‘MY DAUGHTER’S EXPERIENCE HAS MADE ME QUESTION THE POINT OF HIGHER EDUCATION’

KATH BROWN, 57, LONDON

Every time a vice chancellor brazenly states that students have been getting value for money through the pandemic it makes my blood boil: last month, my daughter, Gracie, who is in her third year studying English at the University of Liverpool, wrote her 10,000-word dissertation with no faceto-face support or access to the library.

We bought the books that she needed on Amazon, on top of the cost of the student accommodation that she has hardly set foot in.

To have her freedom curtailed has been challenging for both her and her dad and me. She wants to live her life as young adults do, whereas we would quite like to not have loud 21-yearolds meeting up in our garden.

The whole experience has really made me question the point of university, and we’re seriously looking at the alternatives for my son Freddie, who is 17.

We went to loads of open days when choosing a course for Gracie, and all the unis are so clever at marketing themselves – but the pandemic has shown that most are unwilling to deliver.