Abolish Labour target of sending 50% to university, report urges

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/201 ... ent-target

This is hardly surprising.

Think about the people you went to school with. I'd say about 20% were smart enough to go on to get a degree. For more people to pass the standards would have to be (and have been) lowered. Having to pay more for a degree that's worth less, Labour genius.
They should just cut down on easy option degrees.

I agree about the easy option degrees, though in reality the whole higher education sector needs restructuring.

If you had the same standard of degrees as years ago only 10 to 15% would actually get a degree.

I agree with reducing this drive to get young people into univeristy where they don't need to. A degree in hairdressing? Do you really need a degree just to chop someone's hair?

I honestly advocate a return to the old system where people went polytechnics, did apprenticeships etc. Not everyone is clever enough to do A-levels or go to university. At the same time, people who want to go to university should not have to pay through the nose or not have the opportunity. I would not have been
able to do a medical degree - six years at £10-20k per year is more than I would earn in the first five years. Even now, despite working for three years, I have not been able to pay off my student debt of £20k.

I pretty much agree with all of that.

I would never had gone to University if it had cost the £100,000 they charged foreign students. I would never have gone even if it only cost £10,000 because such debt would have been unthinkable to me and my parents.

When I left university, I ended up doing an apprenticeship anyway. To be perfectly honest, I could have skipped all my academic qualifications done it when I was 14. I'd have missed out on a lot of fun and games, but was that really why I was there?

When they started the tuition fees they claimed that over a lifetime that you would be £400 000 better off. Though if you have to incur a £100000 debt which will incur interest that advantage is rapidly eroded. It will stop bright people from poor backgrounds even considering university and that is as offensive as subsidising private schools.