'We're losing some good young people; they're our greatest natural resource, and some of them are being lost for ever.' (HEADMASTER) ' It's been too easy for too many for too long. Cutting down means selection. And selection means quality.' (BUSINESSMAN)
Competition for a place at university or polytechnic has never been so fierce. Yet at the end of it all, a degree no longer guarantees a 'job. Tonight's Inquiry film focuses .on a group of school-leavers and :four recent graduates as they make their way through the higher education and job ' markets '.
In the studio Ludovic Kennedy asks policymakers, teachers and students: Are too many bright school-leavers missing out? Is higher education a right-or an economic need? What is the point of degrees -training to think, or training to do? Are we really wasting our greatest natural resource? Film reporter HAROLD WILLIAMSON
Studio director PIETER MORPURGO
Producers JUDI CONNER , CHARLES FURNEAUX Editor TIM SLESSOR