Are there any courses, you would actively discourage your dc doing at uni ?

[JennyTals]

Is anything a no go for you, or would you support any course

Forensic science or Criminology

Very popular courses and very few jobs, which also aren't massively well paid.

That is interesting @villanova - in my Department and I believe across the whole university, all academics teach UGs (unless they are bought out on grants but that is rarely full-time) even the high flying professors - our teaching has to be research-led - we teach our area of expertise.

That is really interesting @WhatTheKey have just sent that to my daughter who will graduate this year as an actor musician - to remind her not to leave all the amdram amateur operatics experience/awards off her CV!

I'd discourage them from doing a course with a lecturer who talked about 'Mickey Mouse' degrees. Anyone want to guess how much gdp Mickey Mouse is worth?!

Honestly I despair sometimes at the shit people swallow from the papers.

Signed a HE policy adviser.

@WhatTheKey - interesting. Do you rule out drama students from not at all prestigious courses? There are some basic courses out there with about 13 hours contact time, and compared to the intensive training of the top schools there isn't much point in doing the course, IMO.

I'd quite like to have done a degree in Travel and Tourism. I was strongly discouraged by school. They didn't use the words Micky Mouse, but that's what they were implying. I ended up doing no degree. I think a Micky Mouse degree would have been better than nothing, and I could have used it as a stepping stone to another career.

What’s your evidence for “pseudo academic” degrees? Examples?

My dd did English lit it's not been at all helpful in starting her career and the job she got she didn't need a degree for.

No,it’s their decision

I’m a nurse, so probably anything in healthcare 😂

in all seriousness though, I would support my DC in whatever they wanted to do, ensuring they were well informed and knew all the options available to them, including non university options!

But I’d make sure my child understood the implications of their choice (don’t do golf course management if you want to be a barrister, and so on).

@OrangeCushioning I agree. My DD is doing a degree that’s beyond my comprehension 😂, but she has a long term plan so that’s fine.

Wine tasting would be more useful than queer or gender studies

I think that quite alot of the 18 year olds going to university would be better in apprenticeships. They just aren't suited to that way of assessment , they don't like writing and too many degrees put assessments in that are just padding it out. An apprenticeship in something practical would give them the skills they need. I understand that university itself is an experience but that isn't in itself enough in my view. Too many student go get a degree then train again for something that they should have started training for at 18. Many schools and sixth forms seem to push students in that direction , it's almost like a conveyor belt and hard to step off.

Just about every course there is. Unless they are going to study Medicine, Engineering, Physics or something related, I would advise them to skip it entirely. Degrees had value when they were rare, but now, just about every single applicant has one. They are all but worthless. Especially if they bear no relation to the job being applied for.

A doctor needs a medical Degree. But how do you quantify the value of an applicant who "read history", or has a Degree in "Communications", or some other Mickey Mouse qualification?

If I were advising a young person regarding University choices, I would advise them to skip it, sign up at your local college for a plumbing course. Once qualified they could easily take over 100k a year, never be out of work. Ever. And have a skill that would give them access to every work visa known to man. They could live and work just about anywhere. No student loan, no interviews for middle managment non-jobs.

The days of University Education meaning something are over.

I wish there were more apprentiships to be had. None of my sons friends want to go to university but they are really struggling to get apprentiships. A couple had luck in construction instead of a levels. But the demand for them outstripping supply.

I also don't know how successful just getting a job and trying to work up is now, as the entry level ppositions seem few and far between and also you are competing with someone who did do a degree and has 3 years more maturity and 3 more years part time work experience.

Very tough out there now.

In answer to a degree subject I'd discourage - maybe a specific business function without work excperience.

No way would I support any course. So many degrees out there that very clearly lead nowhere. As a PP said, I’d far prefer them to have a job in mind and look at what they’d need qualifications wise.

I'd ultimately support anything he choose.

But I will be having serious talks with him about taking the decision seriously, thinking about employability in the long run etc. And whether it's worth going at all, depending what he wants to do. I'd still support him going to uni for the life experience even if he didn't "need" to for his career plans, but I'd want him to be aware of what that means financially.

I do really want him to think about future income. It's something I never considered and although by luck I've not suffered for it, if I were single and trying to support myself I would be finding it very tough. I wouldn't pressure him to choose something high paying that he hates or sacrifice life opportunities to climb a career ladder, but if he's torn between two paths I'd encourage the more financially stable one.

As most of the extremely wealthy people I know didn’t even go to university, I’d just encourage them to do whatever the heck they want. Spending a year or so in an ashram would be great and very mind broadening. Sod the pension saving too, learn how to day trade or get into crypto instead. My partners pension company went bust so that was a total waste of money.

quite seriously, looking at long terms careers, I don’t think you can go wrong with being an arms dealer. Not sure of the career path for that though - military?

Law. Too many people want to do it.

Journalism or media. I work with 250+ journalists and am yet to meet one who has a degree in the subject. Tend to be a lot of STEM subjects, Economics, English, and PPE.

I would completely support DD going to university in general, we started saving when she was born so if she wants to go, the money will be there. She is only 4 so who knows what will happen by then.

And no jobs at the end.

Interesting that a pp said criminology/forensics. A few years ago (when traditional tv ruled)we had two people from the police give a careers talk at school on that. In the break they said to me that shows like NCIS had a lot to answer for as there were so many graduates chasing a handful of jobs. She made it clear that in reality it was dirty, often stomach churning but mostly very mundane.

You don’t need a £30k plus expenses degree innit though. You need a good palate. And then you can spend the £30k on the wine…

I would hate my DC becoming plumbers. They’d also be rubbish at it.

Would you mind naming the school?

I know someone who did criminology at uni, she works in a shop, as do all her fellow ex students. She laughs about it being a waste of time. Funny thing is we know someone else who has just done it aged 50 (first degree) I can’t see it’s worth getting in debt for.
However my friends daughter is doing it with the purpose of joining the police, she researched the best uni to do it at etc.