The rector of Edinburgh University speaks after the warning by Barbara Graham, director of Strathclyde University's careers service, that graduates could face challenges finding jobs in the financial crisis.
Is it going to be difficult for graduates to find jobs?Nobody knows what is going to happen with the economic downturn, so some traditional routes might be more difficult. But this all strengthens the kind of work that universit
ies like Edinburgh have been doing to make university graduates as best able to cope in the jobs market as possible.
It's about making sure the correct skills are being taught at our universities.
Is the problem that we have too many graduates?We have to make sure that Scotland has the best education and best-skilled workforce if we are going to compete, whether in good times or bad, so I don't think there's ever a case for not encouraging our young people to get as skilled as possible.
Are universities going to be key in retraining people?Having lots of support for people re-entering education to get new skills is going to be even more important. And that's going to require financial support for the institutions and, crucially, for mature students while they are re-training and getting the crucial skills they need.
Do we need to improve financial support for students to prevent them being deterred from going to university?The current crisis is going to make people less willing to take on debt, and banks will be less keen to lend large amounts of money to students.
If they are no longer able to get massive overdrafts they are either going to have to get more support from the government or, potentially, they will be dropping out of university in ever-greater numbers. That would be a disaster just as we need people to be getting skilled up.
The government strategy of relying on private sources – either banks or parents – isn't going to work in the current financial situation.
The full article contains 336 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
