Even with UK job vacancies at a 20-year high, graduate unemployment continues to rise, reaching levels not seen since the post-financial crisis austerity.
Of course many students have worked throughout their studies, but the pressure to find one’s niche or to start a career can be crushing for some. The matter of work is as always a pressing one, and certainly not to be made light of. With any luck, Fowles’ post-university blues will remain as fiction, but a small part of this, namely the protagonist’s displeasure at ‘endless pale grey lists of endless pale-grey jobs,’ rings disturbingly true. Before the end of the second chapter, I found myself confronted with a caricature of the recent grad: drifting without aim, the protagonist comes up against the harsh reality of life outside an institution, unable to form a clear idea of what he should do next. Not long ago, a friend of mine gave me John Fowles’ novel The Magus. I found myself confronted with a caricature of the recent grad: drifting without aim, the protagonist comes up against the harsh reality of life outside an institution, unable to form a clear idea of what he should do next Days spent in lectures, seminars or labs, living with friends and peers, will be swapped for ones at work or at home, often with the added precariousness of job uncertainty or less-than-ideal family situations.
In many cases, the life of a student will completely change once they finish their degree. The fact that we spend such time and energy establishing these routines means it is only natural that big changes would cause a stir. I would go so far as to say that most people, whether they acknowledge it or not, live life in a fairly routine way, rarely deviating very far from their personal norm. Having spent years in education, arguably equipping us with more knowledge than we have ever had before, why is it that students are left feeling so uneasy? Regardless of personal reasoning, be it a sentimental, social, or financial issue, it seems that the majority of students feel panicked at the prospect of graduating. Many will understand immediately what I mean by end-of-degree dread – that is, the constant and unmitigated anxiety at the thought of finishing university. Staring blankly out of a bedroom window at Old Joe, fingers poised limply atop a laptop-keyboard countless students will have been in my position.
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