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

I would discourage anyone doing nursing. I lasted 5 years post qualification and it is incredibly stressful with low pay and far too much expected day after day for a person to work full time unless in a very niche area like cleft or something.

@mathanxiety Exactly. All of DH’s siblings did engineering degrees for undergrad, one went to the Naval Academy and the others went to colleges known for their engineering departments.

@Talkinpeace

Top colleges in the USA knee deep in legacy entrants
I meant they are really random colleges when discussing engineering

DH goes to a specialist clinic for something he has, they are encouraging their nurses to get PhDs. Nursing seems a very broad career now.

They are liberal arts colleges that my family went to
a thing that does not exist in the countries that provide the USAs engineers

I would query why they intended to attend university in the first place. If they are only applying because everyone else is doing it, or that's what is expected after your A-Levels, or because their parents are making them go, then... is it really what the student wants?

It doesn't matter how old you are when you do your degree. At 18, you've had so little experience of the world and actually thinking for yourself that you should probably try to find out what you're really passionate about, and what careers there are in that area of interest, and whether you need a degree for it in the first place.

On a side-note, as an ex-teacher, I would definitely discourage a pure teaching degree.

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with that though, and while on the surface something like criminology and marketing would look bonkers, you might find some crossover in stats, psychology, and other behaviour related modules or modules focusing on social dynamics. Add an MBA or a masters in public health with a concentration in health communication, community health, health behaviour, public health policy, etc, and you might end up with a decent shot at a solid career.

It's possible to do a two subject honors degree in Geography and Music in the university I went to. Other combos in Irish universities include Early Irish and Mathematics. I'm not sure how many students take these options.

History degrees are surprisingly common in finance/investment banking.

The Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies is a research institute for Physics and Celtic Studies.
I think the Irish school system with a broader range of subjects and less early specialisation is maybe more accepting?
Although Oxford and Cambridge college high tables must have lots of cross subject discussion. I know a lot of surgeons seem to be quite talented artists.

@Talkinpeace you obviously know nothing about modern nursing

According to @Talkinpeace that level of education is unnecessary 🙄

Exactly

Unlike many people I'm not keen on the degrees that lead to a profession like medicine or law. I think that at 16/17 you are still too young to really make a truly knowledgeable decision about going into one field and believe that the American way of having these professional degrees as post graduate qualifications is more sensible.

The other thing to remember is that if you have a daughter the statistics still clearly show that a degree (any degree) will lead to a higher income than not pursuing a degree. This is because girls without degrees tend to go into very gendered careers that are low pay (e.g. carework, hairdressing and retail). The picture is more complex for boys because the trades pay well but their careers are shorter than office based workers due to the physical nature of the work and there tends to be no sickpay (particularly if self employed) so the trades have their downsides as well.

Having said all that I've ended up with a child who wants to be a doctor so we've ended up on the medicine treadmill despite me never encouraging it. And that is her choice not mine to make.

Everything, but Often CSA. Whole spectrum of stuff. It’s just a sector with a very high level of criminals and ex criminals. They’re quite easy come easy go in the hospitality sector so more laid back about hiring excriminals (and do less checks) lots of drugs in that industry too

No it isn't. It is a single interest subject. English and History equip students with analytical and critical thinking skills that can be applied across a wide range of subjects.
History is considered a strong first degree in Law. English is a strong first degree in publishing, marketing, advertising, film & TV script writing, journalism, business writing, political speech writing etc.
Wine-tasting is specialist. Could lead to a fascinating career but isn't more employable than a core subject degree.

I think follow your interest but also be realistic about what something will lead to. For example a friend’s kid did a sports science degree but actually wants high paid jobs in the city. I think if he’d really reflected on it prior to going to university, the realities of wages / where he might see himself working, he might have seen this. So now he’s doing a masters in management and is struggling to find graduate roles.

I would discourage psychology/sociology- other social sciences,interesting but not all that useful.

I have 3 nieces with psychology degrees. One is a management consultant, one is a senior civil servant, one is in recruitment.
My cousin with a sociology degree is a charity ceo, saving worked as a specialist social worker.
Having said that, my kids have lots of friends from school who don't have degrees, but most have done apprenticeships, or other qualifications to add to work experience.

Why are they less useful than English / History / classics etc?

I’d argue that anything that has a mix of essay writing and numerical analysis - as psychology does, and probably the other social sciences, is more useful as a general degree than anything purely Arts or purely STEM.

Unless you’re going into a degree that leads directly to a specific career (and there aren’t that many of those) it’s all about the transferrable skills.

I was very glad that one of mine went off medicine after getting through to the interview stage. Seems like a lot of slog with the reward of a lot of student debt and a fight for very few higher level training places at the end.

She's currently on her year abroad from her American Studies degree course and is much happier, with the aim of going into something creative. I know a lot of people will mutter about AI, but I work with it and there's no way of it completely replacing people. Someone still needs to tell it what to generate and figure out the purpose of the output and where it sits with everything else to form a complete campaign, ad etc, including budgets. As @BassesAreBest says, transferrable skills are the way forward.

I worked for a Big 4 accountant and as an employer we automatically rejected candidates with Business, Accounting or Finance degrees as we didn't rate most of them very highly and there was a general feeling that candidates with those degrees lacked imagination! This was a few years ago and I know things have changed including blind assessments, but I would still not recommend any of them, and would favour someone who had qualified through the apprenticeship route or had an alternative degree.

Mixing with high-level professionals, it struck me that the most successful of them have had a specialist interest in a particular subject beyond accountancy and used those additional skills to become top specialisits in their field, eg. particular sports, pharmaceuticals, oil and gas exploration, IT, agriculture or other industries. Having niche knowledge through a degree in the subject is highly valued by clients in that industry. The accountancy qualifications and training will provide that side of the knowledge, but specific industry knowledge is vitally important. The same applies to lawyers which is why many succesful lawyers have a non-relevant first degree and then complete a conversion rather than doing Law as their first degree. For example, I am aware of two succesful lawyers working as specialists in bio-chemistry.

i know someone who is head of finance for national museum. She has a history degree and worked in museums for a few years before doing an accountancy degree. Her previous experience has helped get her where she is now.

Yessss
But what happens when someone wants to move out of the local area?
(Or other people not associated with the university/local area and therefore not part of the "network" move in?)
Our that very specific industry dies out (either locally or completely due to changes in technology or lifestyle)
Or someone just fancies a career change at some point in their 50 year working life?

I actually agree that there can be merit and transferable skills in most courses but the more specific they are the more committed to a life time career you have to be - which at 18 is a big ask. Not to mention prescience about the future. Whereas an oxbridge degree from 1982 is still an oxbridge degree.

Our local new university offers courses on subjects like cyber security which the old one doesn't.
I have three adult kids...two went to an old university and one to the new one. They all got jobs. Child A did a masters abroad, B did a masters in a new university, C did a masters in a Russell Group.
Two work in multinationals, one in the public health service.
I don't think my dhs Oxbridge degree has been a massive benefit in career progression.