I think it depends on what they study. The vocational subjects like nursing probably have a greater retention rate, though thats may be more to do with people having invested more of themselves into it (as in the sense of they have put themselves in debt for a subject that may not be of that much use in other fields).
The comment about "dead mans shoes" is spot on though; for the next ten-fifteen years people like your kids will be competing with people who got their education for free (and who also found it a lot easier to buy a house) and who also have less of an incentive to sod off at 50-55 because their pensions have been cut.
Think the problem is complex , the pensions have been cut the age limit risen , people can work as long as they like, not all of them in fact the majority in that age group did not go into uni so free or not did not have access to it , not many from my age group in Kirkdale did certainly none from my school that i know off.
It was straight onto the work market at 16 for us so that means 51 years of work ahead before you could retire, after UNI these days you will work on average 48 years
Don't forget most of us older ones (I AM 57) have seen interest rates in double figures while buying these houses if you were on even average wages it wasn't easy, and the rental market wasn't much of an option those days.
You will find a lot of older people giving away substantial amounts to there income to children to allow them to keep a home of their own , it's over a third of my income at the moment , i know my sister is doing the same and will be working at least two years longer, to be honest in my case the way the rail industry is going i should be putting it away for my future as a buffer for when i go.
My parents were not in any position to help me at the same stage in my life, which by modern standards up to that point been spent in poverty , living week to week, i had never had a holiday, come home to a house with gas electricity cut off many a time terrible diet ect. we weren't on are own that was life back then, not a bed of roses some seem to think we lived through.
Thankfully my lot have never known that ,never will as long as i am around, in fact they will be quite comfortable when i pop my clogs in reality.
I think the debt the young people get into is daft to saddle them with starting their lives, but unless you have some form of discrimination in subjects ie there is a shortage of a certain type in the country so its free, anything else you pay, there are so many in education these days it would madness to carry on funding it the same as it is now from central government , so its a hard choice.
The answer long term has to be looked at more vocational courses, more social housing , the jobs market looking into, to many unstable jobs on low pay, lack of investment in the UK workforce to get skills through out there lives.
The job blocking isn't easy, possibly do what italy are doing link it to what you have worked after 38 years contributions you get access to a full pension on a percentage of a living wage ?
Unfortunately unless we change the current society in the UK into valuing its people more instead of being a number on the balance sheet we are stuck in the situation we are now.
