近半數英國女性後悔讀大學

Young women are losing faith in the university system with nearly half believing it is not worth getting a degree.

Tuition fees and little chance of landing a good job make higher education an unattractive prospect for them, a study suggests.

It found that nearly half of female graduates would not go to university if they had the chance again.

The research will cause concern because it was carried out before the Government announced that fees will almost treble to £9,000 in 2012.

The findings have prompted warnings that a generation of ambitious young women will miss out on a high-flying career and the opportunity to continue their education.

Louise Court, editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, which conducted the survey, said young women seem to think university ‘a waste of time’.

‘It’s never been harder to be a young woman with ambition,’ she said. ‘Understandably, women are angry and frustrated about their future and this is having a damaging affect on their self-esteem.

The survey of 1,353 women also looked at the career prospects and financial outlook for women in 2011.

Two thirds of those questioned said they thought it would be ‘almost impossible’ to get their dream job and a quarter were unable to follow their preferred career.

Only 14 per cent said they felt safe from the sack.

And the financial situation for graduates was especially bad, with half saying they had so much student debt they could not save.

The same proportion believed they faced worse financial hardship than their parents.

One in seven women said they had been forced to postpone getting married because a wedding would be too expensive.

And more than one in six admitted that financial constraints had made them postpone trying to start a family.

Vicky Tuck, a campaigner for women’s education and former head of Cheltenham Ladies College, said: ‘The rise in fees is going to make a lot of people reflect on why they are going to university.

‘Before the introduction of fees it was not an automatic assumption that a degree would lead to a good job. It is only recently that we have seen that relationship.

‘I believe that women should only go to university if they have a genuine interest in learning, a precious opportunity. If they go purely to get a job, many will be disappointed.’

年輕女性正在對大學失去信心，近半數的女性認爲攻讀學位不划算。

一項調查顯示，由於大學學費高企，找到好工作的可能性又很小，高等教育對女性的吸引力越來越小。

該調查發現，如果再給這些大學畢業的女性一次選擇的機會，近半數人不會去讀大學。

這項調查是在英國政府出臺新學費計劃前進行的，調查結果讓人憂心。新計劃說大學學費2012年將漲到9000英鎊，幾乎是現在的三倍。

該調查警告說將有一代胸懷大志的年輕女性會因此失去繼續受教育的機會和一份有前途的職業。

這項調查是由《時尚》雜誌開展的，該雜誌主編路易絲•康特說年輕女性似乎認爲讀大學是 “浪費時間”。

她說：“做一個有抱負的年輕女性從來沒有像現在這麼難。可以理解，女性對她們的未來感到憤怒和絕望，這對她們的自尊心是一種傷害。”

該調查採訪了1353位女性，調查了她們在2011年的職業前景和經濟狀況。

三分之二的被調查者認爲找到理想工作“幾乎是不可能的”，四分之一的人無法從事自己喜歡的職業。

只有14%的被調查者說她們覺得自己不會被解僱。

而畢業生的經濟狀況尤其糟糕，半數畢業生說她們的學生貸款太多，根本攢不下錢。

有一半人認爲她們面臨的經濟困境要比她們的父輩更加嚴重。

七分之一的女性說婚禮的鉅額支出迫使她們延遲結婚計劃。

超過六分之一的人承認因爲經濟窘迫而推遲生育計劃。

婦女教育運動領導者、切爾滕納姆女子學院的前校長薇琪•塔克說：“學費上漲將使很多人都開始思考上大學是爲了什麼。

“雖然在學費上漲計劃之前，人們也不會自然而然地認爲學歷能帶來理想工作。但是到了最近人們纔開始看重這兩者之間的聯繫。

“我認爲女性應該是出於對學習的真正興趣、想得到一個寶貴的學習機會而去上大學。如果她們僅僅是爲了找工作而去上大學，那很多人都會覺得失望的。”

Vocabulary:

land: to succeed in getting a job, etc., especially one that a lot of other people want 成功得到，贏得，撈到（尤指許多人想得到的工作）

high-flying: very successful（十分成功的）