:00:03. > :00:08.Hello, and welcome to Inside Out South West. Tonight, we are donning
:00:08. > :00:12.our caps and gowns for a University Challenge. Our starter for 10, will
:00:12. > :00:18.your degree get you the job of your dreams? In hindsight, I wish I
:00:18. > :00:24.hadn't bothered with it, because I'm now in 20 grand's worth of debt.
:00:24. > :00:27.I'll have to hurry you! Alvin Hall investigates new fees system.
:00:27. > :00:32.going to show you what a degree can really cost and how you can avoid
:00:32. > :00:42.those fees altogether. And, no conferring, are A-level students
:00:42. > :00:42.
:00:42. > :00:52.being put off university? See what our exclusive survey says. I'm Sam
:00:52. > :00:58.
:00:58. > :01:01.Smith and this is Inside Out South West. Going to university is a
:01:01. > :01:04.pleasure and a privilege but with fees set to rise to up to �9,000 a
:01:04. > :01:07.year, value-for-money is now an important factor for many people.
:01:07. > :01:17.So, we have been examining the best and the worst courses to take in
:01:17. > :01:20.
:01:20. > :01:25.the South West if you want a leg up the career ladder. 1, 2, 3... All
:01:25. > :01:29.the hard work is over. These graduates from Plymouth University
:01:29. > :01:32.are celebrating their greatest achievement so far. Now students
:01:32. > :01:39.everywhere are finding out if their degree will get them the job of
:01:39. > :01:43.their dreams. Studies show that graduates earn around �100,000 more
:01:43. > :01:45.across their working lives than people without degrees. But a
:01:45. > :01:49.recent survey from the Office for National Statistics found 20% of
:01:49. > :01:54.graduates earn less than �10 an hour - what they would have earned
:01:54. > :02:02.without a degree. So some are asking, is my degree going to be
:02:02. > :02:07.worth the time and money? Donna Newman graduated from Exeter
:02:07. > :02:12.University last year with a 2:1 in archaeology. But jobs in the field
:02:12. > :02:18.are few and far between. So for the last 12 months, she's been cleaning
:02:18. > :02:20.in a hospital. When I first started this job, I was a little
:02:20. > :02:25.apprehensive. Obviously, as a graduate I hadn't expected get a
:02:25. > :02:29.job as a cleaner or anything like that. But it's grown on me and I do
:02:29. > :02:34.actually enjoy it. The most part I enjoy being with the patients, so
:02:34. > :02:37.it has opened up my eyes. Donna says she was told the best way into
:02:37. > :02:40.her career was a university degree. But despite doing some work
:02:40. > :02:47.placements, she says she's come out over-qualified and under-
:02:47. > :02:50.experienced. I was advised this was the best option for me and at 16/17,
:02:50. > :02:53.when you're looking are trying to get to do something for your career,
:02:53. > :02:59.obviously you're going to listen to what people tell you because you
:02:59. > :03:05.put your trust in them to advise you correctly. Ambition thwarted,
:03:05. > :03:08.she's now Disillusioned and in debt. I've learned the hard way that you
:03:08. > :03:18.shouldn't listen to everybody else because a lot of it, I thought now,
:03:18. > :03:19.
:03:19. > :03:22.Is lying because there is absolutely no opportunity at all.
:03:22. > :03:27.In hindsight, I wish I hadn't bothered with it, because it hasn't
:03:27. > :03:31.benefited me. In fact, it's left me worse off. I've used all my savings
:03:31. > :03:34.that I had a university. There's only so far a loan will stretch.
:03:34. > :03:39.I'm now in 20 grand's worth of debt and there are less opportunities
:03:39. > :03:42.available to me. Part of me in a way hopes that I never earn enough
:03:42. > :03:51.because I don't want to pay for the experience I had at university
:03:51. > :03:54.because, like I said, it hasn't benefited me. So, with fees rising,
:03:54. > :04:01.should students take a more hard- headed approach to their futures,
:04:01. > :04:05.and choose subjects where jobs are plentiful, and rewards are high?
