Is a university degree still worth it?

For a generation, the advice to young people was simple: stay at school, go to university, and a good job will follow. The figures still lend some support to it. Across the countries of the OECD, adults with a degree earn more on average than those whose education stopped after secondary school, and the gap grows with the level of the qualification. Yet earnings also vary strongly with the field of study, and confidence in the old advice is shaken. More and more families ask whether the effort, and the bill, are justified.

The case for degrees goes beyond pay. A university teaches students to analyse documents, write clearly and defend an argument, skills that outlast any particular job. In an economy where people change employer, and sometimes career, several times, such adaptable skills are a form of insurance. A degree also opens doors to networks and to study or work abroad, which many young people could not easily find on their own.

The cost is the sore point. Countries have answered the question of who should pay in different ways. In Germany, the last state that charged general tuition fees (1) abolished them in 2014, so that most students at public universities there pay nothing for teaching. In other countries, students borrow to study and begin their working lives with a debt that takes years to repay. For them, the value of a degree depends on whether the salary it brings outweighs the loan. These choices say something about how each society sees higher education: as a public good or as a private investment.

Not every degree is equal, either. Some students, attracted by the general idea of university, choose courses with weak links to the job market. Others drop out (2) without a qualification, having paid the costs without receiving the diploma. A prospectus can sell a dream; a graduate's first pay slip may tell another story. Choosing a course is therefore a financial decision as well as an intellectual one, and young people need honest information about what each course leads to.

Vocational training is the obvious alternative. In Germany's dual system, apprentices (3) divide their time between a company and a vocational school and obtain a nationally recognised qualification. Such routes offer experience in a real workplace and, often, a quick entry into employment. They struggle, however, against a prejudice: many parents see university as the respectable choice and an apprenticeship as a second-best one.

Perhaps the question should be rephrased. A degree is not a ticket to success, but one route among several. The real issue is: worth what, and for whom? A society that presents a single route as the only honourable one wastes talent; one that makes every route affordable, well explained and respected gives young people a real choice.