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Original poster

Do you think we should start university later than 18?

28 replies

WeCanBeHeronsJustForOneDay · 22/09/2021 23:43

I appreciate there are mature students and not everyone goes at 18 - gap years etc etc but I just wondered whether we should make the starting age later in general?

It’s quite hard to get an idea of what work and jobs actually entail until you do them full time. And so many people just pick a subject they were good at at school with no clear plan of the future. Do you think students would get more out of it if en masse they waited a couple of years? Or do you think it works best straight after school?

OP posts:
Invisimamma · 22/09/2021 23:56

I went to uni at 16, youngest in year in Scotland and didn't do 6th year as I had an unconditional uni place.

Only thing that held me back was having to source good fake ID to get into clubs (early 00s).

Yes I was young but I was totally ready for the independance. I did loads of internships and volunteering through uni too and actually walked straight into a good graduate job. Unlike many of my friends who were slightly older and took a few years and even longer to get graduate level work. It had nothing to do with age and evrything to do with mindset.

XenoBitch · 23/09/2021 01:22

I think it is a big ask of kids at 16/17 to be planning their future at that point.
I would be interested to see the statistics on what school leavers are studying at uni, and what they are working in at say, 10 years later.
I think many kids sleepwalk into uni because is is the done thing to do.

SelkieQualia · 23/09/2021 01:49

Isn't that the point of uni, though, to figure that out?

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Higher education
CakesOfVersailles · 23/09/2021 02:02

Well there would have to be enough entry level jobs that took people for a couple of years for that plan to work. But those jobs probably wouldn't pay too well - I was very keen to get a degree to improve my salary chances and be able to start saving for a house.

spicedappledonuts · 23/09/2021 03:41

I went at 17, couldn't get Uni funding until then.
Another Scot with a un-conditional offer. I'd already had to spend a year at school I didn't need waiting for funding to kick in.

I had graduated by 20 from an English Uni. I was ready to go out and work by then.
It also meant that doing an MA in a timely fashion was straightforward.

lannistunut · 23/09/2021 03:47

I think there are two real flaws in the UK system - a) we apply pre-results and b) due to our public school history there is immense pressure to move away from home rather than study locally.

I think a lot of people are not really ready when they go, but it is a huge cultural process and I'm not sure the UK will change, so we are stuck with it.

Kezzie200 · 23/09/2021 04:25

Certainly young people shouldn't be expected to go to University. I'm not sure extra years deciding on a career would be of help though. Eventually life gets in the way and attending Uni is not such an easy option - that can be anything from taking on car loans, having children, buying a house, being in a relationship that needs you to be in a certain area , simply being free enough to enjoy the experience, deciding on Maths having done none for 4 years.

None of the above makes it un-doable, the Open University is always there, part time and any location, but choices do get harder when life moves on.

I agree application should be after results. I know, by coincidence, two young people one year who were predicted mirror image results of each other - one got an offer and the other didn't. They achieved the opposite. The offer dropped and accepted anyway. The achiever couldn't get the place he wanted in clearing, so had to wait a year.

It all came good but was extremely unfair.

Kezzie200 · 23/09/2021 04:27

Sorry not mirror image.

Predicted AAA and AAB. Achieved AAB and AAA

AgentProvocateur · 23/09/2021 04:32

I went at 16 after fifth year too with an unconditional offer. Had a blast, but I do think 16 is too young in general b

Jellycatspyjamas · 23/09/2021 07:18

My DH went to uni at 17, is doing something unrelated to his degree but did a degree he really enjoyed and had a ball at uni. I studied as mature student while working full time which was very hard and I didn’t have the freedom to enjoy the social side of things. I’d much rather have been able to go from school and had the same experience as my DH.

Hirewiredays · 23/09/2021 10:20

Your first year is just a repeat of your a'levels really with a bit more about theory. That's it. A total expensive waste for me!

