The young are hung out to dry

The chairman of the Russell group – the body representing the wealthiest and most successful British universities – has indicated that the full fee of £9,000 will become their standard charge.  This will apparently help to fund outreach programs and bursaries for those from more disadvantaged backgrounds, although the details remain unclear, as well as maintaining their prestigious reputations.

Without the EMA, many more young people won’t sit their A levels, making university an impossibility. Those who won’t qualify for bursaries but are still far from well off will face £27,000 of tuition fees, on top of about £10,000 of student loans, for a degree whose benefits are far from apparent:– graduates are competing with 20% of 16 – 24 year olds who are unemployed for a deeply inadequate number of jobs.

A survey conducted by City & Guilds of 500 businesses has shown that 50% have taken on apprentices, while a fifth deem it too risky. Those that have hired apprentices have said that they are of more value than graduates, which is unsurprising.  Degrees will be of record expense and largely useless unless you are studying something at least vaguely vocational and have a clear career path in mind. This means that far less many people will study the arts, to the detriment to our culture and the revenue these institutions (art galleries, museums, live venues etc) bring to the economy.

Today the pupil premium has been criticised for potentially further widening the gap between rich and poor: ‘Steve Reed, London Councils’ executive member for children and young people, said: “£430 per deprived pupil will not go a long way in addressing educational attainment gaps between rich and poor pupils as it is, but given our higher costs in London it is even less likely to make much of a difference.”’

Young people will stand less chance of staying in school with this inadequate replacement of EMA, and less chance of getting a degree that is increasingly useless. Businesses are on the whole still weathering the storm and are not making up for the scrapping of the Future Jobs Fund – in fact young people are now going to be made to volunteer, a pursuit of genuine merit, but not if it’s implemented merely as a means of damage limitation, to decrease unemployment figures and is largely meaningless if there are no jobs.

These characteristically short sighted decisions will contribute to much more costly problems in the long term, which encapsulates the unfortunate nature of our political system. The same goes for the NHS reforms, those to benefits and cuts to local services. Along with the cutting of Sure Start, the EMA and the Future Jobs Fund, the tuition fees will entrench universities’ exclusivity.  The costs of repairing this damage will be immense. Not only will graduates be in a far worse position to generate wealth, resulting from cuts to teaching and R&D, corporate interests having more sway within educational institutions, but the welfare bill will balloon as this generation finds itself unqualified, accustomed to life on the dole and demoralised. This generation is the coalition’s sacrifice to its ideology.

RNA