Fees Evaluated Finance More bang for your buck
As school fees increase and parents face tough budgeting decisions, fi nance expert Dan Townend asks so what DO you get for your money?
costing on average £13,000 a year for prep schools and in some cases more than £30,000 for senior schools – has to be on the list for discussion. So is the investment made by parents in their children’s independent education justifi ed? Beyond the headlines, the hard facts for putting children into the independent sector remain compelling. A good UK university education – and the emphasis must be on the “good” – is essential. Graduates enjoy lifetime earnings of
A
around £100,000 more than non-graduates, and around 92% of privately educated pupils go on to university. But with headlines fi lling us with doom about graduates struggling to fi nd work, it’s only when you delve into the statistics that the argument for an independent school education becomes
even more compelling. Let’s start with a
s living costs rise and salaries fall in real terms, parents are having to make some tough decisions and their children’s education,
Schools guide pupils
few basic facts. Only 7% of all children are educated in the independent sector, but these children dominate the best universities. Forty seven per cent of Oxford undergraduates come from private schools, while 25% of the students at most Russell Group Universities – widely recognised as the strongest research-led institutions in the country – are from the independent schools sector. Subject-wise, privately educated pupils take the most highly regarded courses, which greatly increases their employment prospects later. Figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, indicate that nearly a third (28.5%) of all medicine and dentistry students come from fee- paying schools. Similarly, engineering and the sciences are also dominated by privately educated students. So, for instance, twice as
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towards the subjects that will benefi t them, rather than the subjects that will help the school rise up the league table
many private school pupils (38%) took maths A level compared to comprehensive pupils (21%). Looking further down
the line, the dominance of private schooling is revealed in the numbers of movers and shakers in the country.
So, for instance, 75% of judges and 70% of fi nance
directors are privately educated. At a time when traditional
apprenticeships are limited and a degree
is required for any management role, it means not going to university has become a life- limiting decision and a private education is one of the surest roots to higher education. Head of research at the Independent Schools Council (ISC), Rudolf Eliott Lockhart, says one of the key issues is that private schools continue to teach “tough” subjects, including maths and the sciences, which are prized by universities. “Schools in the independent sector have the good fortune to be free of Government interference and are thus able to choose the best curriculum for their pupils, concentrating on education rather than targets,” he says. “T ese schools can guide pupils towards the
subjects that will benefi t them, rather than the subjects that will help the school rise up a league table.” T e results back up his claims (see box below). While parents may not be able to buy happiness for their children, they can certainly set them on the right path to achieving a good career which statistically enhances their wellbeing.
Put like that, it almost makes an investment of £250,000 per child for their school career seem like good value for money.
How well privately educated students do
66% approx. of GCSE exams taken by private pupils were awarded A or A*
33% of students achieving AAA at A level are from the private sector
47% of Oxford students are educated in the independent sector
25% of Russell Group students are privately educated
75% of judges are privately educated
70% of fi nance directors are educated in the independent sector
Autumn 2011 FirstEleven 53
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