Would you go to University?

I went to university in 1998 to do physics. I only did the first year then quit. The mistake I made was staying local, I wish I had gone away to uni, and also I wish I'd received better (actually any) guidance from people (parents, school) on my choice of subject. I still came out that first year with about £9k debt I think (can't remember the figure)and I didnt even live away.

I then got an apprenticeship at 20 and work put me through a part time mechanical engineering degree that I got a 2:1 in.

At 44 I decided to do a masters degree part time which my work are funding, so I'm in the first year of that at the moment.


Thing is with a part time /live at home course you don't get the experience and you don't meet close friends imo. At least I didn't. That doesn't matter now at 44 but it does at 18-22.

But it's not fair for people to not get the experience due to money. I would say if you want to go you should regardless of the debt, but there should be much better guidance to help people choose a valuable course and get the most out of the experience. I was a very shy kid and it held me back.
 
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lemonkettaz said:
I went to Uni for all the wrong reasons, reason being I didn’t know what else to do and everyone else was going.

I was lazy and had no direction with what I was doing. I left with no degree and £1000s in debt.

If i was 18 again would I go back? No.

I subsequently joined the Army and now I’m one piece of work away from an Electrical Engineering degree… paid for.

I’m not sure what the offer is of uni anymore ? Moving away from home, great social life? Finding yourself? I think people live differently now so does that apply?

I think STEM education should be free and all other courses paid for… no idea how that would work but just my 2pence opinion.
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Similar boat - except I just worked in a shop but now I’m a software developer
 
Calpol said:
I went when it was free. Only debt I had was £600 loan which I got to go Inter-railing.
Eldest daughter is in final year of an engineering degree. Its cost me £30k net for the accommodation. She now has debt of £28k. Its really disgraceful that a nation is placing that burden on its young talent. Youngest daughter is undecided, I'll fund her if she goes but not to do something like marketing or business or sociology.

I'll get flamed for this and its against my generally liberal views - the conversion of polytechnics to unis in the 90's / noughties was a terrible decision. It created far to much capacity, cost and inefficiency for poor quality qualifications. Everyone can go to Uni now - only the brighter kids went when i was at school. Youngest daughter has many fiends who got results today - one of them got 2 D and E 'A' Levels but still got an offer from his first choice course albeit for a foundation year. I think that is madness.

Far more vocational, technical training should be encouraged along with more apprenticeships. We need more people in the workforce sooner if this economy s to grow and improve productivity. More kids going to Uni who aren't up to it and come out with life limiting debt is utter madness.

Apologies if this comes across in any sort of discriminatory way but something has to change.

As an aside I heard a proposal from Richard Tice a few years ago which I strangely agreed with. He advocated cutting degree durations to two years. I think that is more than do-able for a lot of courses and could be worth exploring. It's about the only sense I heard form him.
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I agree. We wrap everyone in cotton wool these days, even the under performers. Kids that come last at sports day get participation awards when they should get nothing but to sit sulking in the corner that they're ****. It would honestly fix a lot of issues with the entitled brats being raised. Unlike yourself, I make no apology for saying the above though. :)
 
i think there should be a set number of funded courses for the brightest students.

the rest of they want to go to uni that is up to them but they pay . those who take a funded place would be expected to put in a set number of years in the UK, or if not pay it back.

it's still a little unfair as not all schools are equal to get you those grades but no bright pupil should forgo education because of debt imo.

we also need proper old school apprentices as well as skilled trades people not being looked down upon.

maybe it's changed but when I was at school it was all about working to go to uni. my dad a small 1 man band builder was not considered interesting , he was not asked to give careers talk at school (not that he would have he is v shy) but all the bankers absolutely scientists etc did.

hell a builder is t even considered reliable enough to witness a passport . as long as some people consider blue collar work as somehow inferior I think people will still feel pressured to go to uni and that is wrong.

hell with AI taking off I can see a huge shift in power over the coming years.

jobs like investment banking and programming etc I could easily see being lost to computers but someone will still need to dig out collapsed drains!
 
My sandwich degree programme in David Beckham studies & under-water basket weaving has stood me in good stead for a long Military career. All 3 of my kids have done or are doing uni. The debt is massive but the 2 eldest are at least working in the field they studied. The youngest has just finished year 3 of 4 of a Pharmacy MSc and he wants to be......... a Pharmacist. In the Military.
 
I went to Uni in my 40's to study computing as I wanted to change career, and also prove to myself that I was capable of getting a degree after underperforming in my A levels. My only regret is that I left it so late, I should have gone ten years earlier. I do worry about my son who is studying for a PhD in Philosophy and will have a huge loan to pay off at the end of it.
 
happy_2008 said:
Nowadays i don't think its worth going to university considering you would be £30k plus debt when you finish
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it's not the debit, 30K is a laughable amount IF you leave uni and get yourself a 50-60K plus job straight after. Yes you might have to live at home with your parents for a year or two but you can pay it off quickly.. is the fact that the degree doesn't even get you an interview now a days for a job that pays 60K and most people will be looking for start position at most companies. Heck there are companies where the MD isn't on 50k.
 
Waste of time imo the way this country is setup. No qualifications means no job without experience. No experience means no job, Then theres the huge debt you saddle yourself with. Just my opinion. I served an apprenticship
 
I did a degree later in life (37 years old) then a PGCE straight after and I've just finished my Ph.D.

