Government Ministers will parrot the line that higher tution fees won’t stop people from applying to go 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. Many graduates will be burdened with enormous debts with no sign that they will be able to pay them off in the medium-term, or perhaps ever.

With post-graduate opportunities depleted, university may no longer be seen as the start of an automatic gravy train which you cannot miss. Students and their parents will begin to examine the ‘necessity’ of undergraduate study, wondering whether it might be deferred or passed up altogether. Applications for vocational courses are sure to rise, with arts and humanities squeezed as they have fewer practical applications. And many students will be forced to remain in the family home in order to trim costs.

With job insecurity now an accepted part of working life, young people will be apt to view the classic ‘school-university-job for life’ progression as being unrealistic and so will look to hedge their bets, perhaps by gaining some career experience first and saving some money before embarking on any field of study.

Acquiring some real-life skills and business knowledge when combined with part-time study of a qualification such as an HND may come to be seen to be not only as the pragmatic option but also the one most likely to succeed.

A further factor is the growth of courses online, with more attracted to the freedom of study through distance learning. Students have no need to slog across town to get to school, and can study at a time that suits them.

The distance option also informs the student that study is not merely university then ‘stop’. They can always be studying improving, with their study tailored to specifically enhance their career, rather than, as now, offering often marginal relevance.

With the future a big scary wall marked ‘debt’, a generation is being forced to take a less conventionally-structured and a more liberating approach to study. However difficult the initial transition, the change will bring practical benefit to their futures.

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