UNIVERSITIES AND CAREERS-I
By 0. V. GUY (Secretary of the Cambridge University Appointments Board)
WITHIN the next few weeks something like 15,000 men and women will be passing from the uni- versities of this country into a world which most of them have to think of in the first instance as a labour-market. The choice of a career is obviously all-important to the young graduate. Fortunately few occupations are in these days closed to him—I say him, because my work lies among men graduates ; the women's case will, I understand, be dealt with in a subsequent article. The main fields of salaried employment for graduates leaving the Universities are industry and commerce ; education ; and the Government and other public services, home and abroad, administrative and - technical, civil and military ; all of which require and compete for the best output of the Universities. Various profesSions con- tinue to attract many graduates, though we have moved far from the days of little over half a century ago, when the Church, the Law and Medicine absorbed nearly 70 per cent, of graduates, Education perhaps 15 per cent., Business some 8 per cent.
What prospect has the graduate today of finding satisfactory employment on leaving the University? Lurid and often apparently circumstantial tales are told of the legions of unemployed young graduates ; newspaper articles represent the situation as deplorable and urgent. I can only deny these stories as far as Cam- bridge is concerned ; it may be that we are more fortun- ately placed than some others ; but replies to an enquiry addressed to the Appointments Boards of some other Universities, widely separated geographically, lend little colour to the grim tales circulated. It seems at the worst to be a matter of delayed employment, serious enough for some young men and their parents, but not the desperate situation I have sometimes seen painted. I have consulted the tutors of three Cambridge colleges, taken at random, to ascertain how many of their men " going down " in June, 1988, can be accounted for by April, 1934, as having either found employment or (in a few cases) proceeded in accordance with their -plans to further studies. At one college, the figure is 47 out of 49 ; at another, 53 out of 57 ; at the third, 61 out of 64. Of the residue in each case, some of the men are actually in employment, either of a temporary nature or not the occupations they want ; one or two do not want employment at all. I confess myself surprised by these figures ; but they are accurate and speak for themselves. Moreover they would have been substan- tially the same, if produced three or four months earlier. Not all the men employed are completely satisfied with their employment, but such cases are very few.
Universities must for the sake of their own reputations maintain a high standard, and, generally speaking, . any boy may be encouraged to come to the University from any home and any school -who can reasonably be expected to take first-class honours ; also, all boys who can be counted upon to exert themselves to develop mind and body : the University is no place in these days for the slack or colourless. For men who profit by their time at the University there is always in normal times a wide choice of career. Times, of.course, have not been normal recently, and much of the talk about an excessive output of graduates may be discounted for this reason. Certain fields of employment have been restricted. Educational openings have not been quite so numerous, but there .is no really substantial restriction. Appointments in biology and agriculture have been scarcer with the general depression in primary production. Engineering remains easy to start in from the. University, with the exception of Civil ; but subsequent advancement, or even employ- ment, has been difficult.
Temporary difficulties must be expected from time to time, especially in days like the present. But on the whole, it is remarkable how little the depression has affected graduate recruitment. The variety of careers open seems always to widen ; recently the opening of the Metropolitan Police College has presented an interesting possibility for the graduate, while the Navy may no longer remain as inaccessible as- it was : hitherto there has been nothing there for the graduate except an occa- sional chance as an Instructor or Schoolmaster, but- a proposal 'is under consideration now for the recruitment of a few University men annually to' the Royal Marines. It is' often asked whether graduates look enough to business' careers. ' It is natural and wholly desirable that 1 a number slio'uld aim for Government service and a good proportion for Education—though a little disturbing to • read that some 85 per cent.' of the total studying in the • Arts and Science Faculties of one of our newer Universi- ties should be doing so on grants from the Board of Education .; for that must inevitably involve some lack of that contact with -a variety of types and interests, which should be One of the advantages of a University course. Education and the Public' Service must be well served, but commerce is after all the life-blood of the nation, and' it is of the first importance that Industry and Cominerce should draw a good proportion of recruits from the Universities; through. which most of the best brains of the country pass.
There has, in fact, been a tremendous development in this direction already, and I do not think Cambridge can be looked to for an appreciably. e' -higher percentag or recruits to business than she now furnishes. The' report of my Board for 1933 showed, in regard to those placed 193 appointnients to Industry and Corn- meree out of a total of 444 for the year. Business must always be in competition with other careers open to graduates;- increased prosperity may turn the minds of young men rathei more in that direction, but the effect of 'this cannot be large ; the man who has the right outlook for business is Probably not deterred from it in any case. Business men 'on the whole do emphatic- ally want graduates ; some are still opposed to the idea, • but their number is steadily decreasin-g. But business men looking to the Universities for recruits ordinarily • want men who will eventually go to the top or some- where near it, and the supply of such men is limited. If candidates of insufficient calibre are taken, mutual disappointment may be expected: the recruitment of in- ferior or unsuitable material certainly accounts for most of the failures; as well as for some of the remaining prejudices against graduates for business life. - The most important job of an Appointments Board is not to produce misfits.
The competition to get into Cambridge colleges today is so great as to ensure a high standard of general ability, and already demands for men of the right type for business are often greater than we can supply. The prospect before university entrants of the necessary calibre is therefore good.
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