As Sonia Sodha argues, the political debate on universities has focused on fee levels and headline prices to the exclusion of almost everything else, including the benefits and value of a university education, and how they might be improved (“It’s time to reinvent what universities can be, Comment).

As many of the officers of the National Union of Students have commented over the past few years, universities should place much more emphasis on the quality of teaching and what is taught. A highly critical select committee report on quality and students contained the following student quote: “Contact time we have with staff is a problem. Lecturers are often informative but there is no one-to-one time. Sometimes I feel like I’m in a sausage factory rather than surrounded by some of the foremost minds in my field.”

Universities should focus more on how learning contributes to wider social functions such as active and ethical citizenship and shaping a democratic civilised and more sustainable society, which is crucial if they are to play an active and responsible role in an increasingly complex and uncertain world. An expanding population, increasing globalisation and advances in technology will bring colossal societal and ecological changes, particularly if our unsustainable practices and lifestyles prevail. This is just a taste of what a graduate’s future might look like.

Universities have a significant role to play in developing “sustainability literate” leaders and hence optimising their contribution to the future of society, the environment and the economy. A small number of UK universities have begun to respond to this agenda, notably the universities of Aberdeen, Bristol, Keele and Worcester but much more needs to be done by all our universities to prepare graduates for an uncertain future.

Professor Stephen Martin

Former chair of the Higher Education Academy

Education for Sustainable Development Advisory Group

Worcester

The rapid social and economic changes of the 21st century require perpetual innovation from our universities. Research we commissioned from Youthsight revealed that 67% of undergraduates expect the world of work to significantly change over the next 20 years and from our experience one of the chief concerns of students today is how far their degree will equip them to meet these changes.

Ensuring that degrees deliver skills that are “future-proof” requires universities to think creatively about how they are structured. Partnering with private sector companies is one option for doing so, as they can directly feed in the attitudes and aptitudes that they want to see in graduates, while helping universities to build work experience and internship opportunities into their courses. This in turn would help universities develop the next generation of graduates with the skills and experience employers need and those that our continued economic success demands.

Sarah Macdonald

Vice principal (academic quality and enhancement)

Pearson College, London

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Sonia Sodha claims that the purpose of a university degree should be directly linked to the needs of employers and the labour market. So, education and learning have no intrinsic worth, and creating cultured, educated citizens who can think for themselves and possess a variety of cognitive skills is old-fashioned nonsense, only still believed in by dinosaurs like me! Instead, universities must slavishly serve the needs of big business and the deity that is “the market”.

Is there no sphere of civil life or human activity that can be spared the philistine assumption that they have no purpose or merit unless they directly serve corporations and the pursuit of profit? Can we not have an economic system that serves society, rather than a society which exists to serve the economy?

Pete Dorey

Bath