Anyone discouraged kids from university in light of tuition fee rises?

[Officedepot]

In light of uni fees now being £9k per year (so £27k for three year degree) plus living costs students starting uni now would be coming out with debt over £40k

Anyone actively discouraged kids from going to uni on this basis?

I can understand if they are going to a top uni to study medicine or law etc, but AIBU to suggest if they are going to a rubbish uni to do a pointless degree it should be discouraged.

I have lots of friends who did degrees at second rate unis in random subjects and are still earning a tiny amount in their early 30s.......

I a not sure you can assume that if they never earn a lot then they won't pay back a lot. At the moment the threshold for paying back is a salary of 20k. I bet that threshold will never move so, in ten years time, it will be average wage or below. In effect, the loan is a commitment to pay an extra 9% tax for the rest of your life - a graduate tax. This is what the Lib Dems wanted and the Tories acquiesced by dressing it up as a loan, but setting the interest rate at a level where it will never be paid back. Do you realise that the above RPI interest rate kicks in from day 1 of the course so that even by graduation the debt will be significantly inflated and a lot more than 27k? It seems very unfair on the bridge generation (kids born in 1994 - 2000) as they will be competing for houses and goods with kids born 1993 and before, whilst paying tax of half as much again (29% rather than 20%). They will have it tough.

When you add in the interest you pay on a mortgage, and other associated costs, the difference between buying and renting is removed, and the 'security' a myth if you fall on hard times and can't pay the mortgage. I think the reality is that people don;t value education because it had always been 'free' ie paid for by someone else -ie someone without the benefit of HE, which isd grossly unfair. People value bettter what they pay for, and are more critcal of poor teaching when it is their own money inolved. I was lucky enough to have a 'free' education - but accept that that is not sustainable for my own DC and they need to make choices on that basis,

Coming from the generation who had a free secondary and university education and for whom university didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary- indeed was taken for granted, the fees issue has (unreasonably) taken me by surprise. Too late to plan for my own children, caught by surprise when tuition fees came in, except to put by for their post graduation, they will unfortunately be in debt.

However if I can I will put by for my grandchildren's education.

Kate Middleton's story intrigued me because her education was paid for by a wealthy and canny ancestor. I intend to be a canny (if not overly wealthy) ancestor.

I do like that ambition, to be a canny ancestor! gonna think about that

My child is academic and though neither her dad nor I have a university education and have done alright for ourselves, we would want her to have this experience for the social aspects and the personal growth involved. We are also fairly sure she wouldn't throw away the opportunities she's presented with as she's quite a serious wee girl. Admittedly, she's only 12 now, but she's got a good work ethic and a really strong sense of right and wrong. In addition, she thinks education is important because we've always said it is! Of course, it could all go tits up when she finds out about boys!!!!

If you're that determined to go to uni you'll find a way.

I'm ready to support either or both of my dts if that is the road they choose but I'd expect them to take a job to support themselves too. We're not well off, all this talk of free education - when my friends went to uni after school in the late 80s they all took jobs to survive. My mother ensured I didn't go which is why, although it is a way off and Scotland will probably have tuition fees by then, I'd never tell either dts "what do you want to do that for?" and kill their future stone dead.

Whatever happened to generous philanthropists though? Those with money seem very reluctant to do anything but gain more.

Plenty of DD's friends are at ex poly's doing media, business studies etc. I don't blame them tbh. They are having 3 years fun, independence all funded and some won't pay a penny back.

The system is a shambles imo.

I want women to aim high. I want them to go to university thinking right £1m a year will do me but I could just about live on £100k. I am just as good as any other man or woman and I can achieve whatever I want to. I don't want us producing teenage girls who think I'm pretty useless and no one in our family or our experience earns very much so I am likely to earn about £20k a year and probably less because mummy stayed home so I know women don't work so any kind of job will do until Mr Right comes along. That's all. I have no agenda to show off. Loads of women earn a lot more than I do.

Do you want your boys to aim just as high?

