A good time to be a graduate?
The NUS has refuted claims by the higher education minister, Kim Howells, that now is a "good time to be a graduate".
Mr Howells said of the latest statistics from the Higher Education Statistics Agency: "It is a good time to be a graduate. Ninety three per cent of graduates across the UK are in jobs or further study just six months after graduation, and there is evidence that the proportion in work tends to increase further in the subsequent three years."
However, NUS president Kat Fletcher said that the government was glossing over the low salaries and huge debts faced by many graduates. "Whilst the minister and his colleagues had a good time on graduation, with little or no debt to speak of, graduates these days look forward to a lifetime of debt with little or no hope of home owning, providing for their own children's education and saving for a pension," she said.
Yesterday it was revealed that hundreds of newly-qualified teachers in Wales are unable to find jobs because too many of them have been trained. Last year only 770 of the 2,400 teachers registered in Wales could work for the induction year that all new teachers have to complete.
The National Union of Teachers is calling for a guaranteed year of work for new teachers, as in Scotland, while the Welsh Assembly is to lower intakes by a tenth in the next two years.
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