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Student debtors more likely to become tax cheats
Students with large debts are more likely to fiddle the taxman once they graduate and get work, researchers have discovered.

An Australian study quizzed nearly 450 students and found that those who had taken out student loans – similar to the loans system in this country – were more likely to be deliberately avoiding paying tax.
The evasion was either being paid cash in hand, exaggerating the amount of deductions or rebates they were entitled to or not reporting the money they earned at all.

Those who felt their university education had been poor were the most likely to try to cheat the tax system, in an apparent bid to recoup their losses.

Lead researchers Eliza Ahmed and Valerie Braithwaite of the Australian National University, said: ‘The graduates seem to think there was some implicit contract between themselves and government when it came to repaying loans.

‘It seems that graduates will pay a fair price if the goods they receive are classed as value for money. If not, they are willing to initiate adjustments through fiddling their tax returns.’

Fat chance of a job
People who are badly overweight are far less likely to get a job than their thinner competitors, a survey has found.

Personnel Today magazine polled more than 2,000 HR professionals and discovered that 93 per cent would employ a normal weight person and only seven per cent would employ an obese one.

Furthermore, nearly a third think that ‘obesity is a valid medical reason’ for not employing someone, 47 per cent think obesity badly affects employee productivity, and 12 per cent say that obese workers are not suitable for client-facing roles.

Some HR officers – 11 per cent – even thought that firms can sack people just because they are obese.
It is thought that obesity costs the UK economy £2bn a year. Statistics show that one in five adults is obese and the number has tripled in the last 20 years.

Personnel Today says that although there is no specific legal protection against so-called ‘fattism’, employers cannot simply dismiss people because of their size. Instead, they must prove their weight has had a negative impact on the business.

Karen Dempsey, from Personnel Today, said: ‘Obesity has not been not been given the same recognition as sex, age, disability and race discrimination. But overweight workers are being marginalised.’

IT graduates fear degree is ineffective
Nearly half of recent IT graduates say they’d have been better off skipping university and going straight into work.

In a poll by FDM recruitment consultancy, 40 per cent said that with hindsight, they would have chosen to avoid debt and get a head start by getting a job after leaving school.

A total of 53 per cent said specific vocational training would have given better employment prospects than their degree course, and 47 per cent felt that their degree did not provide them with the latest IT skills.

Half – 50 per cent – said their lack of qualifications has been the biggest hindrance in finding work, and a more than a third felt that their degree has done little to help them.

The research also reveals that IT graduates are still heavily favouring work in the private sector, with only 10 per cent of those surveyed looking to work in the public sector.

Rod Flavell, chief executive of FDM, said: ‘The national skills shortage is growing ever more acute but this survey shows that the Government’s initiatives are not yet reaching the graduates that need them.

‘It’s also very telling that increasing numbers of students are shunning work in the public sector. Government and industry need to address this by providing more vocational and on-the-job training to give graduates the skills they need to compete effectively in this highly competitive jobs market.’

Graduates avoid costly London
More graduates are looking for work outside of the capital because of the high cost of living there, according to new research.

Credit Card firm Capital One quizzed 1,000 graduates on their work plans and found that only one in five were looking for a job in London. The main reason cited for looking elsewhere was the cheaper cost of housing outside of the capital.

Capital One's Europe HR director Kevin Hogarth said: ‘Our research dispels the myth that the majority of students want to migrate to London. It seems that many graduates feel that they can't afford London.
‘With so many other British cities having so much to offer, they can actually achieve a higher standard of living, more quickly, by opting to live outside of London.’

Less well-off students take worse jobs
Students from poorer backgrounds tend to take any job available – even lower status ones – in a bid to clear their debts, researchers have found.

A report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that people from poorer homes generally went to less prestigious colleges and universities and were less likely to get good degrees.

More than 250 people from disadvantaged areas of western Scotland were studied by Glasgow University researchers. It was found that while many students polled remained ‘fairly positive’ about life, their overall career progression was slow.

Fewer than 60 per cent were in a graduate-status occupation a year after graduating, with many saying they felt their accents, and where they lived, also hindered them.

Graduates from low-income backgrounds were also less likely to have developed clear plans for their future, have gained in confidence or extended their social networks in ways that could help them find degree-level employment.

Student debts were generally made worse by bank loans and credit cards, leading graduates to take ‘any job available’. The researchers emphasised that many of those who took part in the study had made impressive progress in difficult circumstances.

Report co-author Professor Andy Furlong said: ‘The routes these less advantaged students took through higher education were often complex and involved failures, breaks and new starts.

‘Debt was their constant companion and they often supported themselves through college by working long hours away from their studies.’

Never say ‘never’
Graduates filling in application forms should avoid using the words ‘never’ and ‘mistake’ but instead go big on ‘achievement’ and ‘impact’, according to careers experts.

Admissions advisers and psychologists at the University of Hertfordshire have drawn up a list of the 10 top words to make a good impression in applications - as well as the 10 worst words you should use.
For example, the advice tells applicants not to say ‘mistakes’ but to turn it around so the information is presented as ‘valuable lessons’ after gaining lots of ‘experience’.

The advisers say potential employers will see so many similar application letters that it is crucial to use language that generates a positive rather than negative impression.

They say over-emphatic words such as ‘never’ and ‘always’ could give a negative impression that ‘the applicant is making an exaggeration which is seldom true’. Confessing to a ‘mistake’ should also be avoided.

Karen Pine, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire, said: ‘Choosing the right words is vitally important if your application is to stand out from the rest.’

The top ten words to include in application forms are achievement, active, developed, evidence, experience, impact, individual, involved, planning, and transferable skills. The ones to avoid are: always, awful, bad, fault, hate, mistake, never, nothing, panic, and problems.

Medical students’ debts soar
The average debt of final year medical students has broken through the £20,000 barrier for the first time, according to the British Medical Association.

The BMA's annual medical student finance survey revealed that those in the fifth year of medical school have an average debt of £20,172, with those in the final year of a six-year course owing £22,365 – 17 per cent more than last year.

Nearly 1,900 UK medical students took part in the poll. One respondent owed £55,000, more than 100 owed in excess of £30,000, and 10 per cent had debts over £25,000.

Nearly all - 92 per cent - had a student loan, 59 per cent had an overdraft and 19 per cent had a bank loan – the average size of which was £8,580.

The BMA says the high debt levels are because medical students have fewer opportunities to work part-time and face extra costs for books, travel to hospitals, and medical equipment.

Kirsty Lloyd, the chairwoman of the BMA's medical students committee, said: ‘Making the grade as a doctor should be about talent, compassion and commitment, not on how much money you're prepared to borrow.’
Junior doctors' pay starts at just over £20,295 for a basic 40-hour week after they graduate, although the average GP net income was estimated at more than £83,000 in 2005.

The Higher Education Minister, Bill Rammell, said there is a good financial package in place to support medical students. He said: ‘From the fifth year of their course, medical students can apply for a means-tested NHS bursary and a reduced-rate maintenance loan which could add up to as much as £3,030 a year as well as having their fees paid by the NHS.’

Monster of a careers site
Online careers and recruitment resource Monster has launched a new graduate community on its UK site to help those starting out on the career ladder.

The site, at http://graduate.monster.co.uk includes podcasts – so careers advice can be played on an MP3 player – as well as a graduate events calendar, employer profiles, news and careers tips and a forum where graduates can ask questions and share experiences.

Alan Townsend, head of marketing at Monster UK, said: ‘For many graduates, online recruitment is the fastest and most efficient way of looking for jobs.’

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