As worrying as it may seem, I have stressed in the past
that increasing tuition fees will not reduce the number of students still wishing to go to university in this country. It certainly does not reduce the number of students flocking in from the EU and it definitely will not reduce the number of students from outside the EU. Conventional wisdom has it that it is still better to be a graduate – even if you end up an unemployed or in a dead-end job. Besides for UK and EU citizens, there are loans available to the less well-off students to cover these costs. Also you only are asked to pay back the loans when you are suitably employed so crippling debt upon graduation is not as prohibitive as it might seem. In fact considering what is happening in Greece, Italy and the rest of Europe, it makes more sense for well off and ambitious students from any of these countries to wish to study in the UK. As citizens of EU member states, they are not subject to travel restrictions or conditions and they are eligible to whatever grant or loan available to British students. On top of it all, they are free to live and work in the UK afterwards. As for students from outside the EU, tuition fees – no matter how high - can never reduce the number of willing applicants. The rest of the world is a big place compared to the UK and there will always be those rich enough to pay UK tuition fees. In America, where university tuition fees are much higher than in the UK, there has been a year on year increase in applications from foreign students since the end of world war 2. The only thing that will reduce the influx of foreign students to our universities is by setting quotas and not raising fees.
There lies the problem – more graduates with even more debt but no corresponding increase in available graduate jobs. We are still in a very severe recession after all so if anything job opportunities are decreasing not increasing. So what hope do all these new graduates have? To be honest – not a lot. No government, no politician, no institution of higher learning will ever come out and admit to this fact. Like most things in society, as long as no one says anything publicly, the masses will be fooled. That is how we ended up in this financial mess in the first place. Those in the know knew that the crisis was bound to happen but kept the rest of us in the dark till it happened. Some even bet against the markets and made colossal private gains while public loses were huge. Openly admitting such will be disastrous. It will send out the wrong message to students. But what many people do not realise is that it is happening already. One in five recent graduates is unemployed and a higher number are stuck in undesirable jobs. Ultimately, the onus lies with the students themselves to sort themselves out of this mess.
This should be a serious worry for the average student but not for the average employer. The average employer has never had it so good. Back in the day, graduates from certain universities and with certain degrees only applied to top firms and city jobs. These days due to the weak job market, recent graduates are diversifying their job search. For every graduate job advertised, there are about 70 applications. Employers can afford to pick and choose as they are now truly spoilt for choice. As I was thinking about the plight of recent graduates, I came up with the idea of the Super-Graduate. A Super-Graduate is simply a recession-proof graduate, a market-proof graduate, a graduate that will secure employment despite market conditions. It is what I will push for my kids to be. I thought I was the only one to think about it till I stumbled across this article by accident. Not only was I surprised to read about the Super-Graduates, the fact that companies are springing up all over to help produce Super-Graduates sent a cold chill down my spine. The Ivy League universities produce something similar to super graduates already but when Ivy league graduates start to feel they need an edge to stand out then my fear is that they will be going down the super graduate route.
The so-called Super Graduate usually has more than one degree. One or all degrees with honours and in one of the traditional subjects - Mathematics, Engineering, Physics, Economics, Philosophy, Classics, Political Science, History, Law, Finance, or Computer Science. One or all degrees from a top global university. They usually are fluent in more than one European language, have an internship already from a top firm and almost certainly comes from a rich and educated family. They are normally academically above average, confident in their abilities; feel they are God’s gift, demand huge starting salaries and almost always end up doing an MBA as well.
These are the type of graduates the average graduate will have to compete with for the top jobs. As the market is shrinking, competition will be cut-throat. My question is why would a top employer go for an inner-city graduate if a super graduate exists? I predict the idea of the Oxbridge Graduates will give way for the Super Graduates and aspire to be one or forever beware of the Super Graduates.
