For decades, society has told young people that university is the clearest route to a successful career - a view hardened in 1999 when the Government at the time set an ambition that 50% of young people should attend higher education.

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The expansion of universities and student finance made Higher Education increasingly mainstream throughout the 2000s and 2010s, with universities seen as a natural and ingrained next step for academically capable pupils.

Today, young people are challenging that assumption - not least due to the spiralling cost of university. In 1999 tuition fees were capped at £1,000 per year. By 2012 they had risen to £9,000.

At the same time, student loan interest rates became significantly higher for many students, while means-testing of tuition fees was removed.

At a time of rising youth unemployment, the value of a university education is understandably being debated. Parents and young adults alike are weighing the cost of a degree against what it delivers in an increasingly uncertain job market.

What was once a relatively low-cost system that almost guaranteed a good job at the end has shifted to a system based on substantial graduate borrowing, and where,........

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