The Class of 2006 heralds a new era in higher education. The days of free higher education are long gone and from now on students who enter into contracts with their universities will demand value for money, good teaching and good accommodation.
In this new marketplace, where the student is the customer, universities will come under scrutiny as never before and be challenged if the results are less than their clients expect. From September, all bar three of England’s universities will be charging tuition fees of £3,000 a year, payable after graduation. Few expect this rate to remain beyond 2009, when it will come under review again and could see the cap on fees removed. Research universities have pressed for a minimum of £5,000.
Although the fees will be paid upfront in a loan by the Government, graduates are expected to pay them off only when they are earning more than £15,000. Banks estimate that total student debts will rise to between £20,000 and £30,000 by 2009, which most will be paying off until their mid-thirties.
In spite of the looming bills and graduate pay having fallen relative to previous years, the financial, social and academic rewards of a university education are still high. Financially, graduates are still earning at least £150,000 more in today’s money than non-graduates over a lifetime. Most top businesses demand degrees before they will look twice at you.
However, the costs of choosing the wrong degree and dropping out before the course is over are also higher. Should you fail to earn the points for your first choice, think twice before diving to the phone and opting for the first clearing university that will take you. A year out to resit a module or two at a crammer may be a better option in the long term.
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Naturally, demand for a university place has slipped a little after last year’s record 404,668 applicants rushed to escape the introduction of top-up fees. But by the June 30 deadline more than 387,000 young people had applied to study for a degree. While clearing becomes less significant with each year, as grades improve and more achieve their preferred choice, 37,197 applicants also successfully found a place this way last summer despite disappointing grades. The same number make deferred applications and will now embark on a gap year.
The Times Student Guide offers a cornucopia of advice, whichever route you choose. For those celebrating hard-won success, it is a handy aid to juggling your finances, surviving freshers’ week, finding part-time work, eating healthily and knowing where to pick up cheap lighting and furniture for your rooms.
For “gappers” there are myriad options available at home and abroad. Many providers, only too aware of the students’ need to find a job after university, are now offering work experience to kick- start a compelling CV, with opportunities in Honduran television, fashion magazines in Shanghai or as UK carers.
Universities are enthusiastic supporters of the gap year, believing that gappers arrive more prepared for student life. Employers consider that time out from studying helps young people to develop the key social skills that they will need for a job, before they get down to studying.
For those of you who discover today that your results are not quite what you had expected, there are two options available to you to find a place this autumn. If your grades are only slightly below the conditional offer at one of your preferred universities, contact the admissions tutors to see if you will be accepted anyway.
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If this works, then you can sit back and prepare for your new life as an undergraduate. If not, and you have ruled out resits and a gap year, turn your mind to clearing (see opposite and pages 16-21).
Above all, remember that the student customer is now king in the new top-up fees market. “Student satisfaction” are the buzzwords on campus — be it the quality of teaching or the price of union beer. In reflecting this, The Times Good University Guide (see panel left) has this year included a “student satisfaction” measure for the first time.
The results were drawn from a government-backed survey of 170,000 final-year students, who were asked to grade the quality of teaching, level of feedback and support available, the state of facilities and overall satisfaction with their degree. Although Oxford, Cambridge and Warwick refused to take part and Scottish universities were not included, the resulting rankings threw up some surprising names.
The best universities included Loughborough, Lampeter, Leicester, East Anglia, Lancaster, Chichester, Chester, Royal Holloway, York and Aberystwyth. The least satisfied included students at Middlesex, Brunel, Luton, Greenwich, University of Central England, Westminster, Sunderland, Leeds Metropolitan and Kingston.
Already these indicators have become a key measure of value for money, to which universities in the brave new world of top-up fees will be forced to react or find themselves losing out. Last year, Britain’s universities had to pay £260,000 to students over complaints largely concerning unhappiness about academic standards or grades.
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But finally remember that for all the concern about repaying your debts, two million people in higher education cannot be wrong. Graduates earn a great deal more over their lifetimes, make lifelong friends and can take on challenges in a way that is virtually impossible at any other point in life.
The Richard Bransons and Alan Sugars of this world prove that you can make it without a degree, but it is much harder and, once you have weighed which course you wish to study and why, you will have much more fun.