To think uni was a way for parents to get their young adult kids to leave home?

Man I hear you.

my mum redecorated my room when I went to uni and made it into her sewing room.

i didn’t want to do that to mine but I still have one at home at 25 and I would very much like her to move out!

Where did you stay when you came home for breaks? My DS was home for a full month at Christmas, I think Easter too and summer was some time in June untill the beginning of October! Dd is going this year and I think we’ll need to just leave her room as it is.

How far into “the past” are we talking? Until a couple of decades ago only a small percentage of young people went to university and they were predominantly those who were academic and accessing higher education as the first step in building a career. There were fewer universities, a narrower range of degrees, and much less focus placed on “the experience.”

And it’s still a struggle now to imagine how young people who don’t go to uni are going to fly the nest! Honestly how are they going to be able to whilst in MW jobs?

Possibly. But a large proportion of the students on the course with me in the 1970s lived at home with their parents to save money because their parents earned too much for them to qualify for a grant.

(And these weren't fabulously wealthy people either - I didn't qualify for a full grant in my final year at Uni, because my dustman dad's wage was too high.)

OP, its still a way to get your offspring to leave home. I'm relying on it happening for my own sanity otherwise I'm going to have to be the one to leave home !!!

Or alternatively, a way for young adults to get away from their parents and the whole shitty area they’d found themselves in. That’s what I used it for primarily and I know of many others who did the same.
Also had siblings who rejoiced at the expansion of space my going created!

Not sure really, as I had friends who left home at 16 when they started work. And I knew some parents who expected rent to be paid from 16 so made it difficult for them to stay in education. But apparently I went to uni before the big push from the government and only about 20% of students went at the time (90's) so I was in the minority not the norm.

It did help me build independence though.

I went to a london university and while I was from abroad, all the london based students lived at home including my DH. You couldn't even get guaranteed student accommodation if living within the M25.

Well, I didn’t grow up in a university-going context (left school in 1990, having stayed at school longer than anyone else in my family, and I think only two other people from my rough school were going to university), but I think it was more that the assumption was that you left home as soon as you could, for whatever reason, and that when you’d left, you’d left. Our house was tiny and overcrowded, and two of my sisters moved into my room as soon as I left for my first term, my remaining belongings were stored in the attic, and I was on the sofa when I came home at Christmas or for other visits. Boomeranging home even as a very young adult just wasn’t a possibility.

I do think it’s a really valuable transition stage. Dh, for example, doesn’t need a university degree to do what he does now (he started his own business). He certainly could have done it without a degree. But living independently is important. There is little reason or capacity for young people to leave home except to go to uni at 18/19. The one person close to me who didn’t go to uni still, in her mid 30s, lives at home, in a glorified shed in her parents garden.

Given young people live at home longer than ever and university uptake is higher than ever your argument doesn’t have any basis.

I was desperate to leave home, uni was an acceptable way.

Whilst I can see where you’re coming from I don’t think it’s necessary the case, though it may have been for some parents.
I think leaving home to go to uni definitely enables them to become more independent and forge their own way in the world. Both my sons left home at 18 to go to uni, no pressure from us and entirely their choice.

Oh 100%! I wanted to go to uni (specific course etc) which helped, but my siblings didn’t - however it was never an option not to go from my parents. My mum joyfully redecorated each room as we left into rooms for her, craft rooms etc 😂 I think she was thrilled!