Your mortarboard is gathering dust in a cupboard under the stairs and hopes of finding your dream job are fading fast. You've come back down to reality with a thud. All of a sudden, you're uttering the words that every University graduate dreads: "Would you like fries with that, Sir?"

Everyone that goes to University has their fair share of mockery; I'm a Journalism student and I'm no exception. Trades are better learnt on the job. Editors don't welcome graduates with open arms. Rather, they look down at snotty-nosed student that have got themselves into thousands of pounds worth of debt when they would have been better putting in some hard graft. So how do I justify my degree?

"That won't happen to me."

But why not? I'm no different from the thousands of University graduates across Scotland that find themselves stuck in call centres, menial office jobs and worst of all the fast food industry. And it's not just those dirty Polytechnic graduates with their Mickey Mouse degrees that are struggling. Graduates from the best Universities in Scotland are finding it harder than ever to get a "proper job."

A poll for consultants Accenture showed that unemployment rates among British graduates is the highest in 5 of the world's largest economies. Nearly two-thirds of those who gained a degree in the UK had not found a job up to six months after leaving university.

Doesn't exactly fill me with hope for the future.

No one is safe. A friend of mine studied Textiles at Edinburgh College of Art. She was fantastic; graduated with first-class honours and was hailed as the next big thing in fashion. She received prizes and a stack of job offers. There was only one problem - none of them were in Scotland. Unless she was willing to give up her life in Edinburgh and head to the Big Smoke, she wouldn't have a future in Textiles.

Of course, graduates should be willing to get off their backsides and find the jobs but the reality is that many of us can't afford to live in London, where the streets are paved with gold and no one on the Tube talks to you. Even with our envied graduate jobs.

Maybe then it's not the students or even the Universities that are to blame. The Executive are encouraging more of us to go to on to higher education and it's easier than ever to get in. No rich parents? Nothing to worry about! Average school grades? Napier will accept you! But if they don't take into account the lack of jobs for our graduates, our students will continue

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

---

Add your voice

Know something about Higher education: How college prepares you to succeed greatly (or fail miserably) in life?
We want to hear your view. Write now!