:04:05. > :04:08.One academic economist says they should. Professor Ian Walker's
:04:08. > :04:10.studied long-term graduate earnings, and found that those who did law,
:04:10. > :04:17.economics and management are way ahead of arts and humanities
:04:17. > :04:24.students, often by hundreds of thousands of pounds. Yet Professor
:04:24. > :04:26.Walker says many students barely think about their future prospects.
:04:26. > :04:31.Students' choices are remarkably insensitive to the earnings
:04:31. > :04:33.differentials that they're going to face. It could be they simply don't
:04:33. > :04:36.know and I think that careers officers, teachers and institutions
:04:36. > :04:46.themselves have to put some effort into making students aware of the
:04:46. > :04:51.
:04:51. > :04:56.consequences of their choices. So, one explanation is that they just
:04:56. > :05:04.don't know. Don't care? And the other is they don't care. I worry
:05:04. > :05:07.that they don't care is a dominant part of the explanation. So how
:05:07. > :05:13.well are our graduates from our local universities doing, judged by
:05:13. > :05:15.jobs and earnings after six months.? Our research shows the
:05:15. > :05:22.only degree choices with zero unemployment and with every
:05:22. > :05:25.graduate employed in their chosen field were medicine and dentistry.
:05:25. > :05:35.An average starting salary of �30,000 made it the highest paid
:05:35. > :05:35.
:05:35. > :05:42.area too. Second was nursing, with unemployment at 4%. The rest were
:05:42. > :05:45.in their chosen jobs. Although the average salary was lower at �21,000.
:05:45. > :05:50.Third was initial teacher Training - only 5% of the Plymouth
:05:50. > :05:52.University students were out of work at the six month mark. And
:05:52. > :05:56.nearly everyone in work was teaching, earning �21,000 on
:05:56. > :05:58.average. Computer science, economics and engineering graduates
:05:58. > :06:08.were also highly successful, earning around �18,000 within six
:06:08. > :06:09.
:06:09. > :06:14.months. Some of those engineers may work here, at Centrax, whose giant
:06:14. > :06:17.gas turbines light up cities around the world. This one, being tested
:06:17. > :06:21.by graduate Steve Richards, is going to Russia. It's big enough to
:06:21. > :06:26.power Newton Abbot, where it's been made. Steve's an apprentice who
:06:26. > :06:30.then went to university - and he's still paying for his degree. Yeah,
:06:30. > :06:33.I still have my student loan. The exact amount I couldn't tell you,
:06:33. > :06:37.it comes out of your pay, depending what your pay package is, but I
:06:37. > :06:43.think I'll be paying off for a while yet. He says a degree is not
:06:43. > :06:46.the only, or even the best, route to an engineering career. I would
:06:46. > :06:50.say personally an apprenticeship, because you have a trade behind you,
:06:50. > :06:53.the practical side of which you can use in other instances. On top of
:06:53. > :06:58.that, you need to get in the door, so you need a degree for companies
:06:58. > :07:03.to say OK, we'll have a look at you. If you can get into a company who
:07:03. > :07:09.are willing to sponsor you to do a degree, ideal. Robbie Kelham's done
:07:09. > :07:13.just that - he's an apprentice who at just 22 has found his dream job.
:07:13. > :07:17.I love the variety. There might be one day that I'm on a machine,
:07:17. > :07:22.other day I'm building the robots, another day I might be welding.
:07:22. > :07:25.It's a good job. I enjoy it. What differences have we got between
:07:25. > :07:31.this one and the prototype that we've already developed? This one's
:07:31. > :07:37.got two spindles... After a four- year apprenticeship, he's now
:07:37. > :07:40.working for his degree. Centrax were happy to put me in for my
:07:40. > :07:46.degree and give me all the training and knowledge that I was seeking
:07:46. > :07:56.and that's what they're doing currently. And how much has that
:07:56. > :07:56.
