£50k student debt or a Love Island fortune?
The answer really is a no-brainer!
THERE was much criticism of the fact there were 85,000 applicants for this year’s series of Love Island in comparison to the 36,000 who applied to Oxbridge. Many have suggested this is a sad reflection of the brainless state of today’s young people for whom reality TV clearly holds far more appeal than higher education. However, I would argue that this statistic shows that university is no longer an economically viable option for many youngsters. I am 19, have completed my first year at university and am already all too aware of the life-long debt I am taking on in exchange for my degree. With those students who receive the highest maintenance loan looking at a future debt of more than £50,000, is it really any surprise that a reality show offering a £50,000 prize would be far more appealing? Rather than criticising those young people pursuing the fame, fortune and free holiday that Love Island promises, perhaps we should be calling on the Government to reduce tuition fees and make Oxbridge a realistic destination for all intellectually capable youngsters.
RACHEL CLAXTON, London SE9. I ACCOMPANIED my daughter on an open day to a middle-ranking university. An academic spoke to the parents and teenagers about life at the university and the challenges they would face as students. When he was asked if dropping a grade in one A-level would cost them their place at the university, he joked that the faculty would accept Green Shield stamps. My daughter immediately wrote it off as a potential place of learning.
MARTIN BIRTLE, Billingham, Co. Durham.
IT’S no surprise that there are unfilled places at top universities for courses that require students to work hard to get a degree worth having, that should secure them a well-paid job. Due to Tony Blair’s ridiculous policy that half of school leavers should study at third level, we have far too many students who are not up to university standard being conned into taking useless degrees — in subjects such as photography and dance — that don’t have an academic grounding. Unfortunate young people are left with a mountain of debt and a worthless degree. Only 10 to 15 per cent of school leavers are bright enough to study traditional academic subjects that produce degrees worth having.