If you went to university what courses or degrees would you say are worth it and what is pointless to study?

[Cupcakeicecream]

Whether you went to university or would start over and go back to university what would you study.
How many of you actually use the degree you got is it actually relevant to your life or a complete waste?
What degrees would you say are absolutely pointless to study and why.
If you had the chance to change your career what would you study.
Or would you bother going to university if you had your time again.
What degrees are worth it either getting you into a job with work life balance good salary job prospects ect

@FunnyScience, bloody good question
Professionally, not much. You get both working in many different services across the NHS doing the same thing.The training is slightly different though. You need to complete a Professional Doctorate in Counselling or Clinical psych but Clinical is funded, Counselling psych isn’t.
It

The vocational degrees in medicine, dentistry, AHP roles, nursing, teaching, engineering will always be in demand though not earning mega bucks will offer stable employment

If you want to do a degree for interest do it at the best university you can get into. An English degree at Cambridge will offer better employment prospects than Leeds which in turn will be better than Solent.

Degrees such as Law, psychology and economics are taking a bit of a battering these days. They are essentially cheap degrees to Deliver and can recruit lots of students because these subjects have a tradition of being quite lucrative. But nowadays the competition for jobs in these areas is fierce and a lot depends on having contacts in the right areas

Hard subjects such as maths, physics and STEM subjects will usually stand you in good stead in terms of employment whereas soft subjects such as the arts and social sciences are 2 a penny

I also wouldn’t touch a degree if it was given as an unconditional offer as they say there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

Thanks so much @ThisIsBigMoon and @pauapaua that is so good to hear and inspires me to go for it. Am definitely going to apply for this year!

I also wouldn’t touch a degree if it was given as an unconditional offer as they say there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

Unconditional offers have been standard in Scotland because many people apply in 6th year after doing their Highers. My niece got an unconditional offer from Oxford, should she have refused that?

People tend not to mean 'offer with grades in hand' when they refer to ' unconditionals nowadays - if you've already got the grades you've already met the conditions.

Exactly Errol an unconditional offer from a university where no A-level grades are specified is just a con. All they want is your fees and have no interest in whether you’ll even be able to cope with doing a degree.

There's some difference between the ones (well, afaik it's pretty much just Birmingham now) which only give unconditionals to applicants with predicted grades higher than their standard offer, who are trying to get some firmed good students, I suppose. More like the ubiquitous 3E offer decades ago.

I did MFL. Use one of my languages every day since graduating - more than my native English as I live and work abroad.

Also did a masters in business in France. Have used lots of things i learnt in my various jobs.

Absolutely no regrets about the subjects I studied.

Did my degree 400 years ago before it cost anything,
it qualified me for nothing.
That said, it has left me with a life long passion for politics and philosophy.
Tried several different jobs, now training to be a teacher (will qualify just before I am 50).

Definitely not wasted, I find it massively sad that the theoretical / cultural subjects are becoming the reserve (once again) for the rich.

I work in HR, so career management is something I am very much aware of. I'm in regular meetings with people who have degrees (and associated debt) are earning £25,000 per year (Central London) and are struggling to get their careers off the ground.

If my children decide to go to Uni, I'm going to recommend they do a vocational degree. The starting salary is higher for those jobs and they will always have something to fall back on, career wise.

If my children decide to go to Uni, I'm going to recommend they do a vocational degree. The starting salary is higher for those jobs and they will always have something to fall back on, career wise.

As a careers adviser i'd only recommend a vocational degree if you are sure that's what you want to do as a career, as you are potentially narrowing your options.
Traditional subjects still have their place. Many graduate recruiters specifically target the more traditional subjects ( such as English or history) as they value the skills developed as part of these degrees. Accountancy firms don't target accountancy graduates....they much prefer History.

Close 70% of graduate jobs don't specify a subject so if you're unsure choose something you will enjoy and are good at.

Accountancy firms don't target accountancy graduates....they much prefer History.

Do they target history more than STEM graduates?

I did maths and while I loved the course, it was pointless. I've worked in 4 data/stats jobs across 3 industries (pharma, sport, travel) and they were all mind-numbingly boring, requiring very little maths apart from basic summaries and averages. 1 of these required an MSc in Stats! The odd time I DO have to do something complicated, I have to research how to do it, as I either didn't learn it at uni or forgot it as it was so long ago. Sure, maths jobs pay well and for 30-45k I can walk out the door after 7.5 hours and forget about it, but I'm bored AF.