:07:57. > :07:59.cost you? Nothing, which is quite a positive! No, nothing. HE's already
:08:00. > :08:04.earning a graduate level salary. The starting pay is 22,500, so I
:08:04. > :08:07.think I'm quite lucky. I did land on my feet. Robbie's boss, Tony
:08:07. > :08:12.Wiltshire, says degrees do open doors to top careers, but people
:08:12. > :08:15.with hands- on experience are hard to beat. When we take somebody
:08:15. > :08:20.directly from university, they don't have any relevant industrial
:08:20. > :08:24.exposure at all. They're starting from a long way back in terms of
:08:24. > :08:26.how quickly they are going to come up to speed for us. Relative to an
:08:26. > :08:29.apprentice, that's spent some time within the business and has
:08:29. > :08:39.acquired a lot of knowledge in terms of the technical aspects of
:08:39. > :08:42.the business but also the skills of working with people. So which
:08:42. > :08:47.courses came out bottom of the career ladder at South West
:08:47. > :08:51.universities? While well over half of all graduates had succeeded in
:08:51. > :08:56.getting a job after six months, the number getting a job where a degree
:08:56. > :08:58.was expected varied markedly from course to course. For instance,
:08:58. > :09:06.among archaeology graduates from Exeter, 40% had reportedly found a
:09:06. > :09:09.Exeter, 40% had reportedly found a graduate level job. At Falmouth 20%
:09:09. > :09:12.of "other creative arts and design" students had reported being in
:09:12. > :09:15.graduate jobs and just 10% of graduates of English studies at
:09:15. > :09:18.Marjohns had done so. Falmouth has the lowest percentage of leavers in
:09:18. > :09:20.graduate level jobs out of the four South West institutions, and also
:09:20. > :09:30.has the lowest average graduate salary of all universities in the
:09:30. > :09:34.
:09:34. > :09:37.Falmouth's rector says Cornish graduates, like these from a local
:09:37. > :09:43.design firm, are carving their own creative careers and that takes
:09:43. > :09:48.time. We have statistics which showed 91.8% of our graduates are
:09:48. > :09:53.in jobs or are in further study after six months. But that could be
:09:53. > :09:56.any job, not a graduate one? That's true. But, we have long argued that
:09:56. > :10:01.the way in which the statistics are gathered does not represent the way
:10:01. > :10:04.in which the creative industries grow. A lot of our graduates set up
:10:04. > :10:07.their own jobs, creative industries, and in six months they may not be
:10:07. > :10:12.defined as a graduate level job, but at three years and at five
:10:12. > :10:15.years, they would be. If you do it for example of earnings, Falmouth
:10:15. > :10:18.is right at the bottom of the national league table for graduate
:10:18. > :10:22.earnings. Prospective students are going to look at that figure,
:10:22. > :10:25.aren't they, and say, hang on a minute, should I be doing an arts
:10:25. > :10:29.degree? Should I be coming to Falmouth? Obviously it's an average.
:10:29. > :10:35.We've got very high-performing graduates. It's six months, which
:10:35. > :10:38.is a distorting factor. You set up a business, you're not going to be
:10:38. > :10:41.taking a lot out of it at six months but you will much further
:10:41. > :10:44.down the line and we have some incredibly successful businesses
:10:44. > :10:51.that come out of Falmouth and that are big contributors in this hugely
:10:51. > :10:54.growing sector of creative industries. Fine art would be the
:10:54. > :10:59.area that traditionally people would think would be less likely to
:10:59. > :11:02.have a graduate level job straightaway. I'm a fine art
:11:02. > :11:07.graduate myself. I went out and set up a publishing company within a
:11:08. > :11:13.year of finding out what I wanted to do. It's a very successful
:11:13. > :11:16.company to this day. Would you have paid �27,000 to do a fine art
:11:16. > :11:19.degree? I would, because my level of ambition, my belief that I can
:11:19. > :11:22.transfer my skills into all sorts of things came from the lateral and
:11:22. > :11:32.searching education that I had, which is typical of fine art
:11:32. > :11:33.
