Don’t hand Britain’s universities back to the elite | Gaby Hinsliff
How many graduates does it take to change a lightbulb? All of them, because it's the only job they'll get. Ho, ho. Except it's not remotely funny to anyone who left university in the last seven years, or to all those soon-to-be freshers currently being dragged round Ikea by their mums, loading up on duvets and kettles. As jokes go, it feels uncomfortably near the truth.
Half of those graduating in 2010 ended up doing what have traditionally been seen as non-graduate jobs, according to a report this week from the Chartered Institute for Personnel Development (CIPD). As some future graduates are still scrabbling through clearing, the spectre hovers of a generation plunging itself deep into debt, just to end up serving lattes and manning call centres - and inadvertently elbowing less qualified kids out of a job. This is bewildering territory for those of us raised to see university as an unquestionable good: not just the golden key that would unlock all doors but a milestone in a family's life, a symbol of something much bigger.
Related: UK graduates are wasting degrees in lower-skilled jobs
For many recruiters degrees have just become a crude filter, an easy way of halving the tottering stack of CVs
Related: It's a degree, not a ticket to a job | Kehinde Andrews
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