The news that the Careers Advisory Service has been forced to end the individual advisory service it provides to graduates, focusing instead on providing careers advice to current students, is disappointing. The service is not immune to the cuts that have been implemented across college in the last number of years, and this latest decision is an illustration of the pressure its staff have been working under.
But for graduates who will be desperately looking for a job or for advice on how to get one come September, they are entitled to ask: “Why them?”. It’s a good question. Graduates are as much a part of the Trinity community as anyone. Over the course of their degree, they have certainly paid their way for the privilege of studying in Trinity. Many international and postgraduate students too have paid incredibly large sums as students of the university.
As students over the last few years, we have grown used to under-resourced services and staff that are over-worked. Yet as graduates, there is an expectation that Trinity will still be there to support you once you leave. This expectation isn’t totally unfounded. The much-heralded “Trinity community”, which stretches from New York to Rio de Janeiro and often sees visits from the Provost himself, frequently seems much more highly valued than the actual students currently in the university.
This is why the loss of an advisory service to graduates is so difficult to take – it seems to suggest Trinity can no longer afford to value recent graduates at the same level. While long-gone (and often wealthy) alumni are valued, a recent graduate suddenly seems to matter less to the university.
But while graduates have a right to be aggrieved, they should realise that the services they’re leaving behind are still deteriorating for current students. The newly student-focused Careers Advisory Service will still experience delays, and staff will still work under serious pressure.
The reason Trinity has had to cut this graduate support isn’t because they have suddenly decided that graduates aren’t important – programmes like GradLink prove otherwise. But as government funding continues to decline and no solution is found to fund higher education, it is not just graduates who will suffer, but current and future students too.
