What’s a University Education Worth?

By A. J. Dalton (amended By Jon Porter)

Four of the top ten universities in the world are in the UK. Two of those, Oxford and Cambridge, are around eight hundred years old. No wonder the UK is so popular with students. But every year it costs both British and overseas students more and more to attend university. Students are graduating with larger and larger debts. So is a university degree really worth it?

In 2006, the UK government started to allow universities in England and Wales to charge British students tuition fees. Those fees have increased every year since, sometimes dramatically. As a result, 80 per cent of students in England and Wales now take out a student loan in order to go to university. They use the loan to pay for tuition fees, books and living expenses. Although the interest rate on student loans is quite low, it begins as soon as the student receives the loan.

The average student in England and Wales now graduates from university with debts of around £44,000. For a student of medicine, who studies for longer, you can add another £20,000 or more. That is a lot of money. And it’s even more for international students. Their living costs are similar, of course, but they pay higher tuition fees. It often means that graduates with loans cannot afford to buy a house for many years. They even struggle to pay rent on a flat, because they have to start paying back the student loan the following April after they finish. If you start to earn over £17,000 a year, the government takes repayments directly from your monthly salary. Is it any surprise, therefore, that the average British person does not leave their parents’ home until they are 30 years old?

You might think that a British person with a degree will find it easy to get a well-paid job. However, most people in ‘white-collar jobs’ seem to have a degree these days, so there is a lot of competition. Also, British companies tend to value work experience over a piece of paper. Like everyone else, graduates usually have to start at the bottom and work their way up. That can be very frustrating for them, since they are often over-qualified for the work they are doing. While at university, they had dreams of getting an exciting, challenging job. Therefore, life after university ends up being quite disappointing for a lot of graduates.

All of the above is beginning to make British people question whether a university degree is really worth the money. In recent years, the number of British students at university has been decreasing for the first time in history, and this trend is likely to continue.

Students have always been thought of as not having a lot of money, but ‘student poverty’ is now considered a real problem in the UK. Most British students need to get a loan, part-time job or summer job. Worse than that, however, is the fact that student leaders report there are increasing numbers of students turning to crime to support themselves financially.

By contrast, things are now easier for students from other countries coming to study in the UK, especially if they are from wealthy families, since the value of the pound has fallen over the last decade. More international students come to Britain each year. British universities have been offering more and more of the available places to richer international students rather than poorer British students. British universities have an excellent reputation, but in the future they may not have many British students!

Fun corner

Do you know the answer to these quiz questions?

1 Do you know two different names for the British currency?

2 What does ‘Oxbridge’ refer to?

3 How much does a Scottish student or EU student from outside the UK pay a Scottish university in tuition fees?

4 At which Scottish university did Prince William study?

5 What is the oldest university in the UK?

Word(s) of the day

A ‘white-collar worker’ is someone who has a job in an office. He or she usually works in administration or finance. A ‘blue-collar worker’ tends to have a manual job, such as in manufacturing or construction.

Activity 1: Vocabulary

Match the terms and their definitions. One answer is given.

tuition fees (f)

a student loan

interest rate

repayment

struggle

challenging

a summer job

salary

wage

having a career

money paid back on a loan

find it difficult

work you do when you are on a long holiday from university

money paid for a week’s work

the annual percentage of extra money you have to pay back when you borrow money from a bank or finance company

money a student pays to a university (1)

difficult but rewarding

related jobs that you do over a long period

money borrowed from a bank or finance company to pay for studies

regular monthly or annual pay for doing a job

Activity 2: Gap fill

Using vocabulary from Activity 1, complete the sentences below.

1 We will lend you £3,000, and the annual ____ is three per cent after three years.

2 Paying my fees every year has been a constant ____.

3 With such a small loan, I don’t know if I’ll be able to pay the ____.

4 I’ve got a good job, but I just wish the work was more ____.

5 When term ends, I’ll have to get ____ just to make ends meet.

6 The ____ is £140 a week, but it’s cash-in-hand, so you don’t pay tax.

Activity 3: True or false

Decide if the following statements are true (T), false (F) or partly true (P).

1 British education is becoming more expensive for most British students.

2 Having a degree ensures you will get a good job.

3 There are no university places left for British students.