Star comment: Lessons in advanced education
The creation of a new university in Shrewsbury has been one of the most positive developments in Shropshire's recent history.
New jobs are being created for highly-skilled workers, inward investment is bringing more money to the county town and aspirant teenagers can now choose to study locally rather than move to some far off town or city.
The picture for higher education in Shropshire ought to be rosy. It is, in fact, anything but.
While the number of British teenagers applying for degree courses is at an all-time high, the number of Shropshire students seeking to join the academic gold rush is disproportionately low. The county lags behind other regions in the UK as students elect not to continue their education at universities around the UK. The figures for Telford students are particularly poor and each year many elect not to take up the educational opportunities that might be available to them.
Of course, we might expect there to be fluctuations among different towns and districts. Some areas serve a demograph that is better suited to immediate entry into the world of work and apprenticeships while others have a population that has greater academic gifts and wishes to further natural intelligence by obtaining advanced qualifications.
Disparities in the population, however, do not disguise the bigger picture, which is unexpectedly bleak.
Hundreds of children in our region are each year failing to follow a career path that might to better employment, higher levels of job satisfaction and higher levels of renumeration.
Ludlow MP Philip Dunne enjoyed an exceptional education and used it as the foundation for a brilliant career in business and politics. So when he speaks about the need to do more we should sit up and listen.
Mr Dunne is now a Government minister and he believes a generation of youngsters are in danger of under-achieving.
He is right. Education is big business in the UK. It attracts huge sums from overseas students and helps to stimulate economic growth at a local level.
Our headteachers, education officers and school governors must therefore reflect on whether they are doing enough to help degree candidates. The answer, most probably, is no. Therefore more must be done to clear academic pathways so that local teens enjoy a brighter future.
