The Guardian view on graduates and employment, degrees but not destinations

For all those gripped by gloom over the steel crisis and wondering what it is precisely that Britain makes any more, this newspaper has an answer. The UK leads the world in manufacturing graduates. Per head, it churns out more degree-holders than Germany, Austria, Norway, Switzerland or Spain. From 19% of school leavers entering higher education in 1989, to 47% now, the UK has seen the biggest expansion of its university industry anywhere in Europe. That is especially remarkable, given the shake-ups to the admissions procedure and financing, and the huge rise in costs.

Yet that growth often lets down the young people actually going through the higher education mill. It leaves them laden with debt, and as government figures demonstrated last week, often in employment that neither draws upon their skills nor pays their way. All this is not what successive governments promised. From John Major to Tony Blair to David Cameron, prime minister after prime minister has urged young people into university, offering in return a ticket to top jobs. They also hoped it would make the economy more dynamic, as in this 2006 official report for Gordon Brown’s Treasury: “The UK must become a world leader in skills. Skills is the most important lever within our control to create wealth and reduce social deprivation.”