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Original poster

University

22 replies

HappyGranny7 · 12/08/2023 17:32

Inspired by what your parents didn’t believe in thread. Do you regret going to university? Only top 10% of my generation did. I didn’t. Looking forward to responses

OP posts:

WhenIWasAFieldMyself · 12/08/2023 17:40

No.
I was the first in my family to go.
I can't imagine not having gone.

Yetisrus29 · 12/08/2023 17:41

I'm glad I went, I just wish I had put more effort in. I also wish I hadn't been with my ex as I think I would have enjoyed student life more being single and got more out of it (and got with the guy from the rugby team who I got to know and who asked me out).

Babyroobs · 12/08/2023 17:41

I don't entirely regret it as I met dh during my Uni years but have not really used my degree for any career progression. First in my family to go too.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Higher education

FictionalCharacter · 12/08/2023 17:44

I loved it. Had a whale of a time. And my career has been based on my degree subject.

multisurface · 12/08/2023 17:47

I was the first of my family to go

I went as a mature student and a single parent to 3 kids post-divorce.

it is the best thing I have ever done, except for my kids, and it has given me a great career. And all my kids have gone to uni and graduated, which is again the most important thing.

It genuinely changed my life and their lives.

calmcoco · 12/08/2023 17:48

I'm glad I went. I have a degree and I had a big learning experience.

I think it's much tougher now due to the personal debt it incurs.

Blossomtoes · 12/08/2023 17:48

I went 40 years ago when a degree meant a lot more than it does now. I loved it, had the time of my life and met the person who’s still my best friend. I got jobs I’d never have been considered for without a degree.

Original poster

HappyGranny7 · 12/08/2023 17:52

This is really interesting. Thanks for replying. Do you think degrees are devalued these days?

OP posts:

Twoleftlegs · 12/08/2023 17:58

no regrets in terms of the social mobility it granted me

BUT

I didn’t have the financial security to use my degree as I wanted to. Have always had a bit of a chip on my shoulder about this. I had no means to do unpaid internships and parents lived far far far away from London so geographically ‘going back home’ for a bit didn’t help me either.

fell into a vocation as I needed to start earning asap and have had a successful career- but not what I pictured myself doing as a wee girl by any means

AllProperTeaIsTheft · 12/08/2023 17:58

God no! I had the absolute time of my life, met lots of great people and (somehow, in between the hectic social life) got a degree without which I could not have done the career I wanted and have done for nearly 30 years.

Degrees are devalued in the sense that too many low quality courses are offered and too many people go to university compared with the number of jobs that really require degree-level education. But decent degrees from decent universities are still valued.

ZittiEBuoni · 12/08/2023 17:59

Not at all - it was brilliant. I wish I hadn't been the first in my family to go though because advice from someone who had been there and knew what to expect would have been golden. I feel I didn't take as much advantage of it as I could have done because there was so much I didn't know about.

Bluevelvetsofa · 12/08/2023 18:05

I went many years ago, when far fewer people did. I had a much older cousin who went, but no one else in the large extended family did. I loved it, made life long friends and a career based on it.

I think the idea that 50% can or should go to university denies the value of practical careers and apprenticeships and devalues the academic experience. There’s nothing wrong with going to university for the experience, but it’s an expensive business these days and doesn’t seem worth it to me if it leads to a job or career that could have been possible without it.

Numbersarefun · 12/08/2023 18:06

My parents (born ‘44 and ‘46) both went to Uni, so it was sort of expected that I would. (Parents were not from well-off families, but did go to grammar school. My brothers and I went to our local secondary.). I need my degree for my job, though.

Girasoli · 12/08/2023 18:06

Not at all, loved it so much I went 3 times and DBro 2. Neither of our parents have degrees (though my dad did an OU unit as an adult)

Blossomtoes · 12/08/2023 18:07

HappyGranny7 · 12/08/2023 17:52

This is really interesting. Thanks for replying. Do you think degrees are devalued these days?

They are from the time I got mine. Only 5 to 7% of the population were graduates then. And firsts were like rocking horse shit.

IsisoftheWalbrook · 12/08/2023 18:09

I went in the 80s. I’ve been back twice for further study. I had great fun, learned loads and had my eyes opened to the world, met wonderful people, played new sports, and got a career that has given me a lifetime of financial security.

IsisoftheWalbrook · 12/08/2023 18:09

I was also the first in my family to go.

Haretest · 12/08/2023 18:35

The proportion of people who get no benefit from their degree is tiny, and I'm always very sceptical of those who went and say it was a waste of time!

daffodilandtulip · 12/08/2023 18:54

I was on the other thread and my parents didn't agree with me going to uni. Whilst I didn't need my degree to get the job I have today, I would have needed to get the knowledge gained from somewhere to do my job so I don't think it was a waste. I also did a nursing degree, which obviously is needed for the job that I did for 18 years.

Coronationstation · 12/08/2023 19:17

Absolutely no regrets - it got me a career you wouldn’t get without a degree and met friends for life. That said, I went in the days when you still got grants and didn’t have to pay tuition fees so thanks to parental support and working holidays I came out with no debts. Nowadays I wouldn’t encourage kids to go unless it was a very good university or there was no other route into a profession. One of my older cousins went to uni but no others did and were first generation on both sides to go.

SiobhanSharpe · 29/12/2023 23:00

Blossomtoes · 12/08/2023 18:07

They are from the time I got mine. Only 5 to 7% of the population were graduates then. And firsts were like rocking horse shit.

Show quote history

Heartily concur. Even 2.1s were likewise much rarer than they are today. (Eg, my DS, who according to his yearbook won the title of Slacker of the Year, got one.) In the early 1970s almost everyone I knew got 2.2s apart from one lovely football-playing, hard-drinking, life-of-the-party lad who astounded us all by getting a first.
Although universities were much more difficult to get into when there were far fewer of them, it was easier actually being at university once you got in, IMO.

I don't regret going for a second, had a whale of a time and although my degree was not vocational at all it helped me into a decent professional career.

GrumpyOldCrone · 29/12/2023 23:12

I loved it! I had such a good time and I learned all kinds of things that had nothing to do with my subject, e.g. I was in a foreign language play even though I wasn’t studying languages, and I sang in a really good choir (wasn’t studying music), and I started a new sport. I also made some very good friends who are still close friends several decades later.

But the subject was important too. I couldn’t do my job without it.

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