Some get it, some don’t: The problem our higher education has failed to fix

Higher education in this country is, at its most basic level, an attempt to soothe one of society’s greatest injustices: that people from different backgrounds have unequal rights to education.

Our tertiary education system is unsustainable in its current form, but it is at least trying. It’s a broken system, but it is a system. The fact is that today, in this country, more people than ever can (and do) get a university education. Those who harp on about the ease and relative affordability of university in decades past forget that both the number of students and the population in general have skyrocketed since even the ’90s.

The fact that the population has doubled since the 1950s is neither the fault of the higher education system nor is it within the sector’s power to solve. But there is no escaping that, regardless of the reasons, the university system in this country is no longer sustainable.

The universities of Britain’s past were only sustainable because they denied further education to hundreds of thousands of clever, hard-working people who absolutely deserved it

Higher education was once the preserve of those fortunate enough to come from families that could afford to fund their lives for several years without them earning any money. Then, for a brief (and frankly amazing) period, people could receive financial grants to attend university (often still with parental support, of course). As the number of students ballooned, however, the grinding financial comedown of student life took hold, and the wonders of non-repayable maintenance became a thing of the past.

It would be easy to rail against the university system in this country. I could furiously rattle out some populist tirade about a corrupt system that sinks people into debt for fun. But instead of diving straight into the problems of our universities, I want to point out that the universities of Britain’s past were only sustainable because they denied further education to hundreds of thousands of clever, hard-working people who absolutely deserved it.

The British higher education system is a well-furnished (and well-meaning) masquerade. It is so sad that it still cannot give more people access to university who really deserve it.

The British job market is still a long way from a meritocracy

In a recent announcement, Keir Starmer stated that the Blair government’s target of sending 50% of the nation’s youth to university is no longer right for our times. The disappointing fact is that this is true, not because people shouldn’t be attending university – but because the demand for non-academic, lower-paying, and apprenticeship-oriented jobs hasn’t gone anywhere. More people studying at university has not changed the deeply infuriating reality that the kinds of jobs graduates hope to obtain are still largely taken by those who have always been privileged enough to attend university in the first place.

It is true that there has been an increase in the percentage of people aged 22 to 29 in professional roles, meaning, at the very least, either an increase in the availability of such work or more people from less well-off backgrounds are making it into the highest levels of the job market. Although this small increase is undeniably positive, it is nowhere near sufficient. It certainly isn’t enough to justify the impossible lose-lose-lose situation currently burdening overly indebted students, universities reporting huge losses, and a government spending through the nose on student loans when money is desperately needed in almost every corner of public life.

Many young people receive only a fraction of their peers’ opportunities – this is the real issue that needs fixing

The government’s new plans to add non-university education and “gold standard apprenticeships” for people leaving mandatory education are a sad reflection of the fact that there simply aren’t enough high-level jobs to go around. The British job market is still a long way from a meritocracy.

In an ideal but unrealistic world, all students would enter an education system receiving equal investment and opportunity and would be free to pick from any education or career path that’s right for them. But the reality is that many young people receive only a fraction of their peers’ opportunities – this is the real issue that needs fixing.

The Prime Minister’s decision to encourage more students to enter high-level apprenticeships is a fundamentally well-meaning attempt to make the best of a bad situation. The sad reality is that most young people will still not have full control over their future career path. There would be few things more gratifying than seeing such injustices removed from our society. Sadly, though, making non-university routes more plentiful and attractive might be the best we can hope for.