A Third of People Now Say a Degree Isn't Worth It

A record one in three people now believe a university degree isn't worth the time and money it usually costs, according to new findings from the British Social Attitudes survey reported by the BBC. The share saying university isn't worth it has hit 34 percent, more than double the 15 percent recorded in 2005 and the first time the figure has ever climbed above 20 percent. At Metaintro, we track shifts like this because they reshape how people get hired. The headline matters for every worker, not just students. When public faith in degrees cracks, employers rethink what they screen for, and that changes who gets the interview.

What Did the New Survey Actually Find?

The data comes from the annual British Social Attitudes survey, run by the National Centre for Social Research, which polled 4,656 people across the UK between August and October 2025 and published the results in June 2026. It is one of the longest-running and most respected social surveys of its kind, which makes the swing in sentiment hard to dismiss as a blip.

Beyond the headline 34 percent, the deeper numbers are stark. More than two-thirds of the public, 77 percent, now say a degree does not represent good value for money, up sharply from 51 percent when the question was last asked in 2014, according to reporting from Times Higher Education. Roughly 42 percent say there are simply too many graduates. And 65 percent agree the cost of going to university leaves many students with debts they cannot afford to repay.

Those four findings point in the same direction. The public is not just worried about the price of a degree, it is increasingly skeptical that the payoff at the end justifies the bill. That is a meaningful change for a credential that, for two generations, was treated as the default path to a stable middle-class career.

Why Has Confidence in Degrees Collapsed?

The single most telling number is about money. The proportion of people who believe graduates end up financially better off than non-graduates has fallen to just 36 percent, the lowest level the survey has ever recorded and down from 50 percent two decades ago. That belief was once the bedrock case for going to university. Its erosion explains why families are now openly questioning the return on a four-year investment.

Cost is the obvious driver. Tuition and living expenses have climbed faster than starting salaries for many fields, and the debt load can follow graduates for years. When the expected payoff shrinks while the price tag grows, the math stops working for a larger slice of the public.

There is also a supply-and-demand story. The sense that there are too many graduates reflects a real crowding effect in white-collar entry roles, where a degree no longer sets a candidate apart because so many applicants hold one. That pushes employers to look for other signals of who can actually do the job.

Does a Degree Still Pay Off Financially?

Here the data tells a more nuanced story than the gloomy headlines suggest. Research from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce finds that prime-age workers aged 25 to 54 with a bachelor's degree still earn about 70 percent more at the median than workers with only a high school diploma. The center's Major Payoff report also shows bachelor's holders face an unemployment rate of 2.9 percent versus 6.2 percent for those with a high school diploma alone, so the degree still buys a measure of job security.

The catch is that the average hides enormous variation. Median earnings range from about 58,000 dollars in education and public service fields to roughly 98,000 dollars in science, technology, engineering, and math, with petroleum engineering near the top at 146,000 dollars. In other words, the value of a degree depends heavily on what you study and the debt you take on to do it. A high-cost program that leads to a low-paying field can produce a weak return, which is exactly the gap the public is now sensing.

Time horizon matters too. Georgetown's 2025 ROI rankings note that institutions focused on certificates and associate degrees often post a higher return after ten years, because graduates start earning sooner with less debt. Over a 40-year window, though, bachelor's-granting institutions tend to pull ahead in almost all cases. The lesson for job seekers is not that degrees are worthless, it is that the decision should be made field by field and price by price, not on autopilot.

Is This Just a UK Story or a Global Shift?

The survey is British, but the sentiment is not confined to one country. In the United States, a large share of employers has dropped bachelor's degree requirements from at least some job postings, with large companies including Walmart, Bank of America, and Delta Air Lines loosening credential rules in favor of demonstrated skills. The movement, often called skills-based hiring, reflects the same underlying doubt, that a diploma is a weaker proxy for capability than it used to be. According to HR Dive, about one in four employers said they planned to remove bachelor's degree requirements for some roles by the end of 2025.

Government has moved too. After Maryland declared in 2022 that it would no longer require four-year degrees for thousands of state jobs, at least 20 states have adopted public-sector hiring practices that emphasize aptitude over educational pedigree, according to Governing. That is a structural change, not a passing trend, and it opens a meaningful number of stable public roles to candidates who can show they can do the work.

