‘A job may be better than going to university’
Barnaby Lenon called for a big increase in vocational and work-based training
Times photographer, Tom Pilston
1 of 1Barnaby Lenon called for a big increase in vocational and work-based training Times photographer, Tom Pilston
Some students would be better off getting a job than going to university, the former head master of Harrow has said.
Barnaby Lenon called for a big increase in vocational and work-based training to match the expansion in numbers going to university.
“There are more than 200,000 undergraduates studying communications, marketing, art and design and business, and it is hard to believe that some of those — not all of those — would not actually have been better prepared for the job market doing vocational on-the-job training,” he said.
“University is not always the best route to a fulfilling job or maximising your job prospects. I come out of the independent sector and I would say the same thing to any student from any school or any walk of life: don’t go blindly down any one alley, but think carefully about the merits and limitations of each route to success.”
Mr Lenon, who is chairman of the Independent Schools Council, said: “The expansion of university education has been an incredibly good thing. I hope that it continues.
“Equally, I hope that the opportunity for good vocational education and apprenticeships grows as rapidly as university education grew in the 2000s, because for some people a more vocational course allied to work experience is a better preparation for the career they want to do than a university degree only remotely linked to their main interest in life.”
He was speaking after taking part in a student debate at the Oxford Union in which he opposed a motion that a university education was a right rather than a privilege. He said: “Taking it in the usual way people interpret rights and privilege, of course going to university is not a right and of course going to a university like Oxford is a privilege, and all the students knew it, and that’s why we won the debate.”
Mr Lenon’s comments came as it emerged that universities had built up record cash piles since their fees trebled to £9,000 a year. They accumulated cash surpluses of almost 6 per cent, about twice the norm, after the Government’s decision to raise the cap on undergraduate fees.
The figure was revealed by Steve Egan, acting chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, who said that building up large war chests enabled universities to benefit from cheap access to borrowing as banks were willing to lend them money at historically low interest rates.
The admission comes at a sensitive time as leading vice-chancellors have begun to lobby for the right to charge even higher fees.
The higher-education sector is also bracing itself for budget cuts after the general election and had to fend off claims from the Treasury during this year’s spending round that universities were “awash with cash”.
Mr Egan, who was addressing the funding council’s annual meeting in London yesterday, said that universities had faced claims that some might go bust as the Government ushered in market-style reforms to their funding and admissions. He displayed a series of slides that showed that universities had actually built up bigger cash piles than at any point in their history.
“We should be pleased that the sector has produced strong financial results when there was a concern that that would not happen,” Mr Egan said. “Most parts of the economy have accumulated cash — it is a sensible thing to do, it is how you manage risk, and with the increases in volatility of income, it is entirely to be expected.”
Vice-chancellors are urging the Government to raise the cap on fees again after the election. Professor Andrew Hamilton, vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, called last month for the ability to charge fees closer to the £16,000-a-year cost of teaching an undergraduate at Oxford.
Barnaby Lenon called for a big increase in vocational and work-based training to match the expansion in numbers going to university.
“There are more than 200,000 undergraduates studying communications, marketing, art and design and business, and it is hard to believe that some of those — not all of those — would not actually have been better prepared for the job market doing vocational on-the-job training,” he said.
“University is not always the best route to a fulfilling job or maximising your job prospects. I come out of the independent sector and I would say the same thing to any student from any school or any walk of life: don’t go blindly down any one alley, but think carefully about the merits and limitations of each route to success.”
Mr Lenon, who is chairman of the Independent Schools Council, said: “The expansion of university education has been an incredibly good thing. I hope that it continues.
“Equally, I hope that the opportunity for good vocational education and apprenticeships grows as rapidly as university education grew in the 2000s, because for some people a more vocational course allied to work experience is a better preparation for the career they want to do than a university degree only remotely linked to their main interest in life.”
He was speaking after taking part in a student debate at the Oxford Union in which he opposed a motion that a university education was a right rather than a privilege. He said: “Taking it in the usual way people interpret rights and privilege, of course going to university is not a right and of course going to a university like Oxford is a privilege, and all the students knew it, and that’s why we won the debate.”
Mr Lenon’s comments came as it emerged that universities had built up record cash piles since their fees trebled to £9,000 a year. They accumulated cash surpluses of almost 6 per cent, about twice the norm, after the Government’s decision to raise the cap on undergraduate fees.
The figure was revealed by Steve Egan, acting chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, who said that building up large war chests enabled universities to benefit from cheap access to borrowing as banks were willing to lend them money at historically low interest rates.
The admission comes at a sensitive time as leading vice-chancellors have begun to lobby for the right to charge even higher fees.
The higher-education sector is also bracing itself for budget cuts after the general election and had to fend off claims from the Treasury during this year’s spending round that universities were “awash with cash”.
Mr Egan, who was addressing the funding council’s annual meeting in London yesterday, said that universities had faced claims that some might go bust as the Government ushered in market-style reforms to their funding and admissions. He displayed a series of slides that showed that universities had actually built up bigger cash piles than at any point in their history.
“We should be pleased that the sector has produced strong financial results when there was a concern that that would not happen,” Mr Egan said. “Most parts of the economy have accumulated cash — it is a sensible thing to do, it is how you manage risk, and with the increases in volatility of income, it is entirely to be expected.”
Vice-chancellors are urging the Government to raise the cap on fees again after the election. Professor Andrew Hamilton, vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, called last month for the ability to charge fees closer to the £16,000-a-year cost of teaching an undergraduate at Oxford.
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