Since the introduction of undergraduate tuition fees in 1998, higher education in Britain has gradually become more of an investment than Newman’s (1996) theoretical “intellectual training” which aims at producing “gentlemen”. With monetary elements now blending in, people may embrace higher education out of the customary rationale that, the higher degree one earns, the higher salary he will obtain. However, ‘graduatisation’ of occupation, a current trend described as “[a phenomenon where] graduates are occupying more and more jobs that were once occupied by their non-graduate parents” (CIPD, 2016), has challenged the preconceived philosophy.
Responding to this new tendency, questions emerge: Why do graduates slide into non-graduate occupations? In what dimensions will the perceived devaluation of bachelor’s degrees influence higher education? To what extent will the skills mismatch affect job applicants? To answer these questions accordingly from an economic perspective, this essay will examine catalysts to this cascade in degree hierarchy in the first half, while the following part attempts to discuss the implications for higher education, as well as for graduates and non-graduates in their transition into the labour market.
Factors
Supply and demand imbalance between graduate applicants and the corresponding positions explains the over-qualification and under-utilization simultaneously happening to 50% UK graduates (Holmes & Mayhew, 2015) in the labour market.
Getting a “good” job is not straightforward as it used to be. In past generations, someone in an entry-level position could work their way up the ladder simply through hard work and determination; whether or not one had credentials or a diploma mattered very little. This is not the case today. Higher education is now critical to obtaining a better job because the demand for skilled labor is rising. For this reason, the value that a degree offers is higher than that of one’s actual intelligence or merit. Furthermore, workers without college degrees will quickly be outpaced in position and salary by degree
The type and level of the school, the chosen major, and the cost of the college are all greatly defined dimensions. Data from a Baccalaureate and Beyond Survey calculated that the only difference between the earnings for a bachelor’s degree and a high school graduate’s lifetime earnings is the degree itself. Additionally, private school students may earn more in a lifetime, but will end up paying more for admission. Although they are making more earnings, their opportunity costs are much higher, making their return on investment lower. Selection of one’s major acts in this same way. The authors explain that the major that is paid the highest is “engineering, followed by computers and math. The lowest paid major… is education, followed by the arts and psychology
Many college students choose to also get more than one degree while attending college to earn more income and further their education. College graduates have the choice of get higher level degrees and training resulting in earn even more income based on the different higher level degrees earned and training received (this means the more degrees and training you have the more income you may receive). People with higher level degrees and training earn more money that those without degrees. In 1996, for example, workers with bachelor's degrees had median annual earnings of about $36,000, while college graduates with more advanced degrees earned around $40,000 (Mittelhauser 3). This is a four-thousand dollar difference in income; this is only one of several examples of how people who graduate college make more money than the average high school graduate and that of people with lower-level degrees. The median annual wage for a bachelor’s degree in 2010 was $63,430. While the median annual wage for a person with a doctoral or professional degree in 2010 was $87,500 ("Employment by Education and Training Assignment, 2010 and Projected 2020"). This is almost a twenty-four thousand difference income just based off of median annual wage of different degrees. The income difference from college graduates than to those of high school graduates is great. College graduates are getting better wages and job openings than those of high school graduates (“President’s Perspective:
Lack of proper career planning is attributed to poor performance of graduates. Moreover, lack of on-the-job training lead to poorly trained graduates who lack expertise to deliver in the expected industry. Therefore, a university graduate is expected to earn a degree that should translate to higher work opportunities and pay. For example, the rates of salaries range from $55,000 among engineering majors compared to 30,000 per year for majors in arts, education, and psychology.
College graduates, on average, make a whopping one million dollars more in lifetime earnings than those with a high school diploma. Those with a college degree now make $17,500 more per year than those without — a wage gap that's doubled in recent decades. Those without a degree are four times more likely to be unemployed.One of the biggest and most important reasons for anyone to attend college is the upper hand it gives with regards to jobs and career. A college graduate has a higher chance of landing a job when compared to an individual with a high school qualification. Further, a college graduate also has better options and opportunities to progress in their
In today’s society, a college degree has become a requirement in order to obtain a well occupied profession. Prior to the recession, which the study defines as the period between December 2007 and June 2009, bachelor's graduates were already more likely to be employed than were associate degree holders, who were more likely to be employed than those without any postsecondary degree. After the recession, employment of college graduates dropped 7 percent, while associate degree holders experienced an 11 percent drop, and employment of high school graduates fell 16 percent. The percent of people excluded from the workforce, meaning they were seeking work but couldn’t find it, rose 31 percent for college graduates, 37 percent for high school graduates, and 50 percent for associate degree graduates, though associate degree holders were still excluded at a lower rate than high school graduates (Tilsley, 2013).
