Thinking university not worth it?

[Meekonsandwich]

AIBU to think going to university might not be worth it?

Okay, so I've always wanted to go to university. Because I was the first person to get a levels in my family, first woman to drive and I'd be the first person to go to uni too.

I applied when I was in college and got rejected from 5 universities all over the country.
I left it a few years and worked and applied again this year. Getting my place at a local university (yay!) For a completely different subject but something I'm passionate about.
At first I was thrilled. It's what I've always wanted.
But now I'm having doubts.

1. It's over £40,000. I know you don't have to pay It back If you don't earn enough but Jesus.
2. the course I applied to I can only find one career path for and that would be a teacher. Maybe possibly a social worker but I defo wouldn't want to do that.
3. I watched my friend graduate from her useless degree and now shes a waitress.
4. Everybody these days has a degree.
5. I could continue in retail and work my way up.

But. Will I always be stuck in rubbishly paid retail jobs if I don't get a degree? There's a wholemarket of jobs out there who want graduates of ANY subject.

If teaching sucks (just like any job does after a while) at least I'll be on more than minimum wage and I'll be making a difference? And have a career and not just a job?
Is uni really a life changing thing that broadens your horizons or is it a waste of money?

Ahh!! I'm stuck! And I need to apply for finance so I need to get a wiggle on. I've emailed the uni to see if there's any career path I haven't thought of.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Every single job ive had, the application said you needed a degree. I don't have one. Applied anyway. Always got the job.

LordRothermereBlackshirtCunt
How did your peers find those jobs, without doing a further MA, etc? I'm looking to return to work in the next year or so and jobs on the jobcentre plus website or indeed that just require an English degree are extremely few and far between. I've even been advised to keep my degree off my cv and start at the bottom in a min wage job

Call me cynical but your prospects of getting a good job depend more heavily on who you know than what you know.Make the right connections and you can have fuck all qualifications but the network will come good.

The degree is Deaf studies with special needs, disability and inclusion studies

Hi, OP. I work in communication support with deaf people, and have worked for deaf charities in the past.

I also have a degree and masters, which I have nevee used. It's my vocational qualifications that earn me a living.

With regards to sign language interpreters, I know of a couple of Deaf native BSL users either doing or who have done SLI degrees/NVQ route. The aim being to become Deaf relay interpreters. That work is highly specialised though and my impression is from the couple I know is that they were unable to earn a living from relay interpreting exclusively.

Would you be interested in working as a disability advisor at a college or university after graduation? Your proposed degree sounds like it would be well matched to thar kind of employment.

Employer do ask for at least a degree for TE based disability advice roles. The salaries I've seen tend to be in the £26,000 - £37,000 region. You might have to do an additional work based qualification around inclusivity once in the job.

I don't know how you'd feel about working in the deaf world but charities such as Action on Hearing Loss have an employment advice service with advisors helping deaf/hoh people into jobs and training. They have offices around the UK.

Those jobs tend not to be as well paid as disability advice roles based in colleges/universities, but having sign language skills and a degree with a focus on disability/inclusion would obviously be a great asset.

How old are you op? And are you planning on having children? I think the course sounds good and as others have said, you only pay back a small percentage once you earn enough- most people would not finish paying off their loan before it times out.
However, the short term issue financially is that you won't be working and bringing in anything to the household, and would probably have to put off children longer. So it largely depends whether your dh is supportive enough for you not to earn for three years

I'd avoid the job centre for a start, Screw, they have no interest in helping you develop a career, just getting you into one of the crap jobs they have in their database! They're not set up for graduate employment at all.

Most of my peers had a good idea of what they wanted to do, and approached relevant organisations (quite a few work in theatre or media, and virtually all of them are in London). They started at the bottom, and pay was shit initially, but worked their way up quite quickly. I work in a university now, and this is still my experience with current graduates in the humanities - it can take a couple of years for careers to get going, but there are nonetheless interesting careers for humanities graduates, and these degrees are valued by employers. The main thing I would say is worse now compared to when I graduated is that unpaid internships have become more common, but the tide is turning against these now and many decent organisations see it as detrimental to their image to have them.

I appreciate, though, that it's a rather different scenario setting out on a career at the age of 21, than going back to work as a parent, so I'm not sure how useful any of this is to your current situation.

Quite often, university careers services will continue to offer advice to their graduates for some time after they've left. You should look into this - they will be much more useful than the job centre.

Also, I don't think I've ever seen a job advertised that stipulated an English degree specifically - you'll need to search within much broader parameters.

Am I the only one who, reading the OPs predicament, has just gone from zero to red mist angry that further ed in such a specialised area, for such a unique candidate, isnt free!!!!!!!!

So angry about any fees applying in these circumstances.

OP, are there any areas where possible sponsorship is available? Please dont want this to sound like a charity case, youre absolutely not, but I do wonder if funding is out there to assist you.

Higher not further ed.

Deaf studies and disability and inclusion studies is a joint honours, you can't do deaf studies alone.

I never thought of communication support or anything like that or working with charities :)

Yes my dh work Is tied to this area, that's why I applied to the local uni.

I always thought I'd work part time through uni to be honest, after all its not like medical sciences or law and it's not going To be 30+ hours a week. It's going to be less than 12.

We are planning on having children soon, (you know depending on if it goes smoothly, I take nothing for granted!!)
But we would be fine on dh wage.
I know it's not ideal but we agreed that we either have a child in the next 2 years or not at all. (Due to dh age and physical health)

((I swear to god he's not ancient but he's just older than me and we agreed this and he's already postponed his "deadline" by a few years so I feel it's unfair to ask him again))
But that is a whole different thread!!!

