Hilary Metcalf

Paying for University: The Impact of Increasing Costs on Student Employment, Debt and Satisfaction

The costs of higher education in the UK have shifted increasingly from the state to the student (and students’ families). In 1998, a fee contribution of £1,000 per annum was introduced for new entrants to full-time degree courses. This paper examines its effect on debt, term-time employment and student satisfaction. The analysis uses data from a survey of two cohorts of students and identifies how the impact varied with student and course characteristics. Fees led to an increase in student debt (particularly for disabled students and for students who did not receive financial support from their families) and a decline in student satisfaction. No general impact on term-time employment was identified, but term-time employment increased for students who did not receive financial support from their families. Whilst for these two groups inequality was increased, fees appeared to lead to greater equality, in terms of term-time employment, between children of graduate and non-graduate parents. The paper discusses the implications for the introduction of top-up fees in 2006.

Does Literacy and Numeracy Training for Adults Increase Employment and Employability? Evidence from the Skills for Life Programme in England

The employment effects of participation in adult literacy and numeracy courses are assessed, one year after participation, using a matched comparison, longitudinal design, with difference-in-differences analysis. Employability improvements, but no employment effects, are found. Effects on employment may result in the longer term from an increased likelihood of subsequent training.

Social Mobility in the UK

 It is notoriously difficult to compare rates of social mobility between countries because different studies use different methodologies. The OECD acknowledges that “comparing cross-country estimates of intergenerational income mobility requires a great deal of caution”. Even Jo Blanden, author of the more pessimistic studies on social mobility in the UK, writes: “While it is tempting to immediately form the estimates into a ‘league table’ we must pay attention to the size of the standard errors” and suggests that it is impossible to distinguish statistically between less and more mobile countries.”