I think that people who want to go to university and who are able to manage the work should be able to go to university. What I'm concerned about is the sort of middle-class cultural imperialism that seems to think that the only why to have a fulfilling life is to have at least a bachelors degree. I think I've noticed this sort of approach amongst Labour party politicians when discussing increasing university participation and I've certainly seen in in previous articles by Polly Toynbee.

There are two really big problems with this approach. The first is that it might push into university people who won't benefit from it and they'll end up dropping out or with a degree which doesn't improve their life, a shit load of debt and three lost years in which they could have been working toward qualifications and goals which would have benefited them. At least when this happens to the children of affluent parents, their parents wealth can be used to support them whilst they turn around their career plans. Kids from poorer backgrounds don't have this luxury. The second problem is that this idea devalues other forms of training and career start. This has been a problem in Britain for over a century. Poly Toynbee flippantly mocked the idea of questioning expanding university participation when we lacked enough people with vocational qualifications. At the time my sister-in-law was considering retraining as a plumber as her degree in sociology wasn't helping her much.