The UK is experiencing a “distinct wave” of public scepticism about the value of going to university, according to a survey of attitudes across 31 countries.

The nation is the least likely of all those polled to consider university degrees essential or good value, the finds.

It follows findings by the British Social Attitudes Survey, which suggested earlier this year that the proportion of the general public in England who believe a degree is not good value for money has hit a record high.

While people in places such as Argentina and Singapore believe strongly that degrees are worth the cost, just 28 per cent of Brits told pollsters that degrees in their country merit the money spent on them.

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“While higher education remains the default route to career opportunity globally, public opinion across Great Britain has diverged significantly from international norms,” the Ipsos findings report.

The Ipsos survey, released on 26 August, polled more than 20,000 people from nations including India, Japan, Australia, Brazil, South Africa and the US.

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On average, 53 per cent of all those asked said they think university degrees are good value for money. But the assessment of value does not always dovetail with perceptions about the efficacy of degrees in the job market. In Argentina, for instance, degrees are seen as both important and worthwhile, whereas in the Netherlands, university is viewed as good value but not a necessary path for success.

“The US reflects a more transactional perspective, where degrees are often seen as necessary despite concerns about value for money,” the report states. But Britons took a very different view; the 40 per cent of the 1,000 polled who said a degree is very important to succeed in life was the lowest in the survey. And a roughly equal share (39 per cent) would advise young people today to enter the workplace directly rather than pursuing higher education, making the UK one of only two countries surveyed where straight-to-work is seen as preferable to further study.

Meanwhile, 59 per cent of highly educated Britons agree that a degree helps career progression, compared with 45 per cent among those with lower educational qualifications.

Nick Hillman, director of the ����Vlog Policy Institute, told ����Vlog the findings were “worrying”.

“I’d love to say that these results are nonsense so we shouldn’t believe them, but it looks like a very big survey done by a serious polling company,” he said. “So we do have to take them at face value.”

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Hillman suggested the polling might reflect recent political chatter, saying: “We’ve had years of people attacking universities from the political left and from the right, so in the end, that seeps into people’s perceptions. Then you’ve got worrying data around the state of graduate outcomes.”

But he said it was important to “look even more at what people do, rather than what they say”.

“If you look at the Ucas numbers, demand for higher education remains very very strong,” he noted, referencing the most recent A-level results day data from the admissions service. “More people will be going to university this autumn than did last autumn.”

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Hillman argued that people might use opinion polls to “send a signal to policymakers” about discontent regarding issues such as a difficult job market and the high cost of student debt.

Alternatives to higher education in the UK are not as strong as those in many other countries, he added.

“I don't want to sound complacent…but all the historical evidence [shows] that when a country is facing a problem, the best thing you can do is raise your education system to the highest possible level,” he said.

“Let’s say you’re 18 now and you’re not that bothered about going to university or not, but you can’t find a sensible job. [In such a case] going to university is a good thing to do...in an AI world, we need to be smarter than in a pre-AI world."

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georgia.luckhurst@timeshighereducation.com