To wonder if it's worth going to university?

[SirJamesTalbotAndHisSpeculum]

I think a lot of people think that going to university is the be-all and end-all of life.

In fact, having a degree doesn't always mean that you're more likely to find employment. It also means that you start off life with a huge debt.

What do others think? AIBU to say that there are many other routes into employment?

I enjoyed it but in all honesty feel I could do my job just as well without my degree. Most probably could but it’s just the expectation now. If you don’t have a degree you’ll always be competeing against loads that do

Also it’s better to go now that the have changed the fees. I have to pay 9% back of anything over £18k whereas my sis who went after 2011 only pays back over £25k. We both earn the same but I have to pay more which isn’t fair but hey ho.

Try phoning them, it tends to be quicker and easier

Have we not entered a digital age, FaFoutis?

My DC would be horrified if I picked up a phone nowadays.

@QuaterMiss

Can one gain a degree based on studying the works of Miss Elinor M. Brent-Dyer?

You are in a unique position to be able to answer me.

I wanted a career which requires a degree for advancement to certain levels. I get hired ahead of people without a degree.

The amount taken for my debt doesn't really effect me.

Some people aren't suited for uni. Some very much are.

You don't have to go to Uni full time to get a degree for quite a lot of jobs now.

You can do a degree apprenticeship. You get exactly the same degree, as well as work experience and a wage. More and more employers are offering these.

All the engineering apprentices where I work are doing a degree (although you don't actually need a degree to become a structural or civil engineer). They start at 16 doing a level 3 apprenticeship for 4 years, which includes a BTEC and HNC. At the end of this, they are earning £23k and then go on to do their B.End degree, part time for a further 3 years. It's paid for from the apprenticeship levy, so the employer pays.

At the end of their degree, they also have no debt, 7-8 years experience and are earning £32k in a permanent job.

Degree apprenticeships are now offered for:

Quantity surveyors
Project managers
Teachers
Nurses
Solicitors
Cyber security

There's loads more being developed.

All my apprenticed had aspirations of going to Uni full time, until they learnt about the alternative.

I don't bother taking graduates on any more, as we offer a hugely successful (and award winning) apprenticeship programme.

It's a great life experience. It's not just about getting a degree. I would definitely recommend my kids do it if they're able.

Have we not entered a digital age, FaFoutis?
Everyone assumes that and tries to sign up online in August/September, then the system gets overloaded.
OU student support centres are best on the phone, I think science is in Manchester, they tend to be less busy in the evenings.

I'm a tutor (not science), I no longer try to phone younger students due to their horror at being contacted in that manner.

Just to add that I don't have a degree and work in HR/Learning and Development and earn £60k with a company car.

Depends why you are going to university. If it's purely about work then it depends on the type of job but the experience is life changing for young people especially if they are from smaller towns or communities which lack aspiration

I went to uni as I needed to to enable me to do the job I wanted - midwife.
It was a means to an end. I hated the student experience but love my job.

It all depends of what breaks you get in life and your own personality and drive.

You can get people who get degrees, but then struggle to get a career, through too much competition, lack of direction, tough breaks, or changing their mind on what they want to do.

I've only got 12 GCSEs, dropped out of A'Levels picked up a couple of on the job NVQs, but that's it. I'm an internal communications manager on £48k at aged 42. Same salary (in some cases more) than my friends with degrees. But I had a few years head start in the working world.

I'd love to have experienced university, I'm clever enough, but we couldn't afford it and I enjoyed my part time job so much that it swayed me all the more.

It depends on so much, as I say.

Well

The OU website is shite.

It has now told me that my details have matched someone else's so it will take them four days to investigate.

Are there really two people called Sir James Talbot And His Speculum, with the same email address?

Ha! I shall tell you all soon if they accept me.

A degree shall be mine.

I Googled for you, SirJames:

www.google.co.uk/search?q=PhD+theses+girls%27+boarding+school+fiction&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari

I'm a tutor (not science), I no longer try to phone younger students due to their horror at being contacted in that manner

Fortunately perhaps, FaFoutis, I am pretty ancient, so I shall phone them on the morrow.

As ever, QuaterMiss you have come up with the goods.

Thank heavens for that jolly dropbox, eh?

Elsewhere I’ve been bemoaning the costs of academic conference attendance. Just think, in the blink of an eye you’ll be in a position to ask your university to fund an entire new specialist library and your own series of international conferences. (Private healthcare provided on site.)

I'm so glad I started this thread.

Now I can go to university myself.

Yay!

Because you need a degree to even be considered most decent paying jobs!

Read the who gets paid £29500 and over thread then decide.

Bah. Still having trouble with the OU websute.

Website, even.

Websute quite nicely names those apps which allow you to turn yourself into a cat or age yourself.

Almost 50% of students go to uni now, so why would you employ someone without a degree when you could employ someone with one? It’s easy to be sniffy about so called ‘Mickey mouse’ degrees until you realise they are at least as useful as degrees in subjects like history and philosophy. I remