What Parents want ... What Children want ...

Recent research shows that parents' views on what an ideal job might be differs from their children's ideas. Funny that ...

Are we getting the jobs of our dreams?

A recent infographic published in the i newspaper reported that less than a third of the UK's workforce thinks that they're in the "right" job ...

Students are over-paying their loans

£28.5m in student loan over-payments has been unclaimed by graduates. In a nine-year period, around 500,000 former students overpaid on their student loans, paying on average nearly £600 more than they owed. Over-payments are made due to the way information is shared about loan repayments. Traditionally, the Student Loan Company has received repayment information once a year, at the end of the tax year in April. This means that if a graduate repaid their loans during the tax year, for example in November, they will have been making over-payments for the rest of that tax year.

And the most desirable employer is ...

Universum Global has published its annual Global Talent Survey which found that Google is the UK’s most desirable company to work for by graduates for the 7th consecutive year. Universum studied 39,500 students from 97 UK universities. Google has widened its applicant pool from STEM graduates with Humanities and Law students both ranking it in their top two and four companies to work for respectively.

An end to Predicted Grades?

Labour has said that it would scrap university places being offered on the basis of predicted grades and bring in a system of applying after results, calling the current system "deeply unfair". Research by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills in 2011 found that 51.7% of predictions were accurate, with 41.7% being over-predicted and 6.6% under-predicted. Black applicants had the lowest percentage accuracy with only 39.1% of grades accurately predicted, while white applicants had the highest-grade prediction accuracy at 53%.

Grade inflation at universities

The Office for Students (OfS) has said that the proportion of students awarded first-class degrees continues to increase, rising by 80% since 2010-11 It has warned that for almost three-quarters of universities, such increases in top grades are "unexplained". Susan Lapworth, director of competition for the OfS, said, "Worries about grade inflation threaten to devalue a university education in the eyes of employers and potential students." Over 40,000 more students graduated with "firsts" last summer than seven years before.

The study also looked at those awarded either first or 2:1s. At Bristol University 92% of students are awarded either a first or 2:1 and at Cambridge 94%. There have also been big increases in the proportion of students awarded these two top grades despite beginning university with relatively low A-level grades. Among those going to university with grades below DDD at A-level, seven years ago 40% were awarded the top two grades, this has risen to above 70%.

Record numbers apply to university

Record numbers of English 18 year olds have applied to university. UCAS figures show that 236,350 school leavers, 40% in total, had applied by the end of June, 3,970 more than in 2018. However, the number of 18 year olds in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland applying for degrees has fallen. Across the UK as a whole, 275,520 young people applied to university this year, up from 272,910 in 2018, but down from 278,130 in 2017. There were record numbers of black, Asian and mixed-race applicants, while the number of white applicants continues to fall. Surprisingly, the number of applicants, across all age groups, from the EU rose by 540 from 50,120 in 2018 to 50,660 this year. There was also a rise in applicants from outside the EU applying to UK universities to 81,340, an increase of 8%.