Graduate Misery

The financial news site This is Money, sadly reported that one in four students who graduated in 2005 are still jobless. Forty-three per cent of the graduates had resorted to stacking shelves, pouring pints and other stop-gap jobs. For the graduates that did get jobs, 4 years after university the average pay was around £24k.

So, lets add up the worth of a degree as an investment (again). 2 years A-level + 3 years degree + 4 years unemployment = 9 years. Is it worth sacrificing 9 years of your life to then only earn 24k, if you are lucky? Bus and train drivers earn more than that in a mere fraction of the time!

If you get lucky, or go to the very top universities, or do well in a useful course such as medicine, you of course have a much better chance to gain high paid employment quickly, but only a small percentage of graduates are in this bracket.

Hundreds of graduates are battling it out for every job. Graduate pay is low or non existent. The article mentions 24k salaries, but I know graduates who earn almost half that! Most graduates can only cry, and lament their wasted years and money. I know other graduates in so called 'good' subjects such as maths, engineering, and computing who still haven't found work, 2 years after graduating. This is the real world. If they wanted money, they should have sought elsewhere.

Here's a selection of readers quotes from the article:

• "It was only in the 60's where we were able to choose from a number of jobs as we left university - we shall never see those days again!"
• "It is a myth that having a degree will get you a better job, or indeed any job at all. That has certainly been my experience throughout my working life, and I studied not one of the "easy" options - but Engineering."
• "Most people realise 75% of the current degrees on offer in universities are as good as worthless in the real world."
• "I went to University and now I work. In the real world being degree-less is not a hindrance. I can see many of my non-Uni colleagues working up the ranks and doing well. Most Uni degrees are completely out of sync with real life. I think Government propaganda is to blame."
• "I don't understand why so many students opt for such useless degrees. Doesn't common sense tell them that getting into debt to obtain a certificate that will do nothing to enhance their employment prospects, is being stupid."

I am not against education, or university and I think that learning is a wonderful thing. All I am saying is that if you are going to university to make money, then you need to think about that plan very carefully beforehand.