Your Degree

[TurkeyDinosaur]

If you went to university, what subject(s) did you study?
Is your degree relevant (essential, even) to your current career?
If you had your time over, would you choose the same again, or something entirely different?
Did you enjoy your uni days or were they a total waste of time and money in hindsight?

I had a great time at uni, really enjoyed it.
Moved away from home and felt really independent.
No real regrets, other than maybe going for a sensible (career enhancing) subject - economics, rather than history which is my first love!

Last question - would you consider being a 'mature student', if not one the first time round?

University : Classified
Degree : Classified

would i do it again, yes in a heart beat.

what would i do differently:
be more of a social person interact more with everyone, i made some friends i got on with, i just didnt trust any of them, i guess spooks and james bond films, and covert affairs ect had a jaded influence on me,

instead my philosophy was trust no one, and study for my degree, and eg egyptology, archaeology and other subjects that intrested me etc

would i go back to university :
Hell, Yea. id consider a finance degree or finance related

Textiles. I so wish I had done something else... I ended up hating everything about uni and all the people on my course including the tutors who were up themselves... one of my biggest regrets in life and I have a few!

what subject(s) did you study?

Politics

Is your degree relevant (essential, even) to your current career?

Having a degree has been essential for every job I've had. The subject didn't matter.

would you choose the same again, or something entirely different?

Same again

Did you enjoy your uni days or were they a total waste of time and money in hindsight?

I had an amazing time and have very fond memories

would you consider being a 'mature student', if not one the first time round?

Sometimes I consider doing an extra degree on the open university for fun but have no desire to be a full time student at this point in my life

I didn’t do a degree or A levels.

I hated school, I was bullied back in the day and couldn’t wait to leave.

I started work on a YTS scheme job at 17, worked really hard, did entry level professional qualifications and carried on studying to complete a chartered level qualification.

I did a masters degree in my late thirties and another one in my late forties, each one over 2 years while working full time.

I’m now doing a PhD, still working full time, I’ll be 61 by the time I finish it.

There are many ways.

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · Yesterday 19:16

Physics and Geology, then Geotechnical Engineering

I did Geology and an Biology, half and half in the first year, then Geology 2/3, Biology 1/3 and only Geology for my final year. It's been highly relevant to my work, I work in the marine survey industry, using geophysics.

I do some basic geotechnical sampling, but it's only preliminary stuff onboard, or compiling CPT and resistivity results in reports.

I've also been palmed off to identify seabed fauna, as it says "Biology" on my degree certificate!

Electrical engineering. Was in that field for 10 years before teaching myself a, not particularly common at the time, computer operating system.
Moved into IT.

Now own a business unrelated to both.

But to run the NHS you need to have the opposite attitude to business management.

Businesses want people to come back again and again. It's the business attitude that brought in 'patient events'.

This meant that if someone developed a post op infection the hospital was made more to send that person home and come back a day later rather than send them home with antibiotics.

It's the reason when I worked in a cardiology department and we worked really hard to bring down waiting times for our tests to get people in for procedures, the NHS bosses gave the pay rise to the nurses who looked after people post procedure.

I'm not sayin the nurses didn't deserve a bonus, but they were given it because of a different department's work.

Food in hospitals shouldn't be just about not getting food poisoning, it should be part of the treatment. If you go in to hospital and don't or can't eat gluten / dairy / meat / whatever then there would be something available for you.

I did graphic design at a top US art school. Yes it was relevant to my subsequent career but didn't prepare me at all for it in reality, but I wouldn't have got the job without it.
I did not particularly enjoy my university, but you just got on with it back then - it was a means to an end.
I later went back (different uni, different subject) to get a Masters at 29. Not sure I'd go as an undergraduate unless I could commute - I would not live in halls I don't think unless they had one just for mature students.
If I had a chance to do it all again I'd have picked a different creative area, like theatre or stage design or textiles. This is what interests me now though, not sure it did as a 17 year old!

Maths and acturial science, I then trained to ve an actuary so yes relevent. I didn’t need that degree, a lot of my colleagues had sport, biology, history degrees et . Some like my husband had no degree and went for the apprenticeship route.

I’ve recently gone back to uni to study as we moved country and I couldn’t move my qualifications over, I was however able to distance learn and just sit the final year. Again, so I can work as an actuary to where we have moved, which I’ll be starting next week.

My MA subject was a parallel interest going back over a decade to the time of my first degree days so the amount of interest, reading and commitment was enough for the university. Probably wouldn't cut the mustard now!

If I were choosing now I would opt for agriculture.