:11:33. > :11:42.education. Olly Barnes joined A- Side Studios, set up by Falmouth
:11:42. > :11:46.graduates, after he graduated from the college. I thought it was a
:11:46. > :11:49.brilliant course. I learned a fortune off all the tutors and
:11:49. > :11:52.everyone there and really enjoyed myself. But Olly only paid �1,200 a
:11:53. > :11:58.year in tuition fees and wonders whether he'd do the same again at a
:11:58. > :12:08.cost of �9,000 a year. Taking on that much debt, I probably would
:12:08. > :12:14.
:12:14. > :12:17.try to get into the industry without going to university.
:12:17. > :12:21.yet Olly knows being a graduate got him through the door... Without
:12:21. > :12:24.this sort of skills on the training that I got from Falmouth, I
:12:24. > :12:27.wouldn't be where I am today. you can understand how young people
:12:27. > :12:31.now... Are fed up by it? Yes. Yes, of course. Young people, old people,
:12:31. > :12:34.anybody who's going to get told that they're going to have to start
:12:34. > :12:39.life with 30 odd grand debt, you'd be a fool not to think twice about
:12:39. > :12:42.it. For many students, the point of university life is learning to
:12:43. > :12:45.stand on your own two feet. All Richard Forbes-Simpson was
:12:45. > :12:52.interested in was surfing, so the surf science and technology course
:12:52. > :12:57.at Plymouth gave him a reason to go to university. He says it changed
:12:57. > :13:03.his life. Now he's running his own web design business. Going to
:13:03. > :13:12.university gave me the sense of responsibility. Coursework, exams,
:13:12. > :13:14.deadlines. And it's not just University that taught me a lot. It
:13:14. > :13:24.was life outside university, living away from home, paying your bills
:13:24. > :13:25.
:13:25. > :13:28.and all the other responsibilities of being an adult. Richard thinks
:13:28. > :13:34.anyone who can go to university should, whatever subject they study,
:13:35. > :13:37.and despite the tuition fees. There's a lot of people who at that
:13:38. > :13:41.age, didn't know what they wanted to do in university, just something.
:13:41. > :13:48.The moment I realised it was worth all that money was when I graduated
:13:49. > :13:52.and I felt so proud, like a lot of students did. The biggest thing for
:13:52. > :13:58.me then was the sudden realisation that I could do anything that I
:13:58. > :14:06.could put my mind to. But for others university has proved the
:14:06. > :14:09.wrong path. I've spent all my money doing this degree that I was told
:14:09. > :14:14.would practically guarantee me a job that I wanted when I left
:14:14. > :14:24.university and it hasn't at all. It's left me worse-off, it really
:14:24. > :14:24.
:14:24. > :14:27.While there are mixed views on the benefits of a degree education, you
:14:27. > :14:30.would be hard-pressed to find any student who welcomes the increased
:14:30. > :14:40.cost. So we asked financial guru Alvin Hall to crunch the numbers
:14:40. > :14:42.
:14:42. > :14:48.and find out if there really are Young, confused and afraid? This is
:14:48. > :14:57.what thousands of teenagers across England fear. A lifetime on the run.
:14:57. > :15:02.But what is chasing them? Student debt. But is it really going to be
:15:02. > :15:08.the horror movie that we have been led to believe? Whether you think
:15:08. > :15:12.next year's hike in fees is fair or not, it is happening. So young
:15:12. > :15:16.people need to know the facts. I am going to show you what a degree can
:15:16. > :15:22.truly cost and how you can avoid those fees altogether. Next year,
:15:22. > :15:29.English universities will charge up to �9,000 a year. With living costs
:15:29. > :15:38.on top, graduates can face debts of around �50,000. But how much will
:15:38. > :15:43.they actually end up paying back? Well, I have come to meet some
:15:43. > :15:46.sixth formers in Birmingham to show them. I think the number is going
:15:46. > :15:49.to shock them. I think that earning interest over such a long time as
:15:49. > :15:52.you are paying back that loan really is a number that most people
:15:52. > :15:55.do not think about. Let's imagine that you graduate from university
:15:55. > :16:02.with �50,000 worth of debt. And you get a high-paying job, like we
:16:02. > :16:08.expect Jacob here will get. How much of that money do you have to
:16:08. > :16:18.pay back? I'm not quite sure. All of it? All of it and more because...
