Students told degree may be linked to appearance

Students may have to smarten up and get rid of their dreadlocks and facial piercings if they want to get their degrees, university leaders suggested yesterday.

Future undergraduates could have to demonstrate that they are "employable" and have "self-presentation" skills before they are allowed to graduate, according to a report examining ways of making graduates more appealing to employers.

Sir Roderick Floud, president of Universities UK, said that universities were already examining how to give credit to students who had done work experience or improved their employability as part of their final degree assessment.

He claimed that working-class and ethnic-minority graduates were often ignored by major graduate recruiters.

William Locke, a policy adviser for UUK and co-author of the report, Enhancing Employability, recognising diversity, said that undergraduates needed to improve their "self-presentation" skills – including smartening up their appearances if they were to secure the graduate post they deserved.

Mr Locke said: "Appearance obviously is a part of the way someone presents themselves. Obviously students can always do more to improve their skills, but the important thing is learning how to make the most of the skills they have already got and articulate them to an employer in the most effective way."

However, students' leaders said they would be extremely concerned if universities believed that studying for a degree was only about getting a good job.

Mandy Telford, the National Union of Students' national president, said: "The NUS believes that while it makes sense to link degrees with employability and include the business community in the process, a degree is about more than just improving your employability.

"People study to widen their horizons and gain knowledge about a subject that they are passionate about. We hope that these initiatives will keep choices open for students and not narrow the range of subjects available for study."

Carl Gilleard, chief executive of the Association of Graduate Recruiters, said graduate recruitment was now a sophisticated process that aimed to look beyond students' appearances. But he warned that employers would still be put off by outlandish styles.

He said: "By and large employers are quite understanding about student appearance – if you can't be unconventional when you're young, when can you do it? But if you have green hair and a bolt through your nose you are taking a big risk that employers will read that the wrong way.

"Many employers recruit students on campus where they may be very informally dressed. However, companies have strict dress codes and may be very relaxed about how someone looks on campus as long as they follow the rules once they start work."

Professor Floud also attacked employers for blaming universities for graduates' lack of business skills, saying businesses should help devise more relevant degree courses and offer students more work experience. Employers were wrong to expect graduates to arrive "oven-ready" with all the skills they wanted, without making any attempt to improve the situation themselves, he added.

The report, produced with the Careers Service Unit, called for businesses to provide more work-experience placements and allow more of their employees to attend part-time university courses.

Professor Floud added: "Many large graduate employers still do not engage meaningfully with the higher education sector – they simply stand back and list the skills that graduates ought to have when they reach them.

He said: " 'Oven-ready graduates' is the term I've heard."

Liz Rhodes, director of the National Council for Work Experience, echoed his call for employers to offer students more opportunities to improve their skills.

She said: " It seems crystal clear to me that if businesses want graduates to have all the competencies they say they want, they must come forward in larger numbers to offer placement opportunities and other forms of work- experience opportunities.

"It is through those opportunities that students begin to gain the skills required for the working world. It is a classic chicken-and-egg situation and one which we must move on from," she said.