Policy Matters: The economics of Higher Education

In this episode of Policy Matters, host Matt Dickson talks to Laura van der Erve from the Institute for Fiscal Studies about the merits of doing a university degree and what recent evidence suggests are the relative labour market returns to degrees in different subjects at different institutions. With almost 50% of young people in England going on to Higher Education, and with tuition fees of £9,250 for most courses, it has never been more important to understand the impact on earnings of studying different subjects and at different HE institutions. Laura describes recent research from the IFS looking at graduate outcomes and explains some of the difficulties in pinning down the impact of a particular course on later earnings and employment. Matt and Laura then discuss social gradients in attending university and the extent to which inequalities have been impacted by changes in tuition fees. Finally, discussion turns to thinking about the sorts of things that students need to know in advance in order to make an informed decision about where to apply and what to study, how the government can help with this and the limits of information provision as a policy.