So I ask, are the hardships of endless hours in the library, late-night revision sessions for exams, and three years of countless all-nighters, not to mention the £20,000 worth of debt that has been endured by thousands in order to stand on that podium, all really worth it?
Yes, with that degree comes the life experience of living independently, an added qualification, and knowledge that can carry you through to your aspiration of becoming a doctor, a lawyer or a psychologist; but what use is that when there are no positions for you to fill? Having an outstanding CV is all well and good but with no-one to show it to, the best three years of your life are now more likely to end with moving back in with your parents, and job-hunting, job-hunting, job-hunting!
Another strike against the 500,000-strong army of graduates is the fact that it is no longer acceptable to just pass your degree. If you want to be in with a chance of beating the other 20,000 students who are graduating in English too, your minimum degree level has to be a 2:1! Seventy-eight percent of employers are drawing the line at anything below that grade in order to help narrow down possible applicants and successful candidates. If you don’t meet that mark, you have no hope.
Employers are also basing decisions on which university you graduated from, in a bid to distinguish among applicants, thereby putting the likes of Oxford and Cambridge at the top of the league table and dashing the hopes of thousands whose place of study didn’t fall into that category, regardless of the degree they achieved.
Although my cap and gown day won’t (hopefully!) be during the tail-end of an economic crisis, the knowledge that so few jobs are available to anyone, let alone graduates who won’t have had as much experience in the field they are entering, is very worrying. Particularly when the career you have chosen is highly competitive and you must be the best of the best to even get your foot in the door.
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