托福阅读:近半英国女性后悔读大学# G& U9 c2 S# V( u3 v. Y
Vicky Tuck: 'I believe women should only go to university if they have a genuine interest in learning'.
. P# H4 _, b3 e3 ` Young women are losing faith in the university system with nearly half believing it is not worth getting a degree.! S" k( O4 `$ v% v
Tuition fees and little chance of landinga good job make higher education an unattractive prospect for them, a study suggests.! i% [& Y7 F q% _% ?
It found that nearly half of female graduates would not go to university if they had the chance again.www.examw.com
. U' `8 Z, |: ]% K+ c( ^/ {2 n5 V The research will cause concern because it was carried out before the Government announced that fees will almost treble to ā9,000 in 2012.
, ?7 a* M4 `! A% v The findings have prompted warnings that a generation of ambitious young women will miss out on a high-flyingcareer and the opportunity to continue their education.6 c. B' V6 ~, T; M+ E+ n
Louise Court, editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, which conducted the survey, said young women seem to think university ‘a waste of time’.% N! B1 t* ?9 `0 U- t( l
‘It’s never been harder to be a young woman with ambition,’ she said. ‘Understandably, women are angry and frustrated about their future and this is having a damaging affect on their self-esteem.
9 z4 a; t+ `* s, J8 V, l5 |. b6 i+ f- W The survey of 1,353 women also looked at the career prospects and financial outlook for women in 2011.& J8 ^) t8 u. ]6 T- C
Two thirds of those questioned said they thought it would be ‘almost impossible’ to get their dream job and a quarter were unable to follow their preferred career.
) J( D* t5 l j: F, C Only 14 per cent said they felt safe from the sack.
- T9 ~/ I+ o9 R, J3 ]2 S* c* p And the financial situation for graduates was especially bad, with half saying they had so much student debt they could not save.2 f( f/ a7 \/ E. H: D
The same proportion believed they faced worse financial hardship than their parents.
: N7 M6 ~$ W# k8 t/ |+ G/ u+ d One in seven women said they had been forced to postpone getting married because a wedding would be too expensive.9 O+ g/ P* ?6 y1 a" _1 k: [
And more than one in six admitted that financial constraints had made them postpone trying to start a family.
( ^/ z$ b" [7 y, a( G: J# I Vicky Tuck, a campaigner for women’s education and former head of Cheltenham Ladies College, said: ‘The rise in fees is going to make a lot of people reflect on why they are going to university.
+ P9 g' J7 _& S& _9 U+ I# D ‘Before the introduction of fees it was not an automatic assumption that a degree would lead to a good job. It is only recently that we have seen that relationship.$ R8 `, o/ U# b- w
‘I believe that women should only go to university if they have a genuine interest in learning, a precious opportunity. If they go purely to get a job, many will be disappointed. |