Would you go to University?

Yeah, I liked the experience. I also went as I enjoyed the subject.

Would I go now? Probably not. I came out with student debt but it was nowhere near the levels it is today. It's just insane.

Now if they scrapped or heavily reduced fees in fields in which the UK needs jobs filling I'd be very much in favour.
 
I was the first in my family to go to university, albeit I was in my mid 30s. Left school at 17 with minimal quals and have grafted since. I was the first of my peers on the housing ladder. I'm now almost a top revenue earner with a corner sofa and Gucci belt to prove it! :D (Disclaimer: I'm not). But I haven't done too bad at all.

Uni paid for/subsidised by monthly salary sacrifice instalments, although other incentives available at the time usually recouped that cost. I enjoyed the learning new things, I despised that academia is just another form of snobbery!

I was looking at the OU site the other day, tempted to do something completely not related to my current field.
 
In 2024 would I go? Only if I was confident that I knew exactly what career path I wanted to go down and it lent itself to obtaining a degree. This would be particularly relevant to things like law, medical etc.
In 99% of 18 year olds, they don't really know what they want to do. Totally normal. It's hard to know...you've not done anything yet and don't like the idea of "deciding" on something for potentially the rest of your life. Most people tend to "fall into" something, sometimes through just trying something out or an opportunity coming up.

I have a kid at uni. He's gone because he doesn't know what to do (long term I mean, so has done a Business Management degree), is bright enough, most of his mates did and he doesn't want to commit to working. Uni for a lot of 18 year olds is a "safe" option, because change is minimal. They "know" education, learning and studying. So they see it is an easy next step without having to have anything particularly scary happen. This is a shame imo. Despite speaking to my lad about the debt he will come out with, he still felt it the best option. I would never stand in the way of someone who genuinely wanted to go, so he's gone. I think he will come to regret it personally. I hope not but...it's just the way things are these days.

A lot of people do better in life by learning a trade and starting out younger. This is possibly the route my other lad will go, who is actually bright - expected to do A levels etc - but I may encourage him to go down an apprenticeship route. The trade roles you used to get mocked about at school that you would end up having to do, are seemingly doing really rather well in the UK and have been robust throughout the pandemic for example. Hairdressers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers etc.

I didn't go to uni myself. Well...I did. I quit almost immediately as hated it. I don't regret that looking back. Not one bit. It's not hampered my IT career. Any roles I applied for that wanted a "computer science degree" generally were ok with equivalent experience and it's never been an issue.
 
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FBi7 said:
I despised that academia is just another form of snobbery!
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Someone I knew died recently he was 62, turns out he was a professor which I’m led to believe is one of the highest levels in academia. I only found out he was a professor after he’d died. He was a nice chap, didn’t come across as a snob.
 
Didn't go, don't feel I missed out on anything.

I'm still a good way ahead of my peers and that includes a career change when I turned 30.
 
Josh said:
Didn't go, don't feel I missed out on anything.

I'm still a good way ahead of my peers and that includes a career change when I turned 30.
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It'd be difficult to know if you missed out if you didn't go I guess.

Mind you I went in my early twenties so had a little bit of life under my belt already. I think that made it better for me :)

Plus, I also met my OH there. We've been together since the end of the final year, far better than tinder.
 
i went to uni but my biggest regret was dropping out in the 3rd year (i was sick of the course).

But would i have gone to uni again.. probably not. Uni might give you a good foundation and the concepts of what you are learning, which is helpful when you get a job, but that's only a minute part of the job role. I would get a job/apprenticeship/intern straight after school and work my way up.

The only difference i find with having a degree and not having one, is certain industries will give you a head start in terms of salary, but as long as you work hard, there is no reason to match/exceed that salary.. it'll just take a bit longer to get there
 
I didn't go, would have been different if I wanted to be a lawyer or a doctor, but I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life (duh, I was 18), so I just got a diploma in programming, got a job for a year, then moved to the UK.

I don't regret not going at all, as moving to a different hemisphere and having to build my life from scratch taught me way more than a poorly chosen course ever would have. :D

EDIT: And if I were a kid finishing highschool now, I'd be ever more wary given how AI is going to speed up the rate at which the future job market changes by an alarming degree.
 