PlanDeRaccordement · 23/09/2021 10:24

I went at 17, don’t think I was too young. The thing is you literally can’t work a job that requires a degree before university. So there is no way to find out what sort of job you like in advance. And we’ve all done the work experience/shadowing type affair as teens but that’s not even close to the reality of actually working a job.

aSofaNearYou · 23/09/2021 10:26

I agree with you, what you described in your OP is exactly what I did. I think it would have more value after entering the world of work and bills etc, rather than before. I was on another planet before. Just basically viewed it like carrying on with school and the subjects I liked with vague notions of "graduate schemes" afterwards. I would make so much more use of it now.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 23/09/2021 10:38

One problem in England is having to specialise so early... pick the right GCSEs to do the right A levels to do the right degree course to do the right job.

Then there's the issue of enjoying freedom too much so not taking university seriously enough.

daisyjgrey · 23/09/2021 11:10

I think it's person dependant.

My sister went at 18, had a great time, knew what she wanted to do and is working in the role she trained for.

I went at 27 and am now in the third year of a PhD.

If I had gone at 18 I'd have chosen something random as I had no idea what I wanted to do and probably have half assed it. As it happened, I did it late, with a child and have slogged it out to get to where I am now.

I do think that making FE or equivalent compulsory was a good move though. Leaving school at 16 was mad!

LindaEllen · 23/09/2021 11:12

@SelkieQualia

Isn't that the point of uni, though, to figure that out?
Erm, no. University is for you to get a qualification so that you can be better equipped for the career you want. The actual issue is that young people ARE using uni as a way to find themselves, often doing a degree that they don't really need or want, and it devalues degrees.
HunkyPunk · 23/09/2021 11:19

Isn't that the point of uni, though, to figure that out?

Trouble is, by the time you’ve figured it out, you’re also figuring out that you should probably have done a different degree to get where you’ve now decided you want to go. I’m all for gap years.

Jellycatspyjamas · 23/09/2021 12:37

I wonder if it was less of an issue in the days of free tuition and student grants, when there was less expectation that young people would go to university and many more ways of building a career without a degree. I think spending 3 years figuring things out while accumulating student debt puts a different complexion on things.

SirenSays · 23/09/2021 12:48

I know countless people who chose the wrong degrees for them. They either switched courses part way through, which they obviously had to pay for or completed degrees that were basically no good to them.

Canii · 23/09/2021 12:50

I started my degree when I was 22 and it definitely was beneficial for me to do it that way.
If I had gone to university at 18 I would have chosen a ridiculous subject. I needed those extra years to experience real life and work out what I wanted.

BiBabbles · 23/09/2021 12:54

I have considered this, it is a bit difficult to "figure things out" with little experience and the experiences at school and uni aren't always the best to doing that.

I'm not sure whether the answer is for a shift in thinking around as it as something to do later after some work experience or that maybe education in general needs a shift around what experiences its giving.

I agree with pp that it's largely on mindset, but I think more could be done to help cultivate that if we're going to be encourage so many to take this path rather than how it seems now where it feels more luck of being prepared enough at that age.

weegiemum · 23/09/2021 12:57

I went at 17 - youngest in my school year in Scotland. Loved it. Dh was 19 as he'd done A levels and then had a gap year (before they were called that!).

I didn't think I was going to directly use my degree but I went into teaching so did. Dh trained to be a doctor and still is one.

Have to say though, we had a huge upheaval when kids were small and both went back to studying for "fun" while he locumed and we spent all our savings. We both got a lot more out of the degree (theology) that we did in our mid 30s than we had done in our teens/early 20s. Maybe that's cos we were paying for it ourselves!!

MouseholeCat · 23/09/2021 13:08

I think it depends on the person. I had my head screwed on at 18 and was doing a degree that would get me into a career I wanted to pursue. My degree was in Geography though, which has a very wide realm of relevance, so I wasn't screwed if I changed my mind.

Plenty of 18 year olds aren't mature eniugh and they get less value from it.

RaininSummer · 23/09/2021 13:16

I think so yes unless the young person already knows they want to join a particular graduate profession. It's a big waste of an expensive opportunity otherwise.

Rosesareyellow · 23/09/2021 13:23

Out of my school friendship group I’m the only who has a career for which I’ve used my degree - that’s just out of pure luck than anything else. Some of my friends changed courses after the first year, one of them after the first and then second year, some are doing jobs they did not need a degree for in the first place. Two have retrained and gone back to uni in their mid and late twenties. I think for most going to uni in your late teens ends up being a huge waste of time and money - 16/17 is much too young to decide what you want to do and choose a uni course accordingly.