The other problem with a lot of these jobs is that you are just making companies more money, not doing anything useful. There is 0 fulfilment, so I go home at 4:30 and get my fulfilment from volunteering and my hobby. I never thought of jobs at 18 - I was just good at maths, found it piss easy and thought I could have a nice time at uni doing a subject I like/am good at with little effort.

If I had my time again, I would have done a college course/apprenticeship in something practical, like tailoring, building, hairdressing e.t.c. Something with a clearly defined job where you make tangible things people need.

I am just not motivated by money in the slightest, so while I could be on 6 figures doing finance in the city, the 12 hour days are not worth it and I would have a breakdown in a week if I couldn't do all the things outside of work that make my life nice.

ItIsWhatItIsInnit

Do you have children/family to support?

You wouldn't have that view if you needed the money.

@everydaypilates, no and I don't want kids. I also think if you have kids, it is even more important to have a good work-life balance, not to be out of the house and travelling for work constantly. I would never take a finance job in the city and never wanted to. I literally did my degree because I liked the subject, not because I had any career ambitions with it.

I save exactly half of my 35k salary every month so I really don't need more money. In fact, I'm looking to go 4 days a week so I can take my hobby more professional and look into self-employment.

Also, I think me earning 35k and husband earning 50k would be more than enough to support a family.....Only on Mumsnet is anything below 6 figures considered poverty.

Do they target history more than STEM graduates?

From my experience and what i'm told by colleges working in careers services at universities some of the top accountancy firms do specifically target history courses but that's not to say they don't also work with students from other subjects and universities have an ethical obligation to ensure that all students have an opportunity to speak to and work with recruiters.
However, I think it's an important message to promote. Since the introduction of higher tuition fees ( understandably) people have viewed higher education differently and you see and hear of people encouraging young people to choose vocational courses when that's not necessarily the best advice.

I don't think media and film degrees sell unattainable ideas...OK there are very few Hollywood directors and TV presenters out there, but the media and film industries in this country are growing and there is a skills shortage for people with technical knowledge such as lighting, sound, electricians etc. Practical media production courses cover this sort of thing and can offer work placements and useful contacts. It's not unattainable to think of having a career in the media industries at all.

you see and hear of people encouraging young people to choose vocational courses when that's not necessarily the best advice.

Yes - 'one size doesn't fit all'. There's no point at all doing a 'vocational' course if it doesn't suit your aptitudes and interests. But equally, some degrees considered as 'vocational' (in that they teach skills necessary to a specific field) will also provide many skills sufficient or even highly desirable for other areas eg physicists and engineers being in demand in financial fields and the growing info/data industries.

I read History. Whilst I've never 'used' it in my job it did teach me how to write, question and debate. Interestingly most of my colleagues also have History degrees - we work in senior administration roles in HE.

Personally I don't think any higher education degree is a waste.

But equally, some degrees considered as 'vocational' (in that they teach skills necessary to a specific field) will also provide many skills sufficient or even highly desirable for other areas eg physicists and engineers being in demand in financial fields and the growing info/data industries.

Absolutely - i'm in no way against vocational courses. I work at a university which runs a high number of these types of course. Course choice is not a simple one but I don't think it's helpful to place vocational degrees as more useful as more traditional subjects. To say you'd only advise your children to study something vocational ( as a previous poster has)is short sighted and misguided.

SueEllen whilst it may be that 70% of graduate jobs don't specify a degree, competition to get those jobs is fierce and the majority of students probably won't get those jobs. Whilst I think it's important that people do degrees they are interested in, there is a huge cost implication which needs to be considered.

SueEllen whilst it may be that 70% of graduate jobs don't specify a degree, competition to get those jobs is fierce and the majority of students probably won't get those jobs.

What type jobs are you talking about? That is a huge sweeping generalisation and largely untrue.

Of course the cost implication of HE study should be considered but the answer isn't necessarily to force people down the vocational route.

I have a BA(Hons) in psychosocial studies.

Absolutely useless in my life.

If i could go back and do it again I would do something specific to a job. The NHS for example is awfully short on specific job roles that a lot of people don’t even know exist. I would opt for something that would lead me into a band 5 role (although not nursing) with the chance for progression.