Firms shift towards wanting ‘work-ready’ graduates

This is not a new trend since for a company it is good business if the public purse and the graduate can pay for what is really the responsibility of the employer. In one of my previous jobs, I heard a tale of the institution's former polytechnic days when the Head of Department told firms "we do education not training". This was long before most of the staff were research active but reflects what should be the fundamental philosophy of higher education.

Funny how we've shifted since the inception of student fees. Once upon a time, long long ago, in a distant land, if a school leavetr wanted to be e.g. a nurse or radiographer, they got a job at the bottom rung in a hospital, worked their way up. being trained on the job. Now the employers are outsourcing the 'training' bit for free and the wannabee radiographer, nurse, pays for ther own training through student loans. Everybody gains; employers save on training costs and get 'oven ready/ recruits, the VC's get humungous incomes from bums on seats, the HE sector now employs many many more people than it did when 5% school leavers went there because emplpoyers now all insist on degrees as the new A Levels....only the stiudent=future employee loses, as they pay for what was on-the-job training. Or the taxpayer does. Nice trick to have pulled off.

Yes, agree with the above. In the UK context, employers renounced their stakeholder status when they rescinded Dearing through the Browne commission. They should, accordingly, hold their tongue.

This seems to be a rather instrumental and anti-intellectual approach to the perennial social question asking what universities are for. I do not train employees, I educate people to think, critique and question - great skills for all walks of life but I do it with a disciplinary rather than 'employability' focus.

As an international higher education policy consultant in developing countries, I see a donor funding shift from University Education towards TVET in order to gain more traction in reducing migration from Africa towards Europe. While Universities in Africa have indeed big challenges, to me it is misguided to shift investment away from them towards TVET in the belief that all that counts is employability. The African continent needs big thinkers who can seize the opportunities of the digital revolution to tackle the socioeconomic opportunities and challenges of the continent, and I do applaud the initiatives of the EAC, the EU Commission directorate for education, culture, languages, youth and sport, which invests hugely together with the African Union in the engagement between European and African Higher education institutions. After all Africa is a continent of people not solely of employees.

In the US, as state legislatures reduced their financial support for universities, universities had to find other sources of income. Like bank robbers, they went where the money was, corporations. But corporations obviously wanted some return on their investment; so universities offered more business oriented programs. Even research in the hard sciences is often geared towards commercialization. Universities should continue the preparation of young adults for living fulfilling lives, part of which usually includes working with or helping others.