Student Wastage

Abstract

Failure in life is tragic, and doubly so in adolescence. One in seven of all university students in the UK fail to achieve a degree, or withdraw before examination, and as such this 13 per cent can be regarded as ‘student wastage’. In the United States the figure is much higher (40 per cent), but then since entry to an American State College is, broadly, open to any high school graduate whereas in the UK only 4 per cent of young people achieve the high degree of selection necessary for university entrance, there is no strict comparison. Nevertheless, failure in adolescence to achieve committed objectives is a serious setback both to the individual and to the community, for the 4,500 students in the UK who leave university for whatever reason represent a loss of over £5,000,000 a year to the taxpayers. The underdeveloped countries can afford wastage even less, whether it be in money or in talent, and fundamentally this is the crux of the matter; whether the cause be in faulty selection, inadequate teaching or the milieu of the institution, no community can afford to waste those who have shown that in some way they are capable of further education.