VALUE OF A VAKSITY DEGREE

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 156, 28 March 1939, Page 6

VALUE OF A VAKSITY DEGREE

Useless Qualilication, Says Woman Graduate OXFORD STUDENT FAILS TO FIND A JOB “Wlint is a university graduate fitted for,” asks Margaret Adams, graduate of Oxford University, writing in tile ‘’Daily Mail.” She states that to a young woman faced with the task of earning her own bread and butter, a degree is a useless qualification. Apart from school-teaching, library work and the law, the only career open to the woman graduate, whose education will have cost her at the least £IWO, is that of a shop-girl. ‘‘For the past 30 days 1 have been looking in vain for a job.” she writes.

-I have been interviewed by half a dozen employers, and with exactly similar results. They all congratulated me on my honours degree in English Language and Literature, but they did not give even the slightest suggestion that they thought this ‘‘achievement,’' as they termed 11, a suitable qimlilieatiou for a job. Sixteen Years of Learning. “After 1G years of learning I think I tun justified in considering myself at least partly educated. At school I acquired all the usual titbits of knowledge on several subjects, and at Oxford I specialized in English literature.

“When I came up to London 10 days ago—after six mouths of si>eciai study since coming down from Oxford last summer —1 was hoping lor a job which I should like to do; which would be interesting to me and give me a chance to develop my ability. “After five days of fruitless searching for any such occupation, 1 turned my attention to trying for some work which 1 could do. Similar unsatisfactory results iu this endeavour have now led me to ask myself—ls there any job 1 can do? Chance as Saleswoman.

“What is a graduate directly fitted for? ... “Outside the scholastic sphere, librarian’s work (with limitations) and, in some eases, the law, the only material assistance my hard-earned B.A. can give me is perhaps a slight pull in the right direction if f were to apply for a job as saleswoman hi a large firm. “It is ironic to know that I can hammer in vain on the doors of the advertising world, knoiwing that in the rooms'behind the closed portals my English studies may be of some use, while the door of the salesroom where Shakespeare and Chaucer are aliens, can be pushed open with comparative ease.

“This pleasing (to the desperate job-seeker) predilection of the big Storekeeper for the university-trained girl threatens to make him the sole refuge of the highbrow unemployed.

Costly Education.

“The minimum cost of three years at Oxford is £OOO, which is probably three times ns much as a good secretarial training. As a financial proposition the university education Is a flop, “If I had been prudent at 16, and if my mind had btwm concentrating on the question of a career which would give the best return for my money and for mv time spent. I should not have gone to Oxford. “Instead, I should have taken school certificate at JG and then should have had a brief but ellicient training in shorthand ami typing. My now I should have had a secure job and be using the knowledge I had acquired. “I shall have to accept the conclusion that the scheme for producing ellicient, intelligent women who are anxious to work in the world is unsound, and regrettably interior to the Victorian plan of bringing up girls not in universities to be business women. but in kitchens to be wives.”