Universities are worth it – but work is needed to ensure they remain so

In his latest report, titled Are universities worth it?, England’s former universities minister, David Willetts, asks and answers a question that would have been pointless in the early 2000s, but requires a fitting response now.

Then, economic growth abounded, history had “ended” and the liberal order ruled. Universities were an unquestioned economic and social good. All over the world, countries that didn’t have them wanted them. Those that had some, wanted more and better. A university education had become an aspiration for the majority. And that remains the case in many of the developing parts of the world.

Yet, two decades on, as growth and productivity in the West have faltered, a degree is no longer an automatic guarantee of a high-paying job, and universities are being drawn into cultural polarisation. The “edu-sceptics”, as Willetts calls them, are wondering whether universities are really worth it.

Against this feverish background, his paper – published by the Policy Institute at King’s College London and the Resolution Foundation – offers a good tonic of evidence, passionately argued in his inimitable style. While the financial returns may have dipped from previous highs, a university education remains a remarkably good investment financially, as well as in terms of social mobility. Graduates strongly recommend it to others and would do it all again themselves. And the benefits extend to graduates’ health and social well-being, spanning generations and spilling over to others in society who do not attend.

The paper should lay to rest the question mark at the end of its title. Universities are worth it.

“If you were a doctor, you would prescribe more education,” Willetts writes. I am. I do. However, any doctor prescribing medicine does so with caveats. And if we want more higher education, there are three clear challenges: ensuring individuals are making optimal choices, sharing the aggregate benefits of higher education widely, and preserving universities as places for all of society, not just some.

While there is little doubt that universities are, on average, a great financial investment, returns vary widely by discipline, university and individual. The challenge for universities and policymakers is to share this information in a way that allows university applicants to make good choices, not just through a financial lens, but also weighing up the broader benefits that degree-level study accrues.

Universities also need to keep their eyes very firmly on the horizon. They are engines of innovation, critical for fostering the skills that the future growth of our nation will require. It is essential, therefore, that their curricula and research agendas anticipate those future needs. Universities cannot wait for the digital and AI revolution to reshape society before they train people for it. They must usher society into that change – this will ensure the premium of their graduates.

They also need to respond to the fact that they often find themselves straddling the cultural divisions that polarise society, or even becoming the arena where these divisions surface. Some people feel excluded. Some feel out of place. And some think we have become a self-replicating meritocracy.

This is where universities have work to do. We will need to reach out to all of society: to those with no family history of attending university, to those who cannot afford high living costs, and to those who feel apart.

Willetts’ paper persuades that universities are worth it. Addressing the three challenges above will ensure they will remain so.

Shitij Kapur is vice-chancellor and president of King’s College London. Are universities worth it? is the latest report in King’s Policy Institute’s Future of HE programme.