Is higher education still worth the cost?

Gill Wyness

No 9, CEPEO Briefing Note Series from UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities

Abstract: The university experience has changed in the new COVID-19 world. The vast majority of students are receiving most of their teaching online. Social distancing limits their ability to enjoy the social aspects of university This has led many to wonder whether university degree is worth it. This briefing note summarizes the evidence on the costs and benefits of university. It considers the costs young people from different backgrounds pay to get into HE and the expected return. We see wide variation in the returns to degrees. Some subjects offer lower returns than others. The UK’s higher education finance system offers protection against the risk of low earnings. This may prove crucial over the coming years.

Keywords: higher education; returns; social mobility; degree earnings (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 I24 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 6 pages
Date: 2020-11, Revised 2020-11
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https://repec-cepeo.ucl.ac.uk/cepeob/cepeobn9.pdf First version, 2020 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucl:cepeob:9

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