I'm doing a paramedic science degree, I'll never earn 60k doing that, should clever people not do degrees like that simply because the earning potential is not very high?
My daughter is doing a paediatric nursing degree, she got good enough grades to do medicine but her heart is set on nursing, I'd rather she was a good nurse on a lower salary than a unhappy doctor on a high one.

This is useful
www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2164870/How-make-child-millionaire-cut-tax-bill.html

It is a myth that nurses are necessarily happier than doctors. In fact all 'to be poor is to be happy' type arguments are deeply suspect. It is perfectly possible to be a happy doctor or a happy wealthy person.

It therefore makes better sense to do a degree which is likely to lead to a fulfilling and well paid job.

niceguy2 What do you feel constitutes a decent degree, then?

I think I have an indecent one

Boy oh boy the snobbery on this thread is quite something.

But my DD wanted to do nursing, my point was should I have pushed her into doing medicine simply because it is better paid or pushed her into doing another degree which leads to a better paid job?
I don't think so, she knows her own mind and will ,I believe, be happy and fulfilled if not necessarily hugely rich.

And she may get lucky and marry a doctor!!! Only kidding

Average Graduate Salaries

This makes interesting reading for anyone looking into future graduate earnings.

p.s. I'd be happy to swap my repayment rate with the new repayment rate. 9% of anything over 21k sounds quite attractive in my position.

Xenia
I just have no idea why you think the daughters of SAHMs have no aspirations?
It's really odd and blinkered.

My parents ran a very successful engineering business together when I was a child. They both worked long hours, travelled, had long periods away from their DC. They were financially well off most of the time but had moments like most small business owners / entrepreneurs when things were sticky. My mother juggled us children, never really took proper maternity leave, never had regular holidays because they werw workaholics. lAmongst other things, it made me realise I wanted the exact opposite! I wanted a well paid job but with security, pension, healthcare, good promotion prospects, guaranteed maternity benefits.. So as soon as possible found myself in a blue chip multinational.

But your theory is that all children or more specifically girls follow precisely their mother's path into WOHM / SAHM.

Have you never considered that children rebel against their parents choices?

And if anyone who has a DS/DD who wants to be a nurse pushes them into medicine, where will our nurses come from?

How much does an OU course cost? I have just had a look and the fees aren't quoted.

There is a site called notgoingtouni which gives details of apprenticeships.

xenia, if all girls go to university and earn 60k, what do you imagine will happen to the price of everything else?

Let's be a little bit realistic here.

www.notgoingtouni.co.uk/

vaga - yes, and will a good nurse be a good doctor, or vice versa? They are different skillsets and it devalues nursing to make out they're just doctors who didn't get the training.

From the article

" how much ARE graduates really earning? According to these numbers, the average wage for graduates six months after graduation was £19,935. Salaries in London were the highest at £22,707 ? and in the rest of England the average was £18,991. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland the figure was £20,509, £18,365 and £18,823 respectively.

The highest paid jobs were in management consultancy (£20,033), IT (£19,121) and HR (£18,413).

Clearly, these figures sound much more like it. But big questions remain. Why is it these inflated figures (from sources like the Association of Graduate Recruiters and High Fliers) that always appear in the press, and not the true figures? Who is it helping, to prevent that graduates are earning more than they actually are? Young people are making big decisions about spending a huge amount of money on expensive qualifications. Don?t they deserve to know the facts, to help them decide whether their investment is likely to pay off?

Exactly LRD She's doing nursing not because she's incapable of doing medicine but because that's what she wants to do.

If I'd stayed working in the city as I was in the early 90's I'd probably be earning shed loads but I want to be a paramedic and I think I'll be a good one. It's not all about money although being rich delivers a better class of misery.

No not at all.

Who's to say it won't change again.

I also intend to help DS as best I can to avoid the debt being as high at the end.

If we all discouraged our children because of the debt worry then only the wealthy would have the decent jobs and imo that would be like going back in time.

And good for her life. And good for you.