It looks like investment banks are going to start sponsoring students through university
Given the imminent increase in cost of attending a UK university, particularly if you
40k plus immediately post graduation, it seems inevitable that banks will start sponsoring students through their studies.
No banks are prepared to commit publicly to sponsoring students yet. But the head of graduate recruitment at one European bank confirms it's on the cards. "We're already looking at it," she says. "It's something we're interested in."
Banks in Europe have toyed with student sponsorship in the past. UBS previously ran an Academic Sponsorship Programme which offered financial support, mentoring, networking and internship opportunities throughout a student's university career. There was no commitment to working for UBS after graduating.
This has now been replaced by the UBS Horizons, which offers students the opportunity to work abroad with operation Raleigh and to undertake a week's first year internship, but doesn't involve any money.
David Willets, the UK minister of state for universities and science has already called for more businesses to sponsor students' education.
The head of recruitment at another international investment bank says they already offer a few scholarships to students based on merit and that they may extend this. However, he rules out sponsoring large numbers of students: "We'd probably offer 5k for the whole period [of study]. This isn't going to offset higher tuition fees."
Accountancy firms are more generous. Ernst & Young runs a sponsored degree course in which students get some help with fees and a third year work placement.
"Next year we will be sponsoring a number of students and giving them work experience in the summer too," says Shirley Jackson, EMEA recruitment director at E&Y. "We don't cover all their fees, but we do cover some of them."
Deloitte may have found alternative method of dealing with rising university tuition fees. It announced this week that it's ramping up its programme to hire people straight out of school.
