January 2010

by Sally Hunt, the general secretary of the University and College Union

With a general election fast approaching this year all political parties are doing their best to prove their credentials when it comes to education. A worrying new study from my union, the University and College Union, has revealed that we will require much more than warm rhetoric if the UK is to avoid slipping to the bottom of international education league tables.
The harsh facts are that the UK is one of the least educated nations in the developed world and its position has worsened considerably since 1995. Analysis of the most recent data on young people in education from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) revealed that the UK has been overtaken by countries such as Portugal, New Zealand, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Greece in recent years.
UCU’s Decline and Fall report revealed that 24 countries have a higher percentage of young people in education than we do and unless we act decisively now we risk becoming the poor man of the developed world.
The following data illustrates just how far we have fallen behind:
In 1995 the UK was ranked 19th out of the 30 OECD countries, with 72% of 15-19 year-olds in education – the same proportion as America – and just 2% below average.
By 2007 the UK only had 71% of 15-19 year-olds in education and was down to 26th out of 30 OECD countries, ahead of only Mexico and Turkey as data was unavailable for Japan and Canada.
To put these figures in to context, there is a real risk of both Mexico and Turkey now overtaking the UK and leaving us bottom of the table. In the 12 years that has seen the UK’s participation drop by 1%, both Mexico and Turkey have seen considerable rises.
The story is not any more encouraging when you look at figures for people aged 20-29. Once again the UK has plummeted down the international league table for the percentage of people in education:
In 1995 18% of 20-29 year-olds in the UK were in education
By 2007 the figure had, like for the 15-19 year-olds, dropped by 1% (down to 17% for 20-29 year-olds).
The drop, coupled with other countries’ improved participation rates, meant that the UK dropped from a mid-table position of 15th out of 30 in 1995, down to 25th out of 30 in 2007.
As data was unavailable for Japan and Canada again, this means only three countries are below the UK. Two of them are again Turkey and Mexico, with Luxembourg propping up the table. This means that in 2007 the countries with lowest percentage of young people in education in the developed world were Turkey, Mexico, the UK and Luxembourg.
In the space of just 12 years (1995–2007) the UK has been overtaken by? Poland, New Zealand, Austria, Switzerland, Korea, Ireland, Greece, Hungary and the Czech Republic for the percentage of the country’s 20-29 year-olds in education.
So what conclusions should we draw from both sets of figures? The analysis shows a shocking decline in the UK’s standing in the world of education. It has gone from a mid-ranking country to one at the bottom of the pile, that is at risk of being overtaken by the few countries still below it and being left even further behind the countries that have overtaken it in the past 12 years. Unless urgent and decisive action is taken the UK will be ill-prepared for life in the new knowledge economy.
Of equal concern is the fact the countries in the ‘second tier’ (OECD partner countries Israel, Russia, Brazil, Chile, Estonia and Slovenia) also enjoy a higher percentage of young people in education than the UK and, like the rest of the developed world, are seeing those percentages increase.
Universities and colleges are worth £87bn a year to the UK economy, yet the UK is seeing a decline in the percentage of people benefiting from them with over a million youngsters not in education, employment or training (NEETs).
So where do we go from here? Sticking plaster policies from parties looking for votes simply will not do. It is essential that we have a proper debate about how to move the UK forward. In December UCU launched the Make Education Count Westminster network that will bring together key players from across the political divide including MPs, peers, local politicians, unions and other key stakeholders.
UCU believes a real cross-party consensus is needed if the UK is to aspire to anything more than just propping up the rest of the developed world. The message to our politicians is that the old order of education for the elite is no longer a model for success and education needs to be put at the top of the agenda in Britain.