University ‘elite overproduction’ has shifted the UK to the Left
by Miriam Cates, Telegraph:
The enormous growth in graduation rates has not just incurred economic costs. It has also driven regrettable social changes.
The Government has unveiled plans to cap the number of students studying for “low-value” degrees. This is a welcome intervention and, I hope, marks the beginning of the end for the overblown and under-scrutinised expansion of the higher education sector over the past 25 years. Tony Blair’s dream for half our young people to go to university has been realised, but to what end and at what cost?
The Prime Minister points out that many young people leave university saddled with debt and without the skills required for productive work. In the past, gaining a degree would guarantee a well-paid career, but this is no longer the case. Indeed, men who attend the lowest-ranked universities are now likely to earn less than their non-graduate peers. Too many graduates will never earn enough to pay off their student loan in full, leaving the taxpayer with an outstanding bill of £206 billion and rising.
The perverse incentives for universities are extraordinary. The less “useful” the degree, the less the graduate will earn and the less likely the loan will be repaid. In other words, the more useless the degree, the greater the taxpayer subsidy. It’s a racket, and the Prime Minister is absolutely right to call time on it.
[…] There simply are not enough top-level jobs for the half a million young people graduating each year, and this has social and political consequences.
Indeed, so-called “elite overproduction” has created a generation whose understandable disappointment with society has pushed them down a rabbit hole of destructive ideological causes. It is even argued that some adopt “high status” political views to compensate for the reduced economic status they are able to achieve.
From critical race theory (which says white people are all racist) to radical gender ideology (which threatens the safety of women and children) to extreme climate catastrophism (which seeks to impoverish our nation): the views of those under 30 are markedly different from older people. In fact, almost half of young people believe that Britain was founded on racism.
Read here (£)
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