The shift is real but uneven. A study from Harvard Business School and the Burning Glass Institute found a wide gap between what companies announce and what they actually do. After reviewing more than 11,000 job postings across a decade, the researchers concluded that when you account for how few roles genuinely changed, the benefit reached fewer than 1 in 700 new hires. Only about 37 percent of the companies examined showed measurable change at all. Joseph Fuller, the Harvard professor who led the work, has described the divide between policy and practice in plain terms through the school's Institute for Business in Global Society.

What Happens to Workers Who Skip the Degree?

Where skills-based hiring is genuinely practiced, the outcomes for non-degree workers are encouraging. The same Harvard research found that non-degree hires had a retention rate 10 percentage points higher than colleagues with degrees, and that workers hired without a degree into roles that previously required one saw an average salary increase of 25 percent. Companies that committed to the approach, including names like Apple and Target, hired 18 percent more non-degreed workers.

Apprenticeships are another fast-growing door. Federal data shared through Apprenticeship.gov shows roughly 680,000 active registered apprentices nationwide in fiscal year 2024, a 114 percent jump over the roughly 318,000 a decade earlier, with the U.S. Department of Labor backing a national push toward 1 million active apprentices. As Community College Daily has reported, these earn-while-you-learn programs have spread well beyond construction into manufacturing, healthcare, information technology, and transportation. For workers who want skills and a paycheck at the same time, that is a credible alternative to a traditional four-year path.

The catch is the word "genuinely." Many job listings still quietly favor credentials even after the formal requirement is removed, a pattern sometimes called the paper ceiling. So a worker without a degree benefits most by targeting employers that have a track record of actually hiring on skills, not just companies that issued a press release about it. That makes proof of ability the deciding factor. If a degree is no longer the automatic gatekeeper, the burden shifts to candidates to show, quickly and concretely, that they can do the work.

How Do You Prove Your Value Without a Diploma?

The fastest way to stand out is to lead with evidence. Metaintro CEO Lacey Kaelani, writing for Her Campus, put it directly: "Having a concrete artifact — a project, a paper, or a side project with measurable results – provides the quickest evidence to recruiters of your ability to perform the position's work." In a market that trusts credentials less, a tangible deliverable with a number attached often beats a line on a transcript.

Practical artifacts vary by field. For a marketer it might be a campaign that grew traffic by a specific percentage. For a developer it could be a shipped side project. For an analyst it might be a dashboard or a report that drove a decision. The common thread is a measurable result a hiring manager can see and verify in seconds.

Certifications and short, role-specific training also carry more weight now, because they signal current, applied skills rather than general education. Free and low-cost paths exist too, from open coursework through edX and Coursera to public training resources gathered on CareerOneStop, which is sponsored by the Department of Labor. Pairing a credential with a portfolio of real output is the combination that travels well across the new hiring landscape.

What Does This Mean for Your Career?

If you already hold a degree, this is not a signal that your education was wasted. It is a signal that the degree alone no longer carries the conversation. The advantage now goes to people who can point to specific outcomes, keep their skills current, and articulate the value they create rather than the courses they completed.

If you are deciding whether to pursue a degree, weigh it against the field you want to enter and the price you would pay. In licensed professions such as medicine, law, or engineering, the credential remains essential, and the Georgetown earnings data shows the payoff in high-demand fields can be substantial. In many technology, creative, sales, and operations roles, a strong portfolio plus targeted training or an apprenticeship can open doors that once required a diploma. The smart move is to research how your target employers actually hire before committing years and money.

For everyone, the takeaway is the same. Build proof, track results, and tell your story in numbers. The job market is rewarding demonstrated ability more than ever, and that is something you can start building today regardless of what is on your wall.

People Also Asked

Q: Why do a third of people now say a degree isn't worth it?

A: The British Social Attitudes survey found that confidence graduates end up financially better off has fallen to a record low of 36 percent, while costs have risen. When the expected payoff shrinks and debt grows, more people conclude the time and money no longer add up.

Q: Can I get a good job without a college degree in 2026?

A: Yes, and it is easier than it was. Many US companies have dropped degree requirements from some roles, at least 20 states use skills-based hiring for public jobs, and apprenticeships have grown to about 680,000 active participants. The key is targeting employers that hire on demonstrated skills and proving your ability with concrete work.

Q: Does a college degree still pay off financially?

A: On average yes, with Georgetown research showing bachelor's holders earn about 70 percent more at the median than high school graduates and face lower unemployment. But the return varies sharply by major and cost, from about 58,000 dollars in education fields to 98,000 dollars in STEM, so the decision should be made field by field.

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