Why A-level joy may turn to despair for the graduates of tomorrow

Times

20 hours ago

There is much to celebrate in this year's A-level results. Teenagers across Britain have jumped for joy that record numbers are heading to university — with more than a quarter of a million being accepted into their first choice of university, a record 82 per cent. In total, 439,180 applicants have been accepted on to higher education courses. This year's students are the second cohort to have their grading returned to pre-pandemic standards across the board.
For those who achieved what they wanted, we offer many congratulations and good wishes for the next stage in your education. These results are a testament to the hard work put in by pupils, teachers, schools and their families. And for those who did not fulfil their expectations, they can take comfort in the fact that many who went on to great success did not boast academic prowess. Winston Churchill, for example, was a notoriously poor student and failed the entrance exam to Sandhurst twice. Jeremy Clarkson, who left school with a C and two Us at A-Level, has reminded us in his annual tradition on social media that his life has turned out rather well after all.
There are two notable shifts in this year's results. One is that boys have pulled ahead of girls: 9.9 per cent of their entries were marked grade A compared with 9.1 per cent for girls — the first time since 2018 that boys came ahead of their female counterparts. The other is that science subjects appear to be on the rise. Politicians have worried about the lack of appetite for science subjects but this year's results suggest otherwise. The Institute of Physics reports that the number of A-levels for the subject is the highest this century. This may be future-proofing their careers ahead.
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Yet the world that awaits this future graduate cohort is far from cheerful. Artificial intelligence is already threatening the market for entry-level jobs, with reports suggesting the number of openings has fallen by a third since the end of 2022. The chief executive of Anthropic, an AI company, has warned that half of entry-level white-collar jobs could be eliminated within the next five years. According to the Department for Education, degrees such as medicine and engineering have the highest salaries ten years after graduation. These are as good a bet as any against the gathering storm.
But what is just as concerning for new students is debt. The average pile accumulated at university is £53,000, a significantly higher level than graduates can expect to earn in salary for some time. Thanks to inflation, fees have been declining in real terms since 2012 and the cap on what institutions can charge will rise to £9,535. Thanks to the absurdly high interest charged, graduates face a de facto tax from the day they enter the workplace for decades ahead. More transparency is vital on the link between studies and earnings. The government has promised to make such data accessible, albeit with little progress. Pupils should be able to find out which degrees can benefit them the most.
The level of debt speaks to a wider rot within the universities sector. Ever since Tony Blair decreed in 1999 that he wanted 50 per cent of young adults to go into higher education, too many students have been studying degrees that are unlikely to reap great rewards — all propped up by ever-rising fees. A drop in international students will worsen the funding challenges. The UK can proudly claim some of the world's finest universities, but it is overdue a serious rethink about what is viable.