Anybody else regretting and feeling bad about encouraging their kids to go to uni?

And I would be among the first to agree that there needs to be a return on money risked.

Probably me choosing words badly here, but plan 2 in retrospect looks designed to guarantee a return to lenders.

Watching my eldest thrive at uni and enjoy every minute means I don't regret supporting them to go there.

I've had two student loans, worth every penny.

How are the financial services industry profiting from Plan 2 loans@Papyrophile ?

My friend really pushed her son, who clearly was not ready, to go. He then crashed and burned out half way through year 2 and has been left with huge debt and nothing to show.
She is now pushing him again as he doesn’t know what to do otherwise.

For lots of DC there isn't a viable alternative to going to university. So, unless you are very wealthy, student loans were the only option.

My DC's friends who didn't go to university are now stuck in jobs without limited ability to progress.
Apprenticeships are limited in number and not available for every career.

I don't think education is ever wasted, and our young people are at least in the same boat as their peers!

I agree @BlueJuniper94. Gone are the days when students could study whatever they liked without a real career plan ( I was one of them 30 years ago, had no idea what I’d do next). We encouraged DD (20) to think ahead and choose a field where she’d have well-paid options so she’ll be able to deal with the debt.

Plus, she’s having a great experience, she was mature and ready to live independently. So no, we don’t regret encouraging her to go to uni, it’s been great for her.

Edit to say that if parents can pay, of course students can still whatever they liked without, but that’s not the case for many students. We help a lot, but can’t cover everything.

No. 2DC didn't go to university and went the apprenticeship route. DD is currently doing an integrated Masters in mathematical physics with plans to be an actuary or similar. If she was doing media studies and had scraped in with 2Ds, perhaps, but how else could she achieve her goals without going to university?

DD is in her second year, she is studying for a degree in an allied health profession with loads of job vacancies in the area. If she works for the NHS for 2 years all her tuition fees are covered.
She gets about £2000 a year in bursary which doesn't have to be repaid.
DD lives at home and attends the local (very good) uni. She works part time and is saving for the future.....if she had moved away for uni it would have cost a fortune for accommodation and she would have needed loans.
It was her decision to stay home as it made financial sense.

My cleaner's DS, with SEN, just won an apprenticeship with a big local employer in the warehouse. There were four jobs, over 150 applicants and 15 interviews, for a role that pays £34k for FT work for a fully qualified person. He did brilliantly and we are all chuffed to fuck that he succeeded, but £34k on qualification suggests that the UK is very second rank in global pay terms.

Ds has graduated and definitely needed a degree to get into his field as this shows a proven level of understanding. The way he sees it is how much is his net pay? He doesn't care what the debt is or how big it is, when he gets pay rises he just sees what the increase is in his net pay. His graduate mates feel the same way, it was a means to an end. It isn't this looming debt hovering over them causing them stress.

He views this the same way he views buying a house, a typical mortgage will take 25 years to pay it off, you pay back double what you borrowed. He doesn't see that as a looming debt either. University was an investment in himself.

Ds only graduated in 2024 and is not far off being a high rate taxpayer. He has a career path plan and he is excelling at it.

Eldest ds graduated a few years ago and does have a reasonably well paid job although not really related to his degree. DD is doing a nursing degree so I feel that as long as she does manage to get a job at the end of it it will be worthwhile. Ds3 I worry about hugely. He did an extra year as changed courses, will have a degree in a subject which I feel really won't stand him the best chance of getting a job. I worry for him hugely graduating this summer with huge amounts of debt. Ds2 who is the only one of my four who didn't go to Uni so far has done the best. He did an apprenticeship and earning almost 50k at the age of 25 with no student debt and just about to buy his own home alone.
I think with hindsight and the ridiculous loan situation I would have encouraged ds3 in particular to go down the apprenticeship route.

Whilst my job is possible without a degree through an apprenticeship there is only space for a lot fewer people via this route and the skills that I learnt at uni are very valuable. I earn well and have paid my loans off so don’t regret it all although I do understand that fees went up a lot (they were 3k in my time).

One of my dds did a degree apprenticeship and is doing very well. DD2 went to uni and graduated in July. She’s struggling to get a “proper” job and I’m quite worried about it to be honest.

The plan 2 version of student finance was designed by the financial services industry to make them a profit IMO. And I am generally a capitalist that thinks anyone borrowing money should pay very close attention to all the ways you can be fleeced.

Work back from a chosen job and see what you need. But gone are the days of doing underwater basket weaving because you quite like it. You’re facing unemployment and debt. You need skills that not everyone else has.

Thanks to being in Scotland and staying at home for the whole 4 years DS left uni with money saved from his loans. No regrets.

DC only has two years of tuition fee debt and only an HND but the balance owing has climbed to £23,500 from £18,500 in under six years. His flatmate's university debt is well over £50k, and increasing even though he's paying off £6k pa.

Son doing nicely, thank you, on the back of his Sociology degree. Good transferable skills with his report writing and statistics, and business acumen from his third year on a work placement. Neither he nor his brother and sister could have gone to uni without fees and maintenance loans, and repayments are based on earnings, rather than amount borrowed. No regrets. They worked hard, got excellent results and have found interesting jobs.

I feel so guilty. My son missed out on 6th form thanks to COVID so we encouraged him to go to uni to bridge that gap. I was reassured by Martin Lewis that student loans were acceptable and the best way of financing it. Feeling guilty now for pushing it. There were no apprenticeships around then though so what else was he supposed to do?

The noise in the press has generally been about the old Plan 2 loans which had really high interest at one point. The Plan 5 loans are capped. Though it’s still not great - despite everyone siting Martin Lewis - and it’s too bad that employers seem to require a degree (and not necessarily in a relevant subject) in order to get a job. And the so called skills they learn at uni? What, people don’t think any other 18-21 year old is also learning those skills through real life experience?

This. It's all very well saying 'do an apprenticeship instead' but there are very few of them. Employers cannot possibly offer them in the volume needed, even if they wanted to (and not enough of them do want to, or have the capacity to give an untrained young person the time they need to learn on the job). Unless you know you want to go into a specific career they are also very narrow fields. The debt is crap but it's more or less like a graduate tax. The jobs market for non grads is worse than for grads, so in many cases it's uni or unemployment.

Do you understand the loan system? It's the only loan where the repayments fall or stop if your income goes down, and where any balance is wiped out after a set period. There's no point worrying about the headline balance unless your kid is in a high paying job where they are likely to repay in full - most people don't repay in full, and many never repay any of the interest so the amount owed is irrelevant. Your repayment is the same if you owe £5, 10, 20 or £200K - it's determined by your salary. What does the child who went to uni earn? Their income, loan plan & loan amount will tell you how much they will repay - it may be less than the capital.

Going to university is never a waste of time or money. Education is about much more than getting a job. As many people as possible should go to university for the sake of society as a whole.

You’ve done nothing wrong. Everyone wants apprenticeships, and as you said, they are absolute gold dust. My partner was telling me that people are now actively moving to Scotland to take up the free university places, so people are prepared to be quite extreme in the pursuit of avoiding uni debt.

Ill be navigating this with my eldest in around five years time. I’ll only be promoting the uni route if it’s a worthwhile subject that requires a degree. If he can commute from home to the uni that would massively help as we could afford the fees outright, im not sure he would get into the unis right on our doorstep though as they are incredibly competitive courses. If the only option is uni debt though we’d just have to take in the debt as a family and try and pay it off as quick as we could.