Warwick Business School: Degrees even more valuable in a recession
WARWICK Business School Dean, Professor Mark Taylor, says growing proof that higher education leads to a better career makes degrees even more valuable during a recession.
Amid concerns that the rise in tuition fees is putting young people off from going to university, a new report says those with a degree can expect to earn nearly 60% more than those without one.
Professor Taylor says that at Warwick Business School, which is part of the University of Warwick and is ranked third in the UK for accounting and finance courses and fourth for business & management by The Times, undergraduates can expect a great opportunity to increase their potential earnings.
The report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operate and Development (OECD), a club of the richest nations in the world, found in 2010 that an average graduate in a developed country like the UK can expect to earn 59% more than those that didn’t go to university.
That is a big rise from the 44% recorded in 2001 and it has come despite an increase in the number of graduates available to companies, with the number of young people at universities rising from 20% to 39% according to the OECD.
It found that in the UK people earn £83,840 more across their working lives if they’ve been to university. Meanwhile, the average employment rate of higher-educated 25-64 year-olds in the UK increased even during the financial crisis (by 0.1%) although it went down for people with lower levels of education by 3.3% between 2008 and 2010.
Professor Taylor believes the report emphasises the importance of a good education in this competitive employment market.
He said: “These figures from the OECD back up what we have always known – that a good education is vital to starting and sustaining a good career.
“The worldwide recession has emphasised this even more. Those with high skills and higher education will be able to survive an economic downturn much better than those without.
“At Warwick Business School we are investing more and more in helping to equip our students to survive in these tough economic times through innovation.
“By the end of 2012 we will have recruited 60 new academic faculty since I arrived and our new behavioural science department is thriving to ensure we are at the forefront of developing creative business leaders.
“And with us you are almost guaranteed a good start in the job market, with 93% of our graduates finding work quickly in their first three months after graduation and on average earning £23,000 per annum in their first job.”
