Negative political point-scoring demands a well-evidenced response

The recent announcement by the government of measures designed to crack down on quality in English universities was given a bit of vigorous spin.

Despite mainly focussing on re-announcing something that is already part of the English regulatory system, it was clearly felt by some in government that turning universities into a wedge issue would confer advantage in the by-elections in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, Somerton and Frome and Selby and Ainsty. This is a tactic that worked well in the US, where higher education issues are part of the partisan divide.

Ironically, the kerfuffle allowed us to use valuable airtime to explain how universities safeguard quality and how the regulator is rightly there as a backstop if they don’t do that effectively. But, as several commentators have pointed out, there is a risk that the rhetoric about “rip off universities” puts off people who stand to benefit from a degree taking that path.

It is unlikely that middle-class kids, whose parents often went to university, will be dissuaded. When I went to university, I vividly remember my mother telling me that my degree – English – would open doors. As the first in her family to go to university, she knew that a degree gave you options you wouldn’t otherwise have; hers had taken her, the eldest child of a widowed health visitor, to a director of public health role in the NHS. But other potential first-generation students and those from more deprived backgrounds may well be put off – as might mature learners.

But electoral politics shouldn’t distract us from the genuine issues. There is legitimate interest in whether the university sector is upholding standards and whether going to university represents a wise choice. We must take the concerns seriously and counter the “rip-off” claims with evidence that a degree represents a valuable investment both for the individual and for wider society.

For this reason, Universities UK asked 7,000 graduates and senior managers who had been involved in hiring graduates what they thought. Unlike the official graduate outcomes data, which is based on a snapshot survey conducted just 15 months after graduation, we looked at those who had graduated over a longer period, including people at an advanced stage in their careers.

The results were overwhelmingly positive. Going to university is credited by 78 per cent with enabling them to get the job they wanted; more than a quarter of respondents had gained a job through a direct contact from university, such as a work placement.

Moreover, 97 per cent of managerial staff polled said that graduates progress and reach senior positions faster than non-graduates, and about two-thirds of senior managers agreed that going to university enabled them to rise to a senior position more quickly.

It is significant that the self-reported impact via our survey is consistent with national-level data. Studies conducted on behalf of the Department for Education found that university graduates who were eligible for free school meals are more likely to enter the top 20 per cent of earnings at age 30 than free school meal students who did not attend university.

Earnings, however, are only one measure of the value of a degree. I strongly believe that we ought to take a broader view of whether a university education is worthwhile. Higher education also confers benefits even when – perhaps particularly when – individual financial returns are low.

Those who work in charities or public sector professions may not earn huge salaries, but our society would be in a terrible state without them. Our towns and cities would be less prosperous places without the expert curators who run museums. And in this complicated and dangerous world of ours, we probably need more people who study history and other languages, not fewer of them.

The important thing is that students make well-informed choices, based on the things that matter to them. The UK university system has 2.8 million students, 30,000 courses and more than 400 providers of higher education – of which only about 150 have the protected “university” title. Choosing which course to study is a high-stakes decision, and there are certainly some students for whom studying doesn’t work out the way they hoped.

But if you are smart enough to go to university, you are smart enough to weigh up the evidence for yourself. There is good impartial information available via Ucas and the Discover Uni website to help you understand what those who studied a particular course have gone on to do and what they thought of their student experience.

Universities should direct applicants to those sources and continue to counter political point-scoring with well-evidenced point-making.

Vivienne Stern is chief executive of Universities UK.