Is your university degree barely worth the paper it’s written on? Discuss | Sonia Sodha

We’re constantly told university education is a good thing. But with tuition fees so high, it’s time its true value was measured

In the past few decades we’ve seen a huge growth in undergraduate numbers. Back in 1945, a tiny 2% of the population went to university; today, just over 43% of young people in England go; the latest prediction is that an extra 300,000 places will be needed by 2030. We’re frequently told that graduates earn more on average than non-graduates; that universities boost local economies; and, of course, that a degree stretches the mind and nurtures critical thinking. Those who interrogate this logic are easily dismissed as philistines, or reactionaries who don’t care that expansion has occurred alongside record numbers of disadvantaged young people going to university.

Related: How to fix our universities – cap the number of students | Sonia Sodha

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from The Guardian http://ift.tt/2Gya5iE