Cambridge University students are seeking job advice earlier during their university studies than they did 10 years ago, reflecting a trend that could pick up even more steam when the need to hit the job market running hits home with increased fees from next year.

A decade ago, 6% of first-year Cambridge students sought assistance from the university’s careers service, a figure which has increased to 30%. In 2010, 87% of Cambridge’s final year students used the careers service, compared to 62% 10 years ago. As the university’s student fees nearly treble, from £3,375 to £9,000 from autumn 2012, the looming debt will bring career planning into earlier focus, the director of Cambridge University Careers Service anticipates.

Speaking exclusively to Recruiter, Gordon Chesterman predicted that tomorrow’s student will be “much more aware and awake to the fact that they need to do something after their degree, and they will be tapping into us earlier and harder than they have in the past”.

However, he added: “A lot more students are already using us in their first year. They’re voluntarily knocking on our door. The advantage, if you like, of this earlier engagement is we could sort out many more students and their futures perhaps in the second year so perhaps they don’t need to darken our door in their final year; they’ve already got that job offer.”

Currently, salary ranks seventh on the average Cambridge student’s list of career priorities, taking less priority than intellectual challenge, variety of work, early responsibility, peer group, leadership and good management style. “Yes, you’ve got to be paid enough to keep body and soul together,” Chesterman said, “but Cambridge students are perhaps taking a longer term view on their employment prospects and salary - before the new fees - is not of paramount importance.”

However, the government is putting a new emphasis on the link between salary and education by demanding the publication of data which will link salaries to university and course. “If you follow that progression through you’ll find the pressure is on us to ensure all our students go into highly paid jobs,” Chesterman said.

He is opposed to the concept. “I don’t think it’s a good idea at all,” he said. “Salaries can be a very misleading indicator of the value of a degree.”