Should my son defer university for a year?

[Grendlsmother]

What’s the point of paying £9000 fees for next years study, for what might turn out to be an online course?

Can he definitely defer and have a guaranteed place next year? Some unis are not guaranteeing places next year for deferrals so he may have to apply again next year and the extra competition this will bring.

I work in HE and unis will go bankrupt if all the students defer so he may have a lot less choice next year for wherever he has applied.

It might well be that deferrals are not agreed by the university as they need people to start the course this year.

If you are confident that they will easily get a place (in competition with all of next year’s cohort and any of this year’s that defer/resit) and are happy they’ll have an alternative plan for the year (travel and working in hospitality may be out) then he could try to reapply next year.

We are in the same position-it is very difficult.

Hard to say without more information about his course etc. It also depends on what else he would do for a year. Getting a job and travel are quite unlikely to be realistic options.

He will return for a second year of his Maths Degree at Bristol... just wondering about the value of the degree taught bin this way. May as well do it through Open University and save some money.!

Hmm, if he could be sure of finding work and is disciplined enough to save what he earned it could be a good strategy. But it's so hard to know what to do for the best! I wish him every success and I think all you can do is tell him you'll back his decision whatever it is and never criticise in hindsight.

The fee structure is not based on any kind of value for money criteria - it's effectively a tax for taking a degree.

Most courses don't offer more than 20 hours of contact time. A lot of that time is not small group or 1:1 tutor time - it is large lecture theatre type where you are talked at rather than interacted with. So what you are "missing out on" is maybe 5 or so hours of tutor time from the university side.

An online delivery of lectures and tutor sessions would not change the university input of costs - same number of tutors, support staff etc etc. So the university's cost base does not go down. So I can't see fees going down.

The real loss for the next cohort of students will be all the non university stuff. Moving away from home, freshers week, new clubs and societies. You can put "virtual" lectures in place but you can't replicate all those "rites of passage".