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Lucy Ward and Claire Shaw

Parents are struggling to reconcile conflicting views about the value of higher education for their children: more than half believe that fees of up to £9,000 a year represent poor value for money, yet a majority still regard a traditional university education as the best route to a chosen career, according to a YouGov poll.

The survey of parents across all social backgrounds of secondary school-age pupils in England and Wales, commissioned by the Guardian, shows that only 14% think tuition fees offer a good deal, while almost 60% think degrees aren't worth the money.

It also suggests that parents are now open to cheaper alternatives to the conventional full-time university route: a majority (57%) said internet-based courses in which students watch lectures online are a good idea, and almost half were positive about apprenticeships.

The poll also highlights the continuing social divide that determines whether a young person goes to university. Eight out of 10 families with an annual income of more than £50,000 expect their child to apply to university, but that falls to 56% where parents have an income below £20,000. The "hereditary" element to higher education persists: three-quarters of graduate parents think their children will apply, but only 46% of those who left school at 16 see their children at university.

The findings, unveiled at the Guardian University Forum in London, confirm the profound level of concern within families over the cost of going to university. Once living expenses are taken into account, costs are estimated to total over £50,000 for a three-year course.

But in an indication of the turmoil facing parents, the poll also suggests that two-thirds of parents still think that the traditional full-time university model is an effective way for their offspring to enter the career of their choice – despite its costs. Many will have an eye on employment figures showing that more than 20% of under-25s are without a job, most of them non-graduates.

Two-thirds of the 1,100 parents with a child aged 11 to 17 ranked a course delivered traditionally on-site at a university as a good route into a preferred job – placing a full-time degree well above other options such as an apprenticeship, online degree or vocational qualification. Support was not only about pragmatism: even more parents (69%) told pollsters they thought university should be valued for its own sake and not only as a route to a job.

Despite their scepticism over the costs of degrees, almost as many parents – 63% averaged across social classes – believe that their child will apply to university, suggesting aspiration still trumps financial concern. Currently, about 49% of young people go on to higher education after a dramatic expansion in recent years.

But, while traditional university study clearly continues to be valued by parents, the survey also highlights entrenched social division in attitudes to higher education, a divide that has remained despite political attempts over a generation to reverse it. A total of 72% of parents from higher social classes believe university is a good route to a preferred career for their children, compared with only 58% for those from lower social groups.

Similarly, 70% of more affluent parents think their children are likely to apply to university, while just 53% of the less wealthy share that view. The division widens further based on geography, reinforcing findings last year from the Higher Education Funding Council for England of a growing participation gap between London and the rest of the country. A total of 77% of parents in the capital expect to see their offspring heading off to college, compared with 59% in the north of England.

The contradictory impulses facing parents come amid evidence that high fees – institutions will charge an average of £8,647 for courses starting this autumn – have not put applicants off: numbers are rising following an initial dip. However, pupils, too, are worried about money: a survey conducted for the Sutton Trust last May among 11-16-year-olds in state schools found two thirds had significant concerns about the cost of higher education.

Dr Gill Wyness, of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, said the YouGov poll highlighted "a lot of scepticism for forgivable reasons from parents", but also pointed to the "surprising" level of support for university study for its own sake and not merely as a step to a career. She said: "There are a lot of near contradictions, where people are saying they can't afford for their children to go to university and yet they are expecting them to go. It's a puzzling time for people."

There was considerable support for cheaper online courses, but the fact that the vast majority still favoured the traditional route suggested parents actually felt such cheap alternatives were good for "other people's children but not their own", she suggested.

Wyness said the strong belief in the value of a university education for its own sake represented a "surprising" challenge to the government's strong focus on the direct link between a degree and earnings and employment prospects.

Professor Claire Callender, professor of higher education at Birkbeck College and the Institute of Education, said parents seem "divided or unclear" about the benefits of higher education, though their enthusiasm for learning in principle rather than financial benefit ran counter to government rhetoric. But she raised concerns that parents' fears over costs betray a lack of understanding of grants and loans available to students from less affluent homes, suggesting more should be done to explain all the options. / Guardian