As for funding I would get disabled student allowance for a note taker and maybe an interpreter. But that's all I got told about when I went to the open day to be honest.

I know I could work my way up, I've got to floor management level, but I hate retail. If I had the chance to do something that makes a difference I'd rather do that I think.

I worry that because I'd be a mature student and not living in hall's and not single and potentially having children in year 3, that I'd struggle with that "uni experience".

There are lots of mature students at most unis. I think it would be what you make of it.

My D.C. hang out with mature students as well as ones the same age. DDs closest friend is 26 and she is 20. (I know 26 is t exactly ancient 😂)

madwoman "It is the soft skills that they use that sets them above, not their degree."

Soft skills AND a higher education sets someone above those with ONLY soft skills. And when employers are recruiting the initial cull will rule out those with LESS education. The best paid jobs, those with the best prospects REQUIRE a degree.

"It is the soft skills that they use that sets them above, not their degree." In your opinion. I disagree. Having both soft skills and a higher ability to learn will always be noticed by employers.

"Make The right connections" which many people do AT uni.

Screw - I agree job centre the worst place to try. Graduate recruitment agencies and sites far better. There are likely links on your uni's site.

"It's going to be less than 12." It may be less than 12 contact hours but could well be 30+ when you add in independant study inc research.

"As for funding I would get disabled student allowance for a note taker and maybe an interpreter. But that's all I got told about when I went to the open day to be honest." Open day is just basic info. Contact student support there's far more support available inc grants.

Having dc while at uni would be INCREDIBLY hard.

"I worry that because I'd be a mature student and not living in hall's and not single and potentially having children in year 3, that I'd struggle with that "uni experience". " my 2nd time at uni I lived out and was a Lp. It's not quite the same but still great!

I was friends with a mix of younger and mature students and am still in touch with many. Several of the younger ones are now marrying/having babies and it's lovely to see.

Re English degree - as said by a pp it's wonderfully versatile as it's the ultimate in learning communication (my degree was literature & linguistics). My cohort have gone into the following careers

Teaching/lecturing (inc corporate & technical tesol in places as diverse as Japan, Korea, Brazil)
Publishing (editing, writers agent)
Writing (3 published authors so far, one bbc scriptwriter, one theatre scriptwriter - currently in New York)
Web management
Advertising
Social media management
PR
Recruitment
Banking
Stock trading

The only limit is your imagination really.

Hand on heart. University was hard whilst taking care of DS but it was far much easier than working !

I didn't think I got the "uni experience" because of DS, but I met a lot of people and made life long friends there. Plus, in the first year of Uni, people are having fun, clubbing, mucking around. Second and third year, it gets serious ! Plus it seemed year by year people dropped out !

OK, I know a lot about Disabled Students' Allowance so need to chip in here. When you apply for Student Finance to pay your course fees, on the same website, you can apply for DSA. You complete the form and submit evidence of your disability (doctor's letter or whatever you've got that is recent). Student Finance England then confirm that you qualify for DSA.

Next step, you need to arrange a Needs Assessment with a DSA Access Centre. There are loads of these. The Uni will probably have one but there will be others locally as well. You have a one to one with an assessor, talk through all the things that you might need support with and they will write a report with their recommendation which then goes to SFE for approval.

It is very important to prepare for this assessment. Don't downplay your difficulties. If you need an interpreter, make it clear why. What else do you need? Hearing loop in lectures or seminars? Signing for either of these? Or will a note taker while you concentrate on listening be enough? Any software which will help? Lecture and seminar notes provided in advance?

If SFE approve the Needs Assessor's recommendations, they will pay for anything over and above what the uni can provide.

Don't do a degree until you know what you want to do and are ready to do it. I absolutely loved my degree but I still wish I'd waited and done it later on in life when I knew what I wanted to do as I would have done a totally different subject. That career path is closed to me now as I can't afford to do a second degree without finding.

Loans shouldn't put anyone off doing a degree - they're not scary and you never pay them off until you can afford to. I don't even notice mine going out. But most of us really only get one shot so do it when you're sure of what you want.

Deaf interpreters is an area increasing. Do you have the option of a commute? Preston is fairly easy from Birmingham via train and UCLAN does BSL & Deaf Studies

What about the open university or open college of the arts? I've studied with ou and it might be a good compromise.
Admittedly you can't do the specific course you've mentioned I don't think, but they have a lot of choice.
You'd get the degree and benefit of a further qualification. But you could also continue to work and earn, with the overall cost a lot cheaper (you could get a loan or payg).
Also if you have children and feel it's too much, you can have breaks as you go along, I think most courses give you as many as 15 years to complete.
Just a suggestion if lifestyle / finances are putting you off, but your heart wants to study further.

You go to uni because you feel called to do a job that can't be done without a degree: doctor, dentist, vet, lawyer, teacher. Otherwise of course it is a waste of time and money: a rather expensive leisure activity.

"Get a piece of paper that says you can absorb information and regurgitate at will"

That is the complete opposite of what a degree does. University isn't school, students aren't spoon-fed information and expected to recite it like parrots.

OP, I'm currently studying for a second degree. The first opened up all sorts of opportunities I just wouldn't have had otherwise. This time round I've already noticed that is even more true. The cost is definitely worth it, not just professionally but on a personal level too.