Leading British entrepreneur Simon Dolan: Degrees are worthless

A British entrepreneur worth more than £100m has said that degrees are “worthless” and that many university courses available across the UK are “ridiculous”.

Self-made multimillionaire Simon Dolan left school at the age of 16 and went on to form a business empire which now turns over close to £100m a year, putting him 703rd on the Sunday Times Rich List.

Known for taking risky business ventures, Dolan became recognised as the world’s first “Twitter Dragon” after investing more than £5m of his own money on business pitches composed of no more than 140 characters.

Managing a staff of more than 200 people, he told Yahoo! Finance that “younger, brighter candidates are much more employable” than university graduates.

“No matter what the government say we know that the current system doesn’t work,” he said. “As an employer myself I know a degree is worthless, every other employer I speak to says the same in the main part. University is not the issue of whether you had a good time or not it is the whether you will be employable at the end of it.

“Graduates come out with a self-right to not have to flip burgers even if it is the only job they can get.

"Schools need to educate children to become fully rounded human beings and not make them just pass exams so they can get to university.

"I think a far larger part needs to be taken with how to be useful in an office or work environment."  

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Dolan’s autobiographical guide book ‘How to make millions without a degree’ has divided opinion but with more than 1.04m young people out of work and thousands more being priced out of university it touches on one of the burning issues of the day. Amid huge opposition to the increase of tuition fees this summer he said that the rise is a “really good idea” as it will overhaul “ridiculous” degrees on offer.

“Formerly university was the place for talented people to go to get higher education for later life,” Mr Dolan said. “It typically wasn’t the place where everyone went…everyone can’t be the most intelligent in society."

A Department for Business, Innovation and Skills spokesperson said: "A degree remains a good investment in the long term and is one of the best pathways to achieving a good job and rewarding career.

“Demand for more highly skilled employees continues to increase. Graduates like everybody else are facing tough times, but the evidence shows they fare better than non-graduates, and their prospects tend to pick up quicker during the recovery”.