Is University Worth It?

[Clown Shoes]

I had an amazing time at UNI

 

Id got back tomorrow if i didnt have a student loan to pay off already!

[this_life]

So what is it that motivates people to choose and stay in these careers???

 

Young people choosing them may not understand the impact of earning less than 40K per year, over a life-time. When you're 18 a salary of 20K seems like unbelievable riches. Many people go into these careers later in life. And/or choose to stay in these careers. There is much widespread discontent in these careers about pay, conditions, stress etc. Why stay??? As with other threads on the Forum today, why stay in a low paid, high stressful area, feeling distressed.

 

Many people report that they do not feel cared for/supported as the patients/children/public (nursing/teaching/police). If it is not money, good working conditions, 'client' satisfaction. What is the draw???

 

Perhaps it is that this group of people have a strong preference for 'downward social comparison', that it makes them feel superior to spend their time with people with much worse lives than themselves.

 

Perhaps it makes them feel like the 'superior race'/social group/chosen ones/special, and that their lives are great compared to the people they work with. Perhaps unconsciously they need these people to have awful lives to feel good about themselves and the phrase 'there but for the grace of god...' is felt in a literal sense, and on some level they feel special to be healthy, have relationships, jobs, salaries, and superior cognitive skills to the people they work with.

 

If so then unconsciously/consciously they will on some level not really want their clients to 'succeed' because it will make them feel bad. As opposed to what all patients/students/clients want which is the people responsible for them to thrive on each and every step forward and success.

 

Think of all the thin people who like to have a fat friend to make themselves feel attractive...

[Sid Umpley]

i didnt go to Uni at all. i took an apprenticeship and a LOAD of travelling, a lifelong autodidact.

i had am amazing time as well. the money i earnt working allowed me to take a load of fascinating trips around the world.

 

the proudest moment for me was when my son at 16 said to me "dad i wont want to go to Uni. i want to train as a joiner"

it showed he had not been brainwashed by the schools to think uni was the only route.

 

he got to 20. was making 30k, considering starting his own business and had zero debt.

 

Society has convinced everyone that university is the path to riches. for a few thats true. for the rest its a lifetime of debt (or tax) to earn less than a decent bricklayer!

[this_life]

i didnt go to Uni at all. i took an apprenticeship and a LOAD of travelling, a lifelong autodidact.

i had am amazing time as well. the money i earnt working allowed me to take a load of fascinating trips around the world.

 

the proudest moment for me was when my son at 16 said to me "dad i wont want to go to Uni. i want to train as a joiner"

it showed he had not been brainwashed by the schools to think uni was the only route.

 

he got to 20. was making 30k, considering starting his own business and had zero debt.

 

Society has convinced everyone that university is the path to riches. for a few thats true. for the rest its a lifetime of debt (or tax) to earn less than a decent bricklayer!

 

That sounds good. I agree.

[chem1st]

I'm not sure it is, financially at least, you lose out on earnings for a few years and get into debt (basically in the form of a 9% graduate tax). Even people with good degrees in STEM can struggle to find work and the wages aren't very good (but currently that is the general trend across the entire economy unless you are born into land or marry into it).

 

If your going to do it for financial reasons, it might be worthwhile to get a load of loans and credit cards to pay for your studies privately and then go bankrupt. If female, it might be best concentrating on your looks and trying to marry into land, instead of trying to earn an honest crust, work does not pay.

 

If your doing it because you are generally interested in something, it might be worth it, but it might also be worth going onto the dole for a few years and studying online, you can access a wealth of information, legally/illegally.

 

If you want a certain career because you are passionate about something, and you need the piece of paper, do it, study hard, and follow your dream.

[lubylou12]

It really depends on what course you decide to do. I am a Student Nurse and pay nothing at all, I recieve a bursery enough for me and 3 children, and my tuition fees are payed. Most health and wellbeing courses are free to study but places are hard to get.

 

So yes I think it is worth going to uni depending on what you chose to do, without uni I would only be able to get a minimum/low wage job as I would have no skills to get anything better. So uni is my way of making sure I have a career and can build towards a better future for my children. It is a long haul but it will be worth it in the end.

[L00b]

Surely this depends on the supply of graduates. If there are far fewer graduates and you need graduates you will have to compete with what other companies are willing to pay.

Not really. The supply of graduates is very elastic, as the UK does not exist in an international vacuum: in my experience (at the coal face for what follows) companies will just import more graduates to balance the supply side of the equation.

 

As they have been doing en masse for mech engineering jobs for the past 10 years or so at least: Mech Eng hasn't been a "sexy" subject for years and years, but the demand for ME graduates has been steadily increasing in the same time. And is at an all-time high (..and that as said last year...and the year before...rinse-repeat).

The marketisation of education will ultimately mean that either those who are independently wealthy will get all the graduate jobs, or employers will have to start to meet the cost of training their workforce, be it through higher wages or lower expectations of qualifications.

I don't believe it will be the "either/or" you paint, but a combination of both. As a result of the (now ongoing) re-balancing of the supply-demand equation between higher education & businesses.

 

Call it the natural demise of the "degree for all" policy/philosophy that got to prevail until very recently. 'Natural' because, as socially desirable as it may have been for every Tom, Dick and Harry in the land to have a degree <in whatever>, strictly speaking the UK economy never needed it, and the artificial cost of same to the economy at large (in terms of salary/perks etc. at graduate level, when corresponding skills were not really used) was not sustainable.

[Miss_60]

If I had my time again, I wouldn't have gone to University. I never even got a job in what I studied either. Even though I could have studied for a PhD I didn't want to as I had to look at the practical side of things and get a job.

 

In retrospect if I had my time again I would have got a job after my A levels and bought properties during the housing slump.

 

I don't think having a degree amounts to much these days as there are so many people who have them, plus I have met a lot of successful people who do not have a degree who are very intelligent business people.

[Lskhan]

NHS careers are very heart pleasing. Some NHS jobs have a very good salary.

[Rupert_Baehr]

It does come down to money tho, I know if I did the same degree at uni now and went on to use it I'd be wanting to see more money for my troubles, the same must be true for teachers and nurses and stuff.

 

Surely people are going to start turning round and saying "I've got 40K hanging over my head, I refuse to accept a starting wage of a supermarket till worker"

 

That's quite true, but if the qualifications you've got are not the qualifications a potential employer wants and if you go to a Supermarket which is offering low-paid jobs to till workers (because they've got plenty of vacancies for till workers), there's not a lot of point in griping about being offered a job as a till worker (at till workers' pay rates.)

 

If, for example, you happened to have a PhD in Biochemistry, were highly thought of at university and applied for a well-paid job in an organisation which was looking for people with PhDs in Biochemistry, you might get a very well paid job indeed.

 

It might not be 'on your doorstep' however - you might have to move to where the job is - but there are employers looking for well-qualified people who are prepared to offer exceptionally good employment packages.

 

I suspect that a number of people were 'conned'. They were told:

"Go to University. Any University.

Get a Degree. Any Degree.

Somebody will come along and offer you pots of money just because you've got a degree."

 

I'm not that old ... but as far as I'm aware, life hasn't been like that during the last 50 or more years.