SOUTHERN EASTERN UNIVERSITY (USA) and SOUTHERN EASTERN (SEU) SUPPORT THE ASSOCIATION OF ACCOUNTING TECHNICIANS in saying that it is high time that the UK ended their university fixation and promoted a return to apprenticeships:

On Sunday the 15th August 2010 the Education Editor of The Sunday Express, Hilary Douglas, wrote an article headed “WHEN A PASS IS A FAILURE”.  She wrote:

  "Record numbers of A level students are being turned away from leading universities as institutions effectively declared themselves full before the clearing system, which allocates spare places, has even opened.
   Such is the shortage of places …. that even students who score more than 90% in their exams may well find themselves without a place.
   Last year almost 48,000 people found a university place through clearing, but the university clearing service UCAS says the number of places available this time will be “even tighter than last year”.  All are expected to vanish within two days of the results being published, with as many as 170,000 students without a place on a degree course, up from 130,000 last year.
   The Government has said that sixth formers who fail to secure a place should start a business or apply for an apprenticeship instead and 100,000  more apprenticeships have been created to plug the gap.
   Skills Minister, John Hayes, says: “One of the biggest growth sectors in Britain today is the creative sector and our young people deserve to take advantage of this.  Also businesses have long asked for more practical skills, not just a broad spectrum degree, and these qualifications are the chance to make this happen”.  Jane Scott Paul, of the Association of Accounting Technicians, agrees with this change of emphasis, arguing it is high time that we ended our university fixation and promoted a return to apprenticeships.

   For years higher education has been presented as a cure-all solution to issues surrounding jobs, skills and society”, she says, “but this has crystallised into a belief among young people and their families that it is now ‘university or bust’.  This mindset is not only unsustainable but is damaging”.
   The argument is that, in spite of their popularity, degrees are fast becoming a devalued currency, with many unable to find a job at the end of their course or, at best, getting a poorly paid job for which they didn’t even need a degree…………………………….
   This year’s rise in applications has put an even greater burden on places.  This, coupled with a tough economic climate and a wider shortage of jobs for school leavers is creating what is fast becoming a lost generation.  Lost because there are few jobs and still too few apprenticeships.
   No one has prepared this current crop of students to think of alternatives and now the system is about to fail them, there is precious little for them to do.
   Many are being urged by student unions to take a year out and apply again next year.  The lucky ones will be able to rely on the Bank of Mum and Dad to foot the bill.  Even when they do get to university, the problems aren’t over.  Lecture groups are growing larger and tutorials are increasingly being taken by research students while lecturers  focus on lucrative projects aimed at keeping their department financially viable…………………….”

Southern Eastern University (USA) has long supported this view, as can be seen from the introduction to this web site by our Chairman, John C. Stacey-Hibbert (see 'About SEU' link) and has strived to shake up the established educational pattern - that is why the ‘motto of SEU is “Implementing a New Approach to the Academic Tradition!” - and this is why SEU is different from the archetypal university.  The majority of students come to study on our degree programmes after having gained experience in the working field. They commence their studies with recognised, established, educational or professional bodies, either by way of evening school classes or by distance learning, before they enrol with us.  Only those with an established and provable work record in their particular field, to the standard required for admission, would be accepted without a recognised qualification.  So, in effect, the majority of our students have already undertaken an ‘apprenticeship’ of some sort or other.

The benefits of this are obvious!  Would the average employer prefer a 21 year old university graduate, with no real work experience in the particular field, passing a degree course where the honours degree pass mark can be as low as 30%, or a prospective employee who is more mature and who has spent at least the three years that it takes to obtain the normal type degree in a viable work environment, who has a professional qualification plus has shown the ability, aptitude, self determination and confidence to go further to obtain a degree through SEU?  The degree programme is rigorous and shows not only a unique understanding by a successful student of their field of work through their guided research and writing of a substantial dissertation or thesis, but also shows the skills necessary to do so.

The UK Government has been arguing for for some time for greater emphasis to be placed on applied skills (Dept. for Business Innovation and Skills, "Skills for Growth: the National Skills Strategy, 2009 available at:http://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/skills-for-growth), but has explicitly queried the value of a 'standard' three-year degree to achieve this.  As Lord Mandelson said: 'The government remains committed to the goal that at least 50% of young people should enter higher education.  However, this has never meant that 50% of the population should enter higher education straight from school to study on a conventional three year degree programme" (Dept. for BIS, 'Higher Ambitions, The Future of Universities in a Knowledge Economy', 4 Nov. 2009 -https://bis.gov.uk/wp-ontent/uploads/publications/Higher-Ambitions.pdf)."

Southern Eastern University (USA), through its UK Branch, Southern Eastern (SEU), will be contacting the UK Government Skills Minster, John Hayes, in order to discuss ways in which the ‘Apprenticeship Scheme’ can work alongside the SEU degree programme and in order to gain more acceptability to its innovative programmes.