To think going to Uni isn't the be all and end all?

[CatThiefKeith]

And that it is perfectly possible to have a decent life, get a good job and a reasonable standard of living without having gained a degree?

Obviously for some jobs a degree is essential, but Aibu to think that it's not for everyone, and not being academic enough to go to Uni doesn't mean you are doomed to never do well in life?

I don’t think going to uni is the be all and end all, but if you are academically bright and motivated I think you would be foolish not to as a good degree from a decent red brick will open many doors for you and enhance your career/job/earning prospects no end. I also think a huge number of students simply did not belong in higher education and were sold the fat lie that having ‘a degree….any degree’ is better than nothing when the reality was that spending three years getting a second rate Mickey Mouse non vocational qualification that industry barely recognises from a third rate uni and getting massively debt in process is probably not in the best interests for the student who probably would have fared better entering the work place straight from school. The labour target of 50% of school leavers going to uni was naïve in the extreme.

I don't think it is, but I do regret not going.

I actually dropped out of a levels so left school with just a handful of GCSEs. I am easily intelligent enough to have gotten good grades and gone to uni, but I was a lazy stroppy teenager who thought she knew better. I now have a reasonably paid job which I have risen through the ranks to get to, and have a professional qualification required to do that job which was paid for by my employer.

However...

I hate my job with a passion. That's not to say that if I went to uni I would necessarily be doing a different job that I would love, but it's a possibility. I always loved English and writing and wanted to be a journalist or editor.

I would certainly encourage my DS to go to uni, if he wants to of course.

It depends on the person. If you know what you want to do and are working towards a particular field then going to Uni is the best thing to do. Not every 'child' knows what they want at that age and its never to let to change direction and get a degree later on.
My son did not go to Uni and had no idea what he wanted to do. He started work in a call centre and worked his way from there to a really good position in the Company. He has a good career now and got a degree whilst working for his Company.
Uni would have been a waste of time for him at 18 - He would have wasted the time, like he did when studying A levels.

YANBU. I think far too many people waste their time and money doing degrees. Only a small amount of jobs actually require a degree. I'd scrap the necessity for a degree for nurses and teachers too as was the case years ago. The number of degree places and institutions is only as high as it is to keep unemployment figures down and to generate money.

I loved my degree. I learned so much and it was great to study a subject in depth. However, I didn't care so much for the student life and haven't worked in a job that needed a degree so from a professional point of view it wasn't so useful. That's my choice though. I don't regret going but unless you're into climbing the greasy pole and being a high flyer, or being in a profession no, I don't think it's necessary.

My DP didn't go and he runs three businesses.

In my line of work it is which is a massive massive shame.

You are now either "qualified" or "unqualified" and it is causing a massive divide.

People without degrees getting forced out, not allowed to do basic tasks they are perfectly capable of because they aren't "qualified" (and they have been doing for years) even though we are desperately short staffed.

People with 20 odd yrs experience being belittled and driven out because they don't have the relevant piece of paper, skill base totally ignored.

Qualification led.

It's nice to mention Richard Branson but we all know that money makes money.

I decided to have my children then go to uni as a mature student (currently year 2) to me it has been something that I have always wanted/needed to do to get the career I want.
There is no way I would have lasted this degree out at 18 years old and unless I would never put pressure on my children that it is something they have to do.

I didn't go to uni. Wasn't interested in it, didn't know what I wanted to be/to study. By 25 I was earning more than £60k a year. I've done professional qualifications that mean more than a degree would.

DH went and has built his career on that. He earns many times more than he would have without the degree.

I'm now 37 and have decided having a degree would be quite nice. So I'm doing one with the OU. It's not for any reason than I want to. I'm just going to study what I'm interested in. I highly recommend it.

A friend of mine works for a large global business, the sort of company who owns the products in your kitchen cupboards. They have stopped hiring graduates and are going for school leavers instead. The reason being that the school leavers were outperforming the graduates. They were more eager to learn and ambitious, were proactive and did not stand for red tape or being told no. They expect things to happen instantly.

No doubt there was also a cost saving !

My DH works for a large multinational food company and will occasionally sit in on interviews. There has been a shift and they are now looking at taking people on at 18 and training them on the job with a day off for college type situation, so no it's not essential......this route will lead to progression within the organisation, they struggle to recruit fully functioning graduates.

I'm doing my degree now at 34, I'm definitely getting more out of it than I would have done t 18.

The more common it becomes, the more people who have them, ironically the less 'essential' it is. As previous posters have said, so many young people now get on the conveyor belt through uni that it no longer reliably sorts the wheat from the chaff as it was seen to in the past when not so many people went. I'm not endorsing that wheat-chaff idea, by the way; but the idea of the 'graduate job' is really on the wane, unless the degree is one that specifically trains you for a particular career.

Unless you're looking at a degree that's a specific requirement for a particular job, you're probably not very much better off these days by having one, as opposed to just working your way up the ladder. They're certainly not the be all and end all - and absolutely not for youngsters, who could just as easily come back for the formal qualification further down the career path if they fall in to something that needs it.

I never went to uni, emotionally I wasn't ready and felt I would be at risk from the drinking culture etc. I always thought I'd go at the age of 30, little expecting that Thatcher would destroy the principle of adult education.

DS is highly academic and desperate to go. I would never discourage him from his dream.

Well it was the be all and end all for me. So much so that I'm still in the university system in my 40s. (I have occasionally left for a year or so but kept bouncing back into the academic system).

I would recommend it but only for 2 reasons: if someone is actually interested in study for its own sake (that would be me),
or needs a specific qualification for a job.

It does seem a waste if it doesn't tick either of those boxes.

I regret going to uni the first time. I'd only just turned 18 and in hindsight was probably still too emotionally immature to handle living away from home.

Not only that, but because I'd only just turned 17 when I applied, I had to pick my degree subject when I was only 16. I had a few ideas about what I wanted to do but then I ended up on a set path which turned out to be completely different from what I was expecting. I had no proper life experience and barely any job experience as a 16 year old so didn't really have a clue about careers other than reading uni league tables (which I was obsessed with at the time) and once I was on the degree I felt trapped. I wish I'd had a gap year or some proper life experience before I'd gone.

I think there's no harm in working for a few years and then going to uni. There is the risk that they'll decide not to go but most mature students I know are much more motivated. I have a friend who's 25 who's just started uni and she's loving it and getting so much out of it. She definitely wasn't ready at 18, she's travelled and worked in a few different jobs and I think that's really benefited her.

Depends on the individual The most successful people I know didn't go without exception. To listen to my ds and his mates I am not sure its necessary for certain careers. Its a great experience though if you can afford it. There is NO WAY you get 9k worth of tuition though so it is wise to have a career in mind and choose the course wisely if you are money conscious. Everyone goes now its not the big deal it was years ago

My dp has at least 20 graduates a month coming in to his work offering to work for free!