think that when I hear that some firms are taking on fewer graduates and more school leavers – it almost seems that you are penalised for studying for a degree. Over educated graduates are ‘out’, less educated, greener, younger school leavers are ‘in’. I think many of these firms are trying to do a good thing in creating an alternative to university, but you’re right that they should be careful that in doing so they dont’ accidentally penalise those who have made the investment (of time, money and hard work) in university.
Also, while I agree that current 18-year-olds have the benefit of seeing (from older siblings etc) that uni doesn’t guarantee a good job, many are still signing up based on bad information and advice from schools, parents, friends etc.
I feel such an idiot for buying into uni back when Labour were banging on about the 50% target. How were so many people fooled so easily?