I wouldn't do a 'traditional' degree now - I'd do a degree apprenticeship. I'm a digital learning consultant (fancy name for an academic/skills coach) for a Digital Technology and Solutions degree apprenticeship provider and the way the whole integration of the KSBs (Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours) work and the tight aligning to the workplace is just much better than a traditional degree imho. I would encourage my kids to take that pathway if they wanted a degree (they don't - eldest is joining the Marines next year, 16yr old son just passed his GCSEs and is doing landscape architecture T-Level at agricultural college. Daughter wants to be a teacher but I'm really trying to dissuade her from this path).

This is the programme if anyone is interested :-

Digital and technology solutions professional

www.instituteforapprenticeships.org www.instituteforapprenticeships.org


wozzizname said:
I went to Uni in my 40's to study computing as I wanted to change career, and also prove to myself that I was capable of getting a degree after underperforming in my A levels. My only regret is that I left it so late, I should have gone ten years earlier. I do worry about my son who is studying for a PhD in Philosophy and will have a huge loan to pay off at the end of it.
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Surely his PhD is fully funded so wont have a loan to pay back?
 
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It all seems like a scam these days. The vast majority get into large debt and then don't even use their degree at all. Not to mention accommodation is extremely expensive in most areas
 
I bet 50% of English people who go UNI just do it for the experience and not to learn anything worthwhile.

probably a lot of FOMO and regret with debts I'd imagine
ben90 said:
It all seems like a scam these days. The vast majority get into large debt and then don't even use their degree at all. Not to mention accommodation is extremely expensive in most areas
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Seems unis are all about rich foreign students these days.

there's a few thousand rooms near me with a mostly Chinese population.
2 of the buildings seem to be purely aimed at Chinese students, then the 3rd for English raa raas.


looks like they are building yet another tower block of student shoebox apartments next to them too.

There should be minimum standards in this country so one day they could be used as normal apartments
 
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I went to a vocational uni, lived at home and commuted.

I do work in the industry that I got a degree in.

Could I have done it differently, yes.

I didn't really make any lasting friendships from uni, and I'm not convinced the big name really opens that many doors.

I'm still paying off the debt.

I wouldn't suggest my kids go to uni unless it's something that really requires it.

I think there are better ways to learn.
 
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In a lot of tech jobs a degree isnt very desirable, experience is far more valuable. As that is a huge growing industry, uni is becoming less and less attractive.

Also who wants to have a chunk of their wages robbed for 30 years.

Seems to be mostly about attracting Chinese education tourism now.
 
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Did my uni degree back in 2003-2005 help me get a job ? well, maybe, I guess it was a course related to the type of industry and the role I am now, although the course itself was a mixture of IT development and programming stuff (which isnt really related to what im doing now) however, the other half of the course was IT networking (which I am in and have been since 2005/2006.

Could I have got a role and worked my way up without a degree? most likely.

Did it help me on my second IT role, or third, or forth - Not at all, as companies will more look at previous job history as the most important thing, what your experience and working background is, with "Professional certifications IE Technology exams (Cisco, Microsoft, whatever vendor ) coming in second. - Things like School/ Collage/Uni becomes seeminly unimportant once you have the first stint of work experience on your CV.
 
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platinum87 said:
No, should have joined the military, or, just got a job.
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Same.
If I could go back again I'd either do a better choice of degree (like medicine/engineering) or a trade at 16.

Doing what I did and going is my biggest life regret.


Its 2 years of sixth form. 3 years of degree. Which is 5 years of not earning and 3 years of debt.
I could easily be mortgage free now or living abroad or both if I hadn't wasted time doing a degree with barely any jobs out the other side.


Really interesting how many agree is a waste of time. If I had kids now I'd advise either doing something really worthwhile at uni or not at all. Especially with the debt now!
 
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No, I regret it.

Pushing 40, paying student loan still, not a insignificant amount.
Two young kids, which likely we will only be able to afford to send one to uni! So have thought about this a lot...

my main mistakes were:
Commuting to university living at home
Changing my course from a practical to theory based after a month in hospital during exam time.
I had a plan A and B from the practical course. Convinced from everyone to switch to theory so I could study at home more, but at the end, nothing I could actually do with that degree, so a few years in call center's it was.

I think 18 is so young to pick a defined career, so fine if someone really knows what they want, doctor lawyer etc then fine. Looks more like a debt for life for a lot of people.
 
Manbatius said:
No, I regret it.

Pushing 40, paying student loan still, not a insignificant amount.
Two young kids, which likely we will only be able to afford to send one to uni! So have thought about this a lot...

my main mistakes were:
Commuting to university living at home
Changing my course from a practical to theory based after a month in hospital during exam time.
I had a plan A and B from the practical course. Convinced from everyone to switch to theory so I could study at home more, but at the end, nothing I could actually do with that degree, so a few years in call center's it was.

I think 18 is so young to pick a defined career, so fine if someone really knows what they want, doctor lawyer etc then fine. Looks more like a debt for life for a lot of people.
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I agree. My friend who's doing much better than me has gone to uni recently at mid 30s. He has his mortgage really low because he worked in software without going to uni and it just shows you absolutely don't need a degree in IT.
He's now doing a course that will probably get him a 150k+ job as he knows what he wants to do.

At 18 we were basically encouraged to do what you're good at. And unfortunately the subjects that were interesting at school were poor for jobs.

That's my biggest annoyance, the default is to pick a life defining choice without knowing what the jobs are like.
Careers advice was non existent, my parents hadn't been.
If I could have worked 6 months in the job sector I never would have done that degree.
 
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