The Government would like us to believe that high tution fees will not deter people from applying to University. But with graduates likely be burdened with around £60,000 debt, it is clear that many will be hesitating before embarking on a degree.

With a stagnating economy, the graduate jobs market is likely to remain becalmed. Not only will salaries be depressed, particularly at entry level, but post-graduate unemployment is likely to remain high. Most will carry eye-popping levels of debt, without a clue as to how it can ever be paid off.

With post-graduate options denuded, university may come to be regarded as less of the sure-fire route to success it was historically deemed to represent. Students and parents will begin to doubt the absolute necessity of a degree, whether it might be better to go later, or not go at all. Colleges offering vocatioanl courses are sure to benfit from this reckoning, with arts and humanities being viewed as luxury options. And many debt-squeezed students are likely to remain under their parents roof.

With job insecurity a given, the classic ‘school-university-job for life’ model will be called into question and young people will begin to think and act less predictably, perhaps by first amassing savings and experience in a career.

Picking up genuine business skills and knowledge, combined with a targeted course such as an HND in Business, may not only be a cheaper option but also the one giving the greater chance of success.

Moreover, with the increasing range and sophistication of courses online, study through distance learning is growing in popularity. Students have no need to slog across town to get to school, and can study at a time that suits them.

Similarly, students need not simply go to university to study – and then stop once they leave. E-learning, by removing the necessity of the physical classroom, is also removing the need to take devoted ‘time-out’ to apply themselves to the business of getting educated.

With debt and uncertainty looming large in their futures, a generation is re-writing the norms of study in freer and less structured terms. The changes will equip them with a more practical outlook – and far less debt.

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