Graduate questions whether degree is worth debt as AI threatens entry-level jobs

BBC One's Question Time heard Harrison Fellows, a history and politics student who said he was about to graduate, ask whether his degree was still worth the debt. He said he was entering a world of vanishing entry-level jobs and AI screening CVs. Asked directly, he said he was not sure and probably did not think it was.

On the same BBC One programme, Alastair said he was 'really, really worried' about AI's impact on entry-level jobs and said the effect was already visible in law and marketing. He called for action on intergenerational inequality and said he was launching a campaign with Gus O'Donnell, a former cabinet secretary, and Richard Layard, a professor of happiness. He said the campaign would press for better schooling, mental health support, restored youth services and more apprenticeships.

BBC One's audience also heard a 20-year-old man who said he had attended the same school ask what concrete policies would help people adapt to AI and keep their jobs. A woman in the audience said AI could not replace human expression and the arts and argued that schools should stop cutting those subjects.

In the same Question Time exchange, an audience member finishing a postgraduate degree said the interest rate on student loans varied between 4.1% and 6%. After six years of accruing interest, he said, he did not expect to clear the interest, let alone the loan. He also said nearly six million students were on the loan plan at issue.

James told the BBC One audience that his party had set out a policy to reduce the student loan interest rate and called it a top priority. He accepted that the financing system introduced at the time had been a mistake and that all parties shared responsibility. On AI, he said some jobs would go or be needed less, naming graphic design and editing, but argued that many more would be created.

Emma told the same programme that younger people had had a harder time than her generation and that the loan scheme inherited from the previous party was unfair. She said it was costly to correct and was under review. She argued that the degree was still worth it because human judgment and expression would always have a role, including in the creative industries.

The BBC One exchange ended without a clear answer to Harrison's question. It was a studio debate rather than a reported investigation, and no independent estimates of graduate outcomes or AI job losses were presented.