A college education is necessary to get a job that pays well, or to get any good job. Any, and every job that is ‘worth’ having requires some type of higher education, whether it relates to the job or to show general experience, a degree is required. “This calls for greater access to a college or university
Today, degrees are reflecting strongly on people’s lives. The cost of college has become too high for every student or parent to afford, which makes it impossible for everyone to obtain a degree. College level has become too tough and beyond student’s reach and abilities, not anyone who obtaining a degree can get through other majors, such as physics or math, degrees don’t evaluate your skills neither your efforts. For the most important, jobs in our market have been evaluating their applicants’ qualifications through their degrees. Degrees demand beyond the reach of people’s abilities and solutions should be suggested to undermine degrees as a job qualification.
In the competitive world today, having a college degree might not benefit a student as much as before, thus opening up numerous questions concerning its necessity. Not only is the number of students desperately trying to enroll in college increasing, but the tuition shoots up as well. However, will college enrollment necessarily be enough to increase your chances of attaining job security? The answer is hotly debated amongst adults and students alike, which opens up the second option for students, that is, joining the work force. Although this option is generally shunned by the new generation, the tough economy and slow restoration makes it quite a desirable choice at the moment. Joining the work force is a hard decision to make as it
Supporters of getting a college degree often point to the statistics that college graduates earn more than their high school educated peers over a lifetime. Statistics by the U.S. Census Bureau reports that since 1977, “Adults with bachelor's degrees in the late 1970s earned 55 percent more than adults who had not advanced beyond high school. That gap grew to 75 percent by 1990 -- and is now at 85 percent.” A gap of an 85% pay difference is a huge figure and a clear reason why college is a great option for some people. But there are problems with that figure because when the number of college graduates who are either unemployed or underemployed is taken into account it changes the value of the statistic. In an article by Businessweek’s Richard Vedder we get statistics to counter that argument. He tells of how the number of new college graduates far exceeds job growth in technical, managerial, and professional jobs where graduates traditionally have searched for employment. As a consequence, we have underemployed college graduates doing jobs historically performed by those with just a highschool education. He says we have “more than 100,000 janitors with
The switch between an industrial economy to our present-day knowledge economy has been brought about by the massification of higher education participation. As a result of this massification, a bachelor's degree can no longer earn the same kind of job as it could a few decades ago. The difference is seen even more strongly with high school diplomas, as “at the turn of the 19th century, when high school degrees were held by less than 10% of the population, they were badges of middle class respectability and until mid century conferred access to even managerial jobs.” (Collins, 2011: 228)The term coined with this phenomenon is credential inflation. People now have to have higher education in order to remain competitive and gain a high status job. A given level of education once gave access to elite jobs, as education attainment has expanded, the importance of
Furthermore, Nicholson and West (1990) argue that ‘in spite of research showing that moving from education to employment is typically not traumatic, it is probably the case that, on average, young people making a first transition from (full-time) education to (full-time) employment will have more learning to do than more experienced job-changers.’ (Arnold, 1997 pp.167-168.) Therefore, they have developed a ‘Transition Cycle,’ which involves four phases:
Since the massification of higher education in the 1970s, figure shows that the participation rate in higher education in the UK has reached over 48% in 2015, i.e., around two million students will hold graduate degrees embarking onto the labour market in two years. Subsequently, queries may emerge: is the market capable of absorbing so many graduates? Will there be enough suitable jobs matching the skills these graduates possess? With what occupations do the graduate reside?
It is of certain that across Europe young people are calculating between joining degree courses and other activities. In the European region, attainment of university degrees does not mean direct employment for graduates. Graduates in the European region may consider paying over 9000 pounds. With unemployment levels across Europe on a dramatic decrease over the last decades means that the entry level for graduate has been on a decrease (Reay, David & Ball, 2005). Across the region, many students will be way up their studies before they realize that their degrees will not give them a comparative advantage.
In today’s’ society, success is often measured by academic and professional achievement. Higher education provides more opportunity and freedom. Statistics verify that generally, the more highly educated have higher earnings and there is a significant difference between wages earned by employees with College degrees and those without. Higher education is often perceived as a means to a ‘better life’ .Though many recognize the benefits of higher education, the rate at which students leave in their first year of College is still very high. Students leave their first year of College for