Every year sees renewed media debate about the value of a university degree, writes John Raftery, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Student Experience at Oxford Brookes University

Many commentators look at the decision to study as an economic one.

‘Is it worth it?’ they ask, weighing up the returns against the financial commitment.

That is: they tally up how much investment a student will need to make for tuition fees, accommodation, food and other costs over the three years of study and compare those with the generally higher lifetime earnings by graduates.

According to a recent study by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, possession of a university degree has very substantial effects on net lifecycle earnings, with an increase of 28 per cent for men and 53 per cent for women.

Over a 40-year working lifetime, Labour Force Survey figures show a graduate will earn approximately £415,320 more than someone without a degree, and, of course, people also read all those job adverts requiring a degree.

Yet the story doesn’t end there.

Happily, life is about a lot, lot more than money.

And I’m glad to say university is about so much more enrichment than the purely financial.

University studies set people up for the future in many ways.

Institutions like Oxford Brookes create an environment filled with opportunities.

Students benefit from a unique set of experiences helping them pursue a happy and successful life, aside from the money they earn.

Attainment at university can lead to measurable happiness.

Graduates are less depressed.

They are healthier because they are less likely to smoke, for example.

A large amount of research has been carried out in the US on the benefits of a university – ’college’ in the States – education.

One US study showed 25-year-olds who achieve a bachelor’s degree have a life expectancy almost nine years longer than those who did not have a high school diploma.

The researchers believe graduates tended to live a healthier lifestyle and, in the US, have more access to medical care, which explains these longer life expectancies.

The same study also showed that the education of the head of households was linked to their children’s health.

Children who lived in households where the head had less than a high school education had higher obesity rates.

People with university degrees are more likely to vote in elections and help with their children’s education – creating a positive generational knock-on effect.

They’re more likely to see their own children go on to a university career — building social mobility across the generations.

Oxford Brookes’ predecessor institutions were created to widen participation so higher education was not the preserve of a small elite.

Over the past 50 years, higher education in the UK has been transformed from an elite system, where fewer than one in 10 young people went to university, into one in which nearly half of all young people participate and reap the benefits.

This creates a virtuous circle that is not about the individual over their own lifetime, but about society and across generations.

Graduates are more connected to their communities, for example, through voting and volunteering, and those activities in themselves are linked to higher levels of educational attainment.

This creates a circular pattern in education and community involvement.

Our students, for example, give thousands of hours a year in volunteering projects in and around Oxford.

A university degree isn’t a guaranteed ticket to health, wealth, happiness and a stronger society, but more and more statistics are showing a degree isn’t just about a job.

Graduates have the potential to be among the happiest people in the world, which is an invaluable benefit.