[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by danielf

True, but the main point I was making is that most of continental Europe is subsidising Higher Education from general taxation, presumably in recognition of the economic benefits of an educated workforce. We are moving away from that, and I am wondering how wise that is given global economic developments. As has been remarked earlier, we don't need an all-graduates workforce, we need binmen as well. Let's just hope we're not making Higher Education so expensive that we end up with a workforce of just binmen, as that makes no economic sense whatsoever.

This would depend entirely on the degree being done.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/lif...cle6829650.ece

A report for Universities UK by PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2007 maintained that degrees were still a sound financial investment. Their figures were based on an estimated “graduate premium”: what a graduate could expect to earn over their lifetime as opposed to an “equivalent” person with two or more A-levels.

On average, the graduate premium was £160,000. But, the more vocational a degree, the greater the benefits. Medicine and dentistry graduates could expect a £340,000 graduate premium; engineering graduates, £243,730; European- language graduates, £96,261; and arts graduates, a paltry £36,949. Whether these figures still hold true in a recession is not clear.

http://www.personneltoday.com/articl...year-high.html