It is that time of year again. Across the country, young people are opening envelopes and checking screens while parents, teachers and friends wait beside them. For some, a university place will be the beginning of the life they have worked towards. For others, results day may bring disappointment, confusion or the uncomfortable feeling that everyone else is moving forward while they have been left behind.
In the middle of all the celebration, however, there is a question we rarely ask. When an 18-year-old accepts a university place, are they choosing the future that genuinely suits them, or are they stepping onto a road they have been told respectable and ambitious people are supposed to take?
A growing population of 18-year-olds
A record 262,820 UK 18-year-olds have secured a university or college place this year, an increase of around three per cent. The word “record” needs some explanation because Britain also has a growing population of 18-year-olds. Although the number gaining places has risen, the proportion entering higher education has slipped slightly to 31.6 per cent.
Even so, the direction of travel over the past few decades is unmistakable. In the late 1980s, only around 14 per cent of young people entered higher education. Almost half of English state-school pupils had done so by the age of 25 in 2022–23.
Much of that expansion deserves to be celebrated. University was once largely the territory of the wealthy and professional classes. Opening it to more people gave countless young adults opportunities their parents and grandparents never had. Britain needs doctors, scientists, engineers, teachers, lawyers and researchers, and these professions require substantial academic education.
University can also be valuable without leading directly to a particular salary. It can introduce people to new ideas, teach them to think independently and allow them to study something they love.
When an opportunity becomes an expectation
The difficulty begins when an opportunity becomes an expectation, and one respectable road becomes the measure by which every other choice is judged. University has gradually become the assumed destination for academically capable pupils. Schools proudly announce their university successes, while apprenticeships, technical colleges and direct entry into work often receive less attention. A young person who is gifted with their hands can be left feeling that learning a trade represents settling for something less.
There is also the fear of being left behind. Choosing not to attend university may mean watching friends move away, begin new lives and receive congratulations from everyone around them. At eighteen, it takes confidence to step away from that current, particularly when you do not yet have an alternative mapped out.
Some students undoubtedly go because they are passionate about their subject, but others may go because university feels safer than admitting that they do not know what they want to do.
The financial commitment deserves greater honesty. English universities can charge up to £9,790 a year for a full-time degree in 2026–27. A conventional three-year course can therefore create almost £30,000 in tuition borrowing before maintenance costs are included. Students must then pay rent, food, travel, household bills and course expenses. Average student rent has reached approximately £575 a month, while in London annual accommodation costs can consume the entire maintenance loan.
Student finance is not the same as an ordinary commercial loan
Under the current English system, graduates repay nine per cent of their earnings above £25,000, and outstanding balances are eventually written off. Nevertheless, for many it will remain an additional deduction from their earnings for much of their working lives.
We are asking people who may never have received a full wage or paid household bills to make a financial decision involving tens of thousands of pounds. Are schools, parents, universities and government explaining the consequences as enthusiastically as they describe the opportunities?
Universities themselves are caught within this arrangement. Lecturers must be paid, buildings maintained and research funded, while many institutions face serious financial pressure. Yet when universities depend upon tuition fees, accommodation income and the continued recruitment of students, education inevitably acquires some of the characteristics of a marketplace.
Institutions compete for applicants and sell not only courses but an experience, a lifestyle and the promise of a successful future. When an institution needs students financially, how readily will it tell an applicant that university may not be their best choice?
A degree still has considerable value. Government figures show that working-age graduates earned a median salary of £42,000 in 2024, compared with £30,500 for non-graduates. Graduates also had a higher employment rate. However, averages conceal enormous differences between courses, institutions, regions and individuals. Some graduates enter secure professions connected to their studies.
Others compete for jobs that do not require a degree or discover that employers also want experience, communication, initiative and practical ability. A degree remains valuable, but it is no longer a guarantee of well-paid or degree-related employment.
More emphasis on aptitude, attitude and demonstrable skills
The employment market is changing too. Some employers have removed rigid degree requirements and are placing greater emphasis on aptitude, attitude and demonstrable skills. This does not mean that companies have stopped valuing degrees. It means that possessing one may help someone through the door, but it does not necessarily prove what they can do once they arrive. In a rapidly changing economy, the ability to learn, communicate, solve problems and adapt may become as important as the original qualification.
When I recently asked an American businessman why his country was short of tradespeople, his answer was immediate: college. For a moment that seemed absurd. How could educating more people create a shortage of skills? His explanation was simple. College had become the normal destination for any child considered capable or ambitious, while learning a trade had quietly been pushed down the social ladder. Now those who could build, repair, wire and maintain the country were in short supply, and their value was rising accordingly.
Britain appears to be experiencing the same paradox. We face shortages of electricians, plumbers, carpenters, bricklayers and welders, yet starts among apprentices under the age of nineteen have fallen. A skilled worker in an area of genuine demand may now have better prospects than someone carrying an expensive qualification into an overcrowded employment market.
Young people deserve our congratulations
As university places are celebrated, those young people deserve our congratulations. But somewhere else, another young person may be beginning an apprenticeship, entering a technical college, starting work or admitting that they still do not know which direction to take. They deserve more than the consolation that university was not for them. They deserve to know that their road can be every bit as intelligent, ambitious and worthwhile.
We have not educated too many people. We have simply spent too long pretending that education takes place mainly in lecture halls. A society needs people who can think, but it also needs people who can make, mend, build, care and create.
The question should never be merely, “Which university are you going to?” It should be, “What kind of person do you want to become, and which road will genuinely help you get there?”
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