What is 'Education, Education, Education'?

Nearly 30 years ago, the three-word slogan began in political campaigning, as far as I know. It put Tony Blair in Downing Street in 1997 with ‘Education, Education, Education’; and Barack Obama in the White House in 2008 with ‘Yes, We Can’.  ‘Strong and Stable’ didn't work for Theresa May in 2017 but Kier Starmer successfully dumbed it down to one word in 2024: ‘Change’  

Going back 30 years, when the higher education, education, education sector expanded, my parents said, in characteristic fashion, depressingly, and without hesitation: “half of those degrees are a waste of time.. (not to mention money)”.  

Fast forward to now, and the recent response from the Sutton Trust to the IFS report on the impact of undergraduate degrees on lifetime earnings is absolutely right (and suggests so were my parents): “There is no shortage of criticism of so-called low-value degrees, but there is a chronic shortage of high-quality alternatives.”  Have we, really, spent the last 30 years doing not much, successfully, for the young people with the least financial cushion who carry the greatest risk in accessing higher education, now graduating £60k in debt?  

The Sutton Trust goes further with insightful commentary, quoted below.  Of course, the IFS report does not (and cannot) say what the impact of not doing those undergraduate degrees on lifetime earnings would have been.  

For myself, my own undergraduate qualification falls into the IFS's low-value bucket, but I certainly don't see it that way.  However, we are now adding to an already complicated picture, AI-driven changes to many entry-level roles and to the process of Education itself.  So I do wonder and worry about what is happening in Education, and to our young people.  Especially those spotlighted by this IFS report, and more insightfully by the Sutton Trust in response.  Not to mention the money.