A degree of good sense

By Telegraph View. With people working for longer, and jobs for life becoming a thing of the past, it makes sense for older people to return to higher education. Britain’s elderly may not be pleased to be asked by David Willetts to swap their carpet slippers for a mortar board. Yet the Universities Minister was doing no more than articulating a hard truth. As life expectancy increases, the retirement age must rise, too – otherwise the pension system will become utterly unaffordable. With people working for longer, and jobs for life becoming a thing of the past, it makes sense for those who are so inclined to brush up on their skills, or explore new challenges, by returning to higher education. Not everyone will be keen to dive back into a world of drinking games and essay crises, but some will relish the idea – and given that fewer than 2,000 new undergraduates last year were over the age of 60, out of some 550,000, there is certainly space for a few more elderly faces on the quads. Read more...