:16:18. > :16:23.
:16:23. > :16:29.Interest? Interest. Oh, God! God is right! �75,000. Is that just
:16:29. > :16:32.for one person? Just for one person. That's horrible. Is it just for the
:16:32. > :16:37.average degree? The average degree of three years, if you take out the
:16:37. > :16:43.maximum loan. But what if, for some reason, their careers don't go as
:16:43. > :16:52.planned and they never earn more than �21,000 a year? The amount you
:16:52. > :17:02.have to pay back is... Zero! So, what's going on? Basically, the
:17:02. > :17:02.
:17:02. > :17:05.repayment of the loan works like taxes. The more you earn, the more
:17:05. > :17:08.you pay back. If you never earn above a certain amount, you never
:17:08. > :17:15.pay back a penny. The independent taskforce on student finance is led
:17:15. > :17:18.by Martyn Lewis. The biggest confusion out there quite simply is
:17:18. > :17:21.people confuse the price tag of these �9,000 fees, and it will
:17:21. > :17:25.total �50,000 at the end of university, with the actual cost.
:17:25. > :17:29.This is a very different type of system. Many people won't come
:17:29. > :17:33.close to repaying in full what they borrowed. Some won't pay anything
:17:33. > :17:36.at all. And the bewildering fact that we're putting people off going
:17:36. > :17:41.to university because they are looking at the price tag and not
:17:41. > :17:46.the cost is the biggest problem to me. But most graduates will face
:17:46. > :17:50.large debts. So is there any way of avoiding the fees? Well, yes. You
:17:50. > :17:56.can study abroad. At the recent Student World Fair in London,
:17:56. > :17:59.teenagers discovered just how much they can save. I think everyone
:17:59. > :18:05.would rather go to a university where they are paying �9,000
:18:05. > :18:09.cheaper than the UK. The fees are a lot cheaper. So when you come out,
:18:09. > :18:13.you're not going to be in so much debt. In fact, dozens of
:18:13. > :18:19.universities across Europe offer courses taught in English. The fees
:18:19. > :18:22.differ from country to country, but in Scandinavia, tuition is free.
:18:22. > :18:25.Denmark we have no tuition fees at all. Because the Danish government
:18:25. > :18:33.pays for Danish students and, according to EU rules, we have to
:18:33. > :18:39.treat other EU citizens alike. Harriet Moore has already taken the
:18:39. > :18:44.plunge. She is off back to uni in Slovakia. I'm trying to save money
:18:44. > :18:50.on my flights so hand luggage it is! Over there, she saves a fortune
:18:50. > :18:55.on living costs, spending just �100 a month. I caught up with her via
:18:55. > :18:59.webcam. What would be the piece of advice you would give to anyone
:18:59. > :19:03.considering doing what you have done? If you are even considering
:19:03. > :19:11.it, I think you should go for it. It is definitely worth doing, you
:19:11. > :19:21.just get on a plane. You have to be brave. But I've never looked back.
:19:21. > :19:25.
:19:25. > :19:34.Time's up! I want my money. I want my 50 grand. So, studying overseas
:19:34. > :19:37.might be one way to avoid the debt. But there are downsides. If you
:19:37. > :19:40.study abroad, the Government here won't make you a loan, only some of
:19:40. > :19:47.the courses are taught in English and some employers might not
:19:47. > :19:52.recognise foreign degrees. So you need to do your homework. Another
:19:52. > :19:57.way of beating the fees is to get someone else to pay. But who? Well,
:19:57. > :20:01.London's financial heartland is a good place to look. Don't be fooled
:20:01. > :20:08.by the power suits. Believe it or not, these youngsters are all
:20:09. > :20:12.freshers. They are being sponsored by accountancy giant KPMG.
