At first glance, reports of the demise of the British higher education sector seem greatly exaggerated. Almost as excited as the young people discovering their A-level grades, the Universities and Colleges Admission Service (Ucas) breathlessly boasts that the 262,820 students who immediately found places on degree courses represents a record high – three per cent up on last year. The total enrolled, from all domiciles and including older entrants, is also up, to some 446,690, another record (excluding Scotland). The best part of half a million freshers heading for university sounds like cause for national celebration.
Indeed, it is, as it also is for the individuals embarking on the next phase of their transition to adulthood. However, it is not the whole picture. A demographic bulge has played some part in boosting numbers, but the more grim countervailing story is the 58,000 18-year-olds whom the Department for Education estimates received no exam results at all, good or bad, because they have already dropped out of the entire education and training system.
