Is a Degree worth it?
There is lots of talk about university fees at present. Will the UK move towards the USA system with universities free to charge students what the market will bear for tuition. If so, it would free universities from state control on numbers of students and generally require students to fund their own education. Of course, the universities would provide grants to high calibre students whose parents were of modest means. (Oxford University already supports 30% of it’s undergraduates through their bursary scheme).
But what are the implications of the USA system? In the USA university fees can be as high as £29,000 a year and so a student could emerge from university with a debt approaching £90,000. Continue Reading »
KPMG raises the stakes in search for talent
KPMG, the professional services firm, is extending its school leavers’ programme to Exeter and Birmingham Universities.
Students will enrol on Continue Reading »
University Admission – the future?
So, the latest thoughts from UCAS are that candidates may be limited to having two university choices instead of five and that sixth formers apply after they have their ‘A’ level results.
The current UCAS system is clearly creaking under the strain of the high number of applicants and a nine-month investigation into the system is about to commence. When UCAS started the system in 1961 there were 50,000 applicants, now the figure is circa 700,000 with one in three missing out on a place.
It would appear that Continue Reading »
is your degree worth it?
Research by the Centre for Market and Public Organisation at the University of Bristol found that law, economics and management were the most valuable subjects for study. The returns on science, technology, engineering and maths were lower and on humanities lower still.
An upper second-class degree Continue Reading »
Graduate Unemployment Conundrum
Over the last few years there has been a great deal of emphasis on the need for more science, engineering and technology graduates. Employers continually complain of a shortage of candidates with qualifications in the STEM subjects, (science, technology, engineering and maths), and yet some of these groups show high levels of unemployment.
For example, the group with the highest unemployment rate in the UK are Continue Reading »
Ideas on recruitment practice
How many applicants does an employer need to interview before being able to decide to offer a job? We know from research that the UK Civil Service has 100 applicants for a “Fast Stream” role for every job offer. For major banks and financial services organisations Continue Reading »
World University rankings under scrutiny
We await with interest the results of a new Academic Reputation Survey, launched by Thomson Reuters, which will help inform the Times Higher Education’s influential World University Rankings. The survey reflects a new approach to data gathering and analytics for the global scholarly community.
For the first time Continue Reading »