Sir, I was not surprised that employers are finding graduates unequipped with the basic skills required for day-to-day work (report, Feb 7; letters, Feb 8 and 9). The problem is that there are far too many university places available.
It was explained to me recently, by a university administrator, that the funding to universities, per student, has been halved, thus requiring the retention of twice the number of students to maintain revenue. This is not just for the first year, but throughout each course.
How are these numbers maintained? The standards required of the students are reduced. Entrance qualifications have been reduced and the grades necessary to pass exams have also fallen. It is a question of financial survival.
I can only wonder how someone who is deficient at mathematics and basic English should find a place at university, never mind graduate. How can they either receive the education universities purport to provide or efficiently communicate the knowledge they have acquired? Higher education should be more closely aligned with commercial demand and schools should teach children to read, write and count. Simple.
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HAMISH HOSSICK
Glasgow
Sir, It seems big businesses want to have their cake and eat it. How can it be the students’ fault if, overburdened with work, they choose to prioritise study above other things?
All big firms seem to require a 2:1 before even considering a graduate application. If top firms looked at their selection processes, perhaps they might see the real problem. If they looked at each person as a whole rather than in the narrow way they do they might find more suitable candidates.
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As students it is our lot to jump through hoops. We don’t set them; perhaps academia and businesses should choose their hoops more wisely.
LUKE R. TOOMEY
Basingstoke, Hants
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Sir, Perhaps these companies should not have discarded mature graduates so assiduously during the corporate restructurings of recent years.
Most of them knew something about the three Rs and the social skills necessary for successful team-working but too many of those who graduated 30 years or so ago are on the scrapheap now.
ANDREW FOX
Poole, Dorset
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Sir, I graduated last year with a 2:1 honours degree in French and Russian from the University of Bristol. Since June I have been looking for employment at home in Liverpool and find the only graduate opportunities are in sales, finance and recruitment consultancy. Not even in the European Capital of Culture 2008 is there call for language graduates. I, therefore, find myself relegated to the admin sector.
Although I have the requisite three GCSEs, I lack the five years’ experience and am therefore only good for receptionists’ positions. I do wonder if the past five years would have been better spent acquiring office experience rather than amassing a large debt studying a traditional academic subject.
I see the merits of extracurricular activities and, at school, was part of several teams and societies. However, I went to university to study. I am confident giving presentations in three languages, have worked in a variety of offices during holidays and I am highly literate, yet I am still unemployed.
If the Government continues to coerce the majority into higher education, those of us studying traditional, academic subjects will be devalued and, eventually, put off education altogether.
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EMMA COLLINS
Merseyside