Is it worth going to university? Since 1999, when Tony Blair declared higher education the answer to all society’s problems, it has been a question Britain prefers not to ask. Every September, hundreds of thousands of school leavers pack their bags, wait for their maintenance loan to arrive and head off to their chosen city to drink, go clubbing and occasionally hand in an essay.

Does this well-trodden path leave young people better off? It’s almost impossible to find out, not because the information isn’t available but because the government won’t let us see it. The Department for Education knows very well what graduates can expect when they start looking for work. The Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) database, produced by the DfE, contains extensive data on labour market outcomes for students leaving university. It is described as ‘a unique source of information, with the potential to provide transformative insight and evidence on the long-term employment outcomes and educational pathways of around 39 million individuals’.

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