WHY are we suddenly so obsessed with the idea all our young people must be sent away to university?

In recent years the number of under graduates has rocketed, and at the same time, a plethora of average teaching establishments have strived to obtain university status.

But what’s the point? Surely the glut of extra places mean any snob value previously attached to universities has been lost, so it can’t be that.

It seems to me we’re pushing people into academic courses just for the sake of it. The last time my tyre was changed it was done by someone with an MA in sports science. And my local barmaid finished her English degree last year.

Not that there’s anything wrong with these people improving themselves and gaining an education per se. But, we seem convinced getting more people through uni means everyone is better educated and society better off as a result and this just isn’t true.

For some people university isn’t the right choice, even if they have got good A Levels, and we need to allow them to be comfortable with choosing another route.

Scores of graduates struggle to find jobs each year and many come to realise they’d have been better off simply joining the world of work three or four years earlier.

Everyone should be encouraged to better themselves and education is never a bad thing, but university is only one of the options out there.

Here’s an idea. Why doesn’t one university undertake research into exactly how many graduates will be required in each sphere of the workplace? Then we can encourage university applications accordingly and no-one would be wasting their time.

What do you think? Is university too easy to get into these days? Does it do us any good to have so many university graduates? Should university be reserved for only the most academically gifted students? Add your comments below.