By Community Correspondent Anish Kaul Students all over the country have received their A Level and GCSE results. However they are all going to be involved in tough journeys involving scraps for work oppurtunities and university places.

At The Hollyfield School in Surbiton the result slips where dished out to students. Recently these days have developed into a sort of Groundhog Day with the usual platitudes of improvement in all round exam performance by the students derided/praised by the media. However with the current economic climate infecting all walks of a society hopelessly dependent on capitalism, the focus of this results day was shifted elsewhere.

Shifted, of course, to the struggle for many of these students to get to university following these results. A task which was once so simple is now being cranked up in difficulty by the recession. This current cancer on the economy is strangling the life out of universities (with more than a bit of help from the government let’s not forget). As the money dries up, whole degrees and courses that would normally offer a world of opportunity to our youngsters are shut down. Furthermore, the government, fuelled by a seemingly heightened desire to make it harder for young people to make a living are pushing university fees to the maximum. It will now cost upwards £7000 to get to university, assuming your grades are good enough.

Grades are another factor in this sad tale. Like it or not students are relentlessly achieving higher and higher grades. The number of students achieving at least 5 A*- C GCSE grades has risen for almost 30 years in succession and there is a similar correlation for the A level results. It is no secret that for every university place available there are up to 6 students competing for it. This is to the point that, as a professor from University College London stated in a recent interview, universities are ‘turning away students with A* grades across the board’.

So there you have it. Life for these young people will be tough, and that is putting it very, very generously. Members of the older generation are often stereotyped as complaining about contemporary life and proudly proclaiming ‘Things where better in my day!’ Sadly it seems that in some respects, this still rings true.