Gen Z rethinks college

For young people around the world, university is no longer an inevitable step between school and a solid career. Gen-Z are rethinking their options,- and with good reason. In the United States, four million fewer teenagers enrolled at a college in 2022 than in 2012.

For many, the price tag has simply grown too exorbitant to justify the cost. From 2010 to 2022, college tuition rose an average of 12 percent a year, while overall inflation only increased an average of 2.6 percent each year. In America today it costs at least US$104,108 (HK$812,042) on average for home students to attend four years of public university - and US$223,360 for a private university. International students already know they face much higher costs. At the same time, salaries for fresh graduates haven't kept up with the cost of college.

A 2019 report from the Pew Research Center found that earnings for young college-educated workers in the United States had remained mostly flat over the past 50 years. Four years after graduating, according to recent data from the Higher Education Authority, a third of students earn less than US$40,000 - lower than the average salary of US$44,356 that workers with only a high-school diploma earn.

Factor in the average student debt ofUS$33,500 that college graduates owe after they leave school, and many graduates will spend years catching up with their degree-less counterparts. This student-debt-driven financial hole is leaving more young graduates with a lower net worth than previous generations.

A slew of recent articles show similar trends in China, as the country's 11.6 million graduates of the class of 2023 face a job market with no jobs. Studying abroad and postgraduate qualifications are also no longer creating the benefits that could once be expected.

China's economy is suffering from a mismatch between the jobs available and the qualifications of jobseekers. Between 2018 and 2021 the number of graduates majoring in sports and education increased by over 20 percent, according to Goldman Sachs.

The widening gap between the value and the cost of college has started to shift Generation Z's attitude toward higher education. A 2022 survey by Morning Consult found that 41 percent of Gen Zers said they "tend to trust US colleges and universities" - the lowest of any generation.

It's a significant shift from when millennials were in their shoes a decade ago.

A 2014 Pew Research survey found that 63 percent of millennials valued a college education or planned to get one. And of those who graduated, 41 percent of that cohort considered their schooling "very useful" in readying them to enter the workforce - that's compared to 45 percent of Generation Xers and 47 percent of boomers who felt the same.

It's difficult to predict the impact of this shift, or if the shift will be sustained, but it might mean a rethink on the function of higher education.

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