The true value of higher education | Letter
Hot on the heels of a report by the rightwing thinktank Policy Exchange arguing that "universities have lost the trust of the nation" comes research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies that says "One in five students would be financially better off if they skipped higher education" (Report, 29 February).
Putting aside the IFS's focus - and that of your article - on the fact that one-fifth of students don't benefit financially from earning a degree, rather than on the fact that four-fifths of students do benefit, the story taps into a narrow, instrumentalist view of the "value" of higher education that equates it not with personal development but solely with financial benefit. Quite why the research is described as "groundbreaking" is never made clear, but it will certainly have been warmly greeted by a government that is determined to further implant an overwhelmingly economistic logic in the higher education system in coming funding reforms.
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