So conventional was the view that a University education will lead to a better career that Britain has taken several years to adjust to the reality of potentially poor earnings, despite a £40,000+ debt (taking account of maintenance as well as tuition). The steep rise in costs combined with the growing evidence that a degree is of little value to many graduates now risks making a University education fall out of fashion. Some companies are changing their approach. BT and some of the accounting firms are reducing the graduate intake in favour of 18 year olds as they can be just as quick to learn, but are less expensive to employ.This is unfortunate for the Universities. But it’s especially bad news for the country. Should students be treated as customers in Universities? Is a degree value for money and what courses should we be running ? Should our Universities be so well funded by foreign students from countries such as China ? Please join us to discuss.

The Speakers at this event are:

Peter Ainsworth is the Managing Director of Consulting AM and is the author of the Institute of Economic Affair’s most recent paper, Universities challenged: funding higher education through a free-market ‘graduate tax’. He has written extensively on the subject of University Education and you can find a number of his articles at Conservative Home on: https://www.conservativehome.com/author/peter-ainsworth.

Brooks Newmark was the MP for Braintree, a Government Whip and Minister for Civil Society. Brooks was educated at Harvard and Oxford. Brooks is the founder of the education charity A Partner in Education (seewww.apartnerineducation.org). Brooks has served on various Boards at Harvard University, London Business School and Tel Aviv University and lectures in Business, Politics and Economics.

Lance Austen lectures in Business and Accountancy, he is a Councillor in the South West of England and was an approved Parliamentary Candidate at the last election. He worked in Business for many years before moving into Politics and Education and is the Champion for the National Discussion Groups within the Conservative Policy Forum. Twitter is @LanceAusten