Students given tips to stop gap year travel being 'a new colonialism'

Volunteering in developing countries such as Nepal can help young people gain confidence and a sense of self-reliance. Photograph: Jonny Cochrane/Alamy

The multi-million pound gap-year industry is in danger of damaging Britain's reputation abroad and raising fears that the west is engaged in a new form of colonialism, according to a leading thinktank.

Young people planning a gap year should focus on what they can offer their hosts in order to discourage the view that volunteering is merely a new way of exercising power, says a new report by Demos.

Those who carefully select the projects in which they take part are likely to make the most of their time, while doing the most to dispel the belief that their trips are merely self-interested, says the report.

Nine out of 10 young people surveyed by YouGov for Demos said they had improved their self-confidence, self-reliance and sense of motivation following a stint of volunteering in a developing country.

However, the gap-year industry is a ?6bn business for western companies, costing volunteers between ?1,500 and ?4,500 for a mere two-month experience. One in five people who took a gap year said they believed their presence in the place they visited made no positive difference to the lives of those around them.

Jonathan Birdwell, author of the Demos report, said there was even evidence that an ill thought-out gap year could be bad for local communities and Britain's relations with other countries. "There is a risk of such programmes perpetuating negative stereotypes of western 'colonialism' and 'charity': a new way for the west to assert its power," he said.

Birdwell added that "projects that do not appear to have benefits or make a difference for communities abroad leave volunteers unmotivated and disillusioned".

One respondent to the survey's report said: "I felt that the local community could have done the work we were doing; there were lots of unemployed people there. I'd have preferred to work with local unemployed and helped them in some way to benefit their community."

The study comes in the wake of the government's launch of the International Citizen Service which, in the words of the prime minister, is designed to "give thousands of our young people, those who couldn't otherwise afford it, the chance to see the world and serve others".

The scheme is means tested, allowing those who come from families with a joint income of less than ?25,000 the chance of a gap year for free. The pilot of the scheme will involve 1,080 young people visiting 27 different countries.

The Demos report found that 64% of 3,000 parents surveyed want their children to take part in the ICS scheme. However, Demos's research indicated that there were key factors which make a gap year successful and the report recommends the ICS should incorporate them.

There should be post-placement support, which allows the young person to continue the work they started abroad once back home, it claims.

The report says there should be pre-departure training to ensure that young people are able to offer relevant skills. It says placements which are short are just as likely to have positive outcomes in personal development and civic participation as long-term ones. Young people who live with a host family are also more likely to report positive outcomes in "skills, identity and values".

The report found that the typical UK overseas volunteer tended to be young, affluent, white and female, although those with few qualifications and those from low-income backgrounds reported the most positive experiences.

Birdwell said he hoped the ICS would grow to help around 3,000 young people a year and that these would be the least well-off in society. He said: "The new International Citizen Service is an exciting opportunity for young British people to experience the world and gain invaluable experience and skills while helping to contribute to the UK's international development goals.

"However, the ICS is competing with an already crowded gap-year market. In order to be successful, it must ensure that activities benefit communities abroad and it must target recruitment to young people who couldn't afford commercial gap year programmes."

Harry went on an expedition with funding from the charity Raleigh International to Costa Rica and Nicaragua before starting at Manchester on a business studies course. "I wanted a gap year which gave me work experience, a chance to travel and the chance to give something back to a community. When I returned, I managed to get on to an internship with IBM. I could have just travelled to Australia like everyone else, but how often do you get to trek through rainforests, build a community centre for a remote village or reforest a national park?"

Amy spent eight weeks in Nakavika village, Fiji, in 2008 before studying English at Nottingham. "I learnt nothing. By and large, the villagers living there seemed really happy. Probably earlier projects would have been rewarding, when you helped to build their toilets and when they didn't have sports equipment and text books already. I felt the only impact I had was the money I paid. Realistically, my presence only positively impacted the children there, as we played with them a lot when we were meant to be 'building'!"

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University tuition fee hike will hit 100,000 of this year's unlucky students

Students at St Andrews University take their weekly Pier Walk. Photograph: public domain

More than 100,000 students will face a double disappointment when they fail to find a place at university this summer and are hit with the prospect of trebled tuition fees when they try again in 12 months' time.

Official figures reveal the size of the group who will fail to attain a university place in the last year before fees shoot up. It is made up of 75,000-85,000 who would have gone on to standard university courses and a further 10,000 to 20,000 nursing, midwifery and teacher training applicants.

It is about 10,000 people larger than it would have been because of the coalition's decision to renege on the Labour government's pledge to increase the total intake in 2011 as they did in 2010.

Usman Ali, the National Union of Students' vice-president for higher education, said the stakes were high for students. "For several years now we have seen the numbers of qualified and ambitious students applying to university outstripping the number of places available, forcing those young people to fight for jobs in an ever-shrinking youth job market," said Ali.

"The most determined choose to reapply the following year, but those who miss out this year will find themselves with fees trebled and government funding slashed simply because the government is not willing to expand investment in skills and education for young people when it is most needed.

"Those students will find themselves stuck between the rock of high youth unemployment, and the hard place of spiralling debt.

"Those who do enter university in 2012 will accrue more debt at university than any generation before, and once the implications of the white paper become clear, they could even find that their fees are higher than those who follow them."

According to the research from the House of Commons library, those most likely to miss out are mature, disabled or black students, or those with lower educational attainment.

Meanwhile, the Royal Society of Chemistry has raised concerns over the debts prospective scientists face. Using the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills' own figures, it claims a senior academic on a salary of ?75,000 would pay back three times the ?45,000 loan they would be expected to take in order to complete their studies.

However, Professor David Phillips, president of the society, said that the publishing by universities of employment prospects by degree would highlight how well the sciences fare against other subjects.

He said: "These consequences affect all students, whatever subject they study. However, students would do well to consider what the employment prospects are for any course they undertake.

"For some subjects these are bleak, but for the 'hard' sciences, and particularly chemistry, employment prospects are very good, so we urge schools to encourage science students into subjects like chemistry [and engineering and physics] where employment is not only highly likely, but fills a national need also."

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said: "Going to university has always been a competitive process and not all who apply are accepted. Despite this, we do understand how frustrating it is for young people who wish to go to university and are unable to find a place.

"We are opening up other routes into a successful career. Our reforms will make part-time university study more accessible."

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