Surrey Homes | SH31 | May 2017 |Restoration & New Build supplement inside

The Next Step
Susan Elkin analyses the new two year degree courses
Education
Any parent who has seen a son or daughter through higher
education in recent years could be forgiven for despairing.
Three years at close on £10,000 per year for – usually –
less than six hours a week of teaching time, with accommodation
on top. Terms are short, half term breaks and ‘reading weeks’ are
frequent. It adds up to an awful lot of time to sit in bars getting
drunk a long way from home, or worse, succumbing to mental
health problems triggered by loneliness and too little to do.
Now at last a change is in sight. In February the government
announced that universities and other higher education
institutions must start offering two year degrees in addition to
three year ones. The end of the extortionate three year stranglehold
is in sight. It is utterly scandalous that the three year closed shop
has lasted so long. It’s a long ignored example of restrictive practice.
Any good course is intensive and rigorous. Many three
year degree courses are anything but. Of course nearly every
course could be telescoped into two years if students were
provided with three proper 14 week terms each year (42
weeks with ten weeks’ holiday) and given a much more
structured programme while they were in session.
Students do not need four months ‘off’ in the summer. Yes,
they might need to earn a bit and perhaps enjoy a holiday
but ten weeks’ ‘leave’ a year – still far more than most people
get in the real world of grown -up work – allows for both.
Some detractors have argued that this is just a back‐door
method of allowing fees to soar. Well the first thing to
bear in mind is that students do not pay the full cost.
Expensive as they seem, degrees are still state subsidised.
Depending on the subject studied the actual cost is
in the region of £15,000 to £20,000 per year.
If the student’s contribution to a course – in round
figures – would normally be £30,000 over three
years, then logically the same course taught in two
years would have to charge £15,000 per year.
What does concern me – and it must be watched very
carefully – is that some universities and other providers will
simply offer a second rate, two thirds, watered down two year
degree course rather than giving two year degree students
everything which they would get on a three year course.
But the advantages for the student (and his or her
long‐suffering parents) are clear. There’s a whole year’s
less subsistence to pay for. The graduate is ready to start
work a year earlier and has a whole extra year in which to
begin earning money. Moreover an intensive degree will
probably have helped to instil a no-nonsense worth ethic and
goodness knows this country could do with a bit of that.
Cranmore School
Independent Preparatory School
for girls and boys 2 ½ - 13
SEP 17 SEP 17
22
23
OPEN MORNINGS
Friday 22 September
Saturday 23 September 2017
09.30 -11.30
Assisted Places available
01483 280340 www.cranmoreprep.co.uk
admissions@cranmoreprep.co.uk West Horsley, Surrey KT24 6AT
157 wealdentimes.co.uk
CranmorePrepS31.indd 1 21/04/2017 14:19