:20:12. > :20:15.entire package was a degree, salary, the tuition fees paid and we had a
:20:15. > :20:24.job at the end and you were helped to become a qualified chartered
:20:24. > :20:28.accountant. It sounds too good to be true. Did you suspect there was
:20:28. > :20:35.an catch? There is no catch. I don't think there is a catch. As
:20:35. > :20:38.with everything, you have to work hard. That's the only catch.
:20:38. > :20:44.the man who runs the programme tells me that KPMG does not offer
:20:44. > :20:47.the stereotypical student experience. This is an extremely
:20:47. > :20:49.intensive programme, they have to work for us and study for their
:20:49. > :20:55.degree and they also have to attain their chartered accounting
:20:55. > :21:01.qualifications. That will require hard work and that is all we really
:21:01. > :21:03.ask of the students who join us. And then there are bursaries.
:21:04. > :21:11.Students from low-income families can get money from various sources,
:21:11. > :21:20.so it's worth trawling the web. But is there another way of avoiding
:21:20. > :21:26.the debt? Well, you can pay up- front. 16 year-old Safina Adams is
:21:26. > :21:31.trying to do just that. As well as studying for her A-levels, she
:21:31. > :21:34.sells beauty products on her website. I started my business
:21:34. > :21:37.because I wanted to save up for university and my parents said that
:21:37. > :21:42.because of the high price of university fees, it would be too
:21:42. > :21:45.much for them to pay for it. I am hoping to avoid getting into debt
:21:45. > :21:51.because I know it takes a long while to get out of debt and I
:21:51. > :21:56.don't want to be in that place. Government allows students to pay
:21:56. > :21:59.up-front but most will have to take out a loan. But one financial
:21:59. > :22:06.expert believes that graduates could end up paying back far more
:22:06. > :22:12.than anyone has predicted. This financial journalist is warning
:22:12. > :22:16.students to be aware. I think the problem is that the deal is
:22:16. > :22:19.actually not the deal. There are all these numbers flying about
:22:19. > :22:23.saying that you will be charged a certain rate of interest on the
:22:23. > :22:27.loan and your repayments will start at �21,000 and over that you'll pay
:22:27. > :22:31.a certain percentage. But actually, none of those parameters are in the
:22:31. > :22:34.contract that the student signs up for. In fact, the Government can
:22:34. > :22:42.change those numbers if it wants to in five years or 10 years, 20 years,
:22:42. > :22:48.30 years. So students could end up paying a lot more. But any big
:22:48. > :22:51.changes would have to be approved by Parliament. Like many Americans,
:22:51. > :22:57.I graduated with the equivalent of tens of thousands of pounds worth
:22:57. > :23:07.of debt. It was daunting. But if you know the facts, student debt
:23:07. > :23:12.
:23:12. > :23:17.does not have to be scary. I So, what effect will increase
:23:17. > :23:24.tuition fees have next year? Well, a survey for Inside Out suggests
:23:24. > :23:31.one in 10 A-level students have been put off university. Freshers'
:23:31. > :23:38.week. The first taste of university life for these Plymouth students.
:23:38. > :23:41.They were the last to pay the lower tuition fees. If you want to come
:23:41. > :23:45.that badly, the fees to some people are obviously going to be a problem,
:23:46. > :23:49.but it you want it that badly, everything is a risk. The fees are
:23:50. > :23:53.going to be a massive problem to a load of people but at the end of
:23:53. > :23:56.the day, you're getting a degree and you will pay for it after. And
:23:56. > :24:00.the interest does not really count because you will probably be in
:24:00. > :24:06.work. Unless you have actually found a dream job or the job you
:24:06. > :24:10.want, it will make no difference. survey for Inside Out asked more
:24:10. > :24:12.than 1000 A-level students how they saw their futures. The survey
:24:12. > :24:22.results suggest that 10% who were considering university have been
:24:22. > :24:24.put off. But the vast majority said they were more than likely to go.
