Spectator letters: Degrees, dishwashers, and charity catfights

What’s a degree worth?

Sir: Mark Mason’s article (‘Uni’s out’, 24 January) hits the nail on the head. A brief addendum: it is generally stated that graduates earn more over a lifetime than non-graduates — obviously a selling point to would-be students. This claim may be true in a very crude sense, but is meaningless without certain crucial caveats.

The main caveats are so obvious they barely need stating. It depends what you study (e.g. medicine vs media studies) and what university you go to. It depends on what class of degree you get (a lower second or less may prove a disqualification for entry to many professions and jobs). Finally — an obvious piece of economics — the more graduates there are, the lower their value is likely to become. To ignore these factors gives an inaccurate if not dishonest picture of the supposed financial benefits of a university education. Sadly many students are likely to end up with nothing more than a horrendous debt hanging over their heads and a loss of three or four years of earning capacity and real world experience.