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nlel1975 said:
Someone I knew died recently he was 62, turns out he was a professor which I’m led to believe is one of the highest levels in academia. I only found out he was a professor after he’d died. He was a nice chap, didn’t come across as a snob.
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It's normally a person that holds a PhD that works in or associated with eduction, I had a load of them at one of the places I worked at; a medical reasearch center that was involved with a university.

One chap, was a professor, crown prince of a country, knighed by our late queen and nobel prize winner... that's a pretty big and well impressive flex but rather being addressed as HRH or Sir, he prefered Prof. :)
one of the nicest man you could meet, but he doesn't need to tell you off, he just get's one of his people to do it.
 
adam cool dude said:
If one thing I have learnt is that it is really up to you as a person as to what you want to be in life. In terms of monetary success my school FB group is totally random as in who has and hasn't done well out of it. I have some friends who were in middling to bottom sets who have become incredibly rich.
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I was having a similar conversation with a mate yesterday. It's interesting to see the outcomes of certain people.

In my year group from high school. There's my close group of friends who are mainly Engineers (a freakish amount went into it!), a PHD scientist, a Premier league club groundsman, a fairly senior marketing guy for Amazon, and a music producer who's worked with some fairly high profile artists and myself as an accountant. You'd say we're all fairly successful, but in fairly standard career routes (possibly the exception of the producer)

Then there's someone in a band who's playing some fairly major festivals. Albeit in a very heavy metal genre so not massively popular, one guy is working being the scenes of SAS Who Dares Wins over in Vietnam at the moment, another guy is a tree surgeon out in the Alps, another has his own waste collection firm, then a couple years below is a premier league and England footballer!

It's a crazy span from a year group of ~200 people, and this is just out of people i know of.
 
I think the problem for me (and many people) is I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up at age 17, and still don't now. :D

In today's system I wouldn't advise anyone to go to university unless there is a clear path from that degree into a career, .e.g. doctors need a medical degree, lawyers need a law degree, certain scientific fields, engineers, etc.

There is an issue though where some employers have inflated their qualification requirements to include degrees when it absolutely isn't necessary. On the job training or a professional qualification would be better.

I was lucky that I was in the first year that tuition fees were introduced and due to the way it was assessed if your parents were divorced I paid (IIRC) £50 per year (year, not term) or some ridiculously low amount. I did have a student loan but lived at home so it was only about £6k.
 
I went to my local uni which isn't highly ranked but i enjoyed it and its definitely helped me to get jobs. So overall yes it has been worth it.
Having said that in hindsight if i was at school again I would work my ass off at gcse/alevel to ensure i could go to a highly ranked uni as my options would have been far greater.
Back when i was 16 though i was mostly interested in girls and drinking!
 
In 2002 - Absolutely was great and got a piece of paper
In 2024 - Not a chance - just get an apprenticeship/entry level for a bit

From gov website -

Interest Rates
How much interest you’re charged depends on which plan you’re on. You’re currently charged:

6.25% if you’re on Plan 1
8% if you’re on Plan 2
6.25% if you’re on Plan 4
8% if you’re on Plan 5
8% if you’re on a Postgraduate Loan plan
 
Bassmansam said:
I went to my local uni which isn't highly ranked but i enjoyed it and its definitely helped me to get jobs. So overall yes it has been worth it.
Having said that in hindsight if i was at school again I would work my ass off at gcse/alevel to ensure i could go to a highly ranked uni as my options would have been far greater.
Back when i was 16 though i was mostly interested in girls and drinking!
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Snap. I didn't have the right coaching early on. I went to the local university because of family issues, and studied something I knew I could pass tbh. I went because a friend said he would go, and then he didn't. University for me, nowadays, is an all-or-nothing thing. I've got colleagues talking about sending their kids to Oxford, UCL, Cambridge etc. That I am up for.
 
Yes definitely.

Aside from career and financial prospects its where I met a lot of my lifelong friends and wife who are all of similar intellect.

Red brick Uni 20 years ago this year, £35,000 debt, earnt 6 figures from late 20s
 
I graduated in 1997 - we still got grants back then and I had a part time job throughout. Don't regret it although by the end of it I was done and didn't bother doing my Masters dissertation thinking I would do that part time but having a job meant that any more academic thought was swiftly forgotten about.

These days, apprenticeships look like a really good option for those leaving school.
 
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