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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol 35 no. 2. 8th March 1972

Sir,

I'd like to warn all your readers of the disadvantages of ever finishing a degree. Having just done that very stupid thing, I find that I am being discriminated against when applying for work (something which I am loathe to do, but which I find necessary when confronted with having to pay for travel tickets, etc)

Employers feel obliged to pay more because of a degree and frequently refuse work to graduates without asking if they would be prepared to work for wages that do not take their degrees into account. The difference often isn't all that much anyway.

The other day I went to see the Toll Exchange where I was told "Sorry you're too highly-qualified. You'd get bored and leave quickly." Now this is possibly quite true, but having a degree doesn't increase your capacity for boredom To the contrary, it enables you to fill in hours of what would otherwise be boredom with pleasant memories of the good old days in the ivory tower and maybe... revolution? By passing our degrees we have become branded in a way that will destine us to a nice safe job sitting behind a desk or in front of a classroom, where we will be paid "for our degrees" and where we can cause no trouble Society would rather let us subvert students in schools than the real might of this country... its toll operators.

Yours,

Giles.