What percentage of the UK population has a degree?

I agree. I was under the impression that many employers are becoming more and more disgruntled because graduates keep turning up with degrees but no common sense and being semi-illiterate.

What qualifications do you think people who went to polytechnics obtained?

The poster to whom I replied seemed to be under the belief that the number of degrees suddenly changed when polytechnics became universities. There is no step change at that point. However a widely published table only includes university degrees (and not the centrally validated CNAA degrees which is what polys awarded) and so there is a break of series when CNAA was abolished and each ex-Poly started awarding its own degrees.


The Polys were less vocational than you might think. The largest philosophy department in the country used to be at Middlesex Poly.

The number of CNAA degree courses as a proportion of the total courses offered was likely pretty low, certainly at say Napier before it was a university where I think there were only 2 engineering courses accredited as degrees in 1978.

I actually attended one of them for a year, the BSc Technology with Industrial Studies, which was not a bad course, albeit very classroom intensive.(was just not the right course for me, hence I left and then went to Edinburgh)

Most of the courses offered by Napier back then were HNDs

You are not much of a programmer if you can't use search engines.

I made an account just to say that I googled 'how many people have a degree' and this thread was the first result with your response

I made an account just to say that I googled 'how many people have a degree' and this thread was the first result with your response

Yes that's true. You can also look at the those sources:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/graduatesintheuklabourmarket/2017#graduates-across-areas-of-great-britain
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-on-higher-education-initial-participation-rates

, but this is from my observation.

You need new specs then...

And the percentage was in my post:
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showpost.php?p=77244818&postcount=28

What specs are you referring to here? I don't quite understand.

The percentage who attend university in the UK, is low, although recently it's been going up due to the ambitious children of immigrant parents. The average figure, I would say is around 10-20%. A lot of private school student attend university, while majority of state school students would go on to work instead. In fact, I'd say there are more females who are pregnant or already mothers at 21, than graduating university, but this is from my observation.

Spectacles to help your observations.

I grew up in a town around 50 minutes away from London, so of course my observation will always be different to you, or anyone else, outside of this town. For example, the education culture would be different in London, to say Manchester, where Londoners are more likely to attend university than your average Mancunian.

You don't live in my town or here to observe the youth culture, so why would you throw in a derogatory statement regarding specs?

I went to a state school then uni. Of my friendship group at (state) school, one is a doctor, one a solicitor, one a vet, one a dentist, one an accountant and one a nurse. I work part time in insurance while completing my Masters (on track for a Merit) and I am looking to go onto a PhD. Not one of us were a) pregnant or mothers by 21 or b) left school and straight into work.
Only one of us was the child of an immigrant and she had an English father who was a teacher and senior member of the education authority so pushed her education. I went to a very high performing single sex faith school and I was in the top set. We were essentially conditioned for university and a professional career which most of us did go into.

Well for one you said the percentage was low when in fact it's 38%. And if you wish to assert that fewer women go to university than have children below the age of 21 please provide sources. A sample size of your "observation" is hardly representative of the UK population is it...?

Read my response to princessmaire80.