:24:25. > :24:29.Chemistry is one of three A-levels Nathan Patterson is taking at
:24:29. > :24:36.Churston Grammar School. He is expected to get excellent grades,
:24:36. > :24:39.but unlike most of his friends, he is planning to earn while he learns.
:24:39. > :24:45.Right, out of interest, how many of you are applying for university?
:24:45. > :24:49.All of them but Nathan. Last July we had a careers day where it was
:24:49. > :24:51.all about not going to university. That appealed more to me because I
:24:51. > :24:57.was interested in apprenticeships, getting paid in employment and
:24:57. > :24:59.still getting a degree in some cases. I thought it was more
:24:59. > :25:07.suitable for people from my background, who cannot afford fees
:25:07. > :25:15.and accommodation and travel. chemistry teacher supports his
:25:15. > :25:18.decision. After you do that, what you do? I think he is making quite
:25:18. > :25:22.an informed choice, whether to pay the money out, and all these people
:25:22. > :25:28.will come out with a very large debt and they have to ask the
:25:28. > :25:32.question, is it worth it? I feel that in 10 years' time, whether you
:25:32. > :25:35.have a degree or not matters so little that it may be that it is a
:25:35. > :25:43.very wise choice to go and do something else, possibly something
:25:43. > :25:45.even more worthwhile than read books for three years. The Inside
:25:45. > :25:48.Out survey suggests the vast majority of sixth-formers are
:25:48. > :25:53.confident their career prospects will be improved by getting a
:25:53. > :25:58.degree. However, around 60% are, like Nathan, also considering an
:25:58. > :26:03.apprenticeship. He has set his sights on accountancy, calculating
:26:03. > :26:08.that if he wins a place, he will win in the jobs race, too. I am
:26:08. > :26:12.more or less guaranteed employment at the end of the apprenticeship.
:26:12. > :26:16.The key point is four out of five of the people pass the exam, that's
:26:16. > :26:21.an 80% chance of getting a job compared to one in six out of
:26:21. > :26:30.university. And in four years' time we don't know how the market will
:26:30. > :26:32.be, so it could be worse. education cuts! Many students
:26:32. > :26:35.protested in Plymouth about the rising fees, yet the Inside Out
:26:35. > :26:43.survey suggests that most A-level pupils feel the long-term benefits
:26:43. > :26:46.of going to university will outweigh the costs. James Fox
:26:46. > :26:49.graduated in drama last year and is now a paid officer of the Exeter
:26:50. > :26:56.Students' Union. He believes university is an unmissable
:26:56. > :27:00.experience. I think there is a lot of talk about students as consumers
:27:00. > :27:04.and they have to be savvy about where they go and the importance of
:27:04. > :27:07.that. In terms of the choice of their degree, people should always
:27:07. > :27:11.study something they enjoy and are passionate about. I lived in a
:27:11. > :27:15.house with six other guys last year and we all graduated in July and
:27:15. > :27:18.have all managed to get graduate jobs. And people seem to be doing
:27:18. > :27:24.very well and feel that going to university made a massive
:27:24. > :27:29.difference to them. Nearly two- thirds of the students surveyed
:27:29. > :27:31.agreed that it is incredibly hard for graduates to find jobs. With
:27:32. > :27:34.youth unemployment at a record high of almost one million, Falmouth
:27:34. > :27:42.rector Ann Carlisle is concerned for those who don't head to
:27:42. > :27:46.university. I fear for those people. When I hear people say, I'm not
:27:46. > :27:49.going to university, I always say, what exactly are you going to do?
:27:49. > :27:54.And they imagine there are employment opportunities for them.
:27:54. > :28:00.There aren't. I think there is no choice but to go to university if
:28:00. > :28:06.you want to succeed. But Nathan is confident he will buck the trend
:28:06. > :28:11.and do it debt-free. I wouldn't want to be 65 and still struggling
:28:11. > :28:14.to pay off debts. I want to be in a comfortable job by the time I'm 30
:28:14. > :28:20.so I can start to settle down without worrying about money and
:28:20. > :28:29.stuff. You think you have made the right decisions? I believe so, yes.