Two year bachelor degrees have been discussed before as a way of getting past an academic year designed by and for a society long-since gone. However, while this may reduce costs and improve potential return on investment for undergraduates in fee-paying countries, it does not necessarily overcome the problem of competition for jobs. When universities graduate final-year cohorts in July (northern hemisphere) then everyone is joining the job market at the same time. Taking the UK as an example, nearly half a million new graduates enter the workforce each year, plus another couple of hundred thousand post-graduates. That’s a lot of competition.
This piece in The Independent shows that some students are switching to January start times for degree courses so they graduate at a different time of year from the majority. The percentage doing this has risen from 0.5% to 1.2% according to HESA Anecdotal evidence suggests they get a better response from employers and find suitable work more easily.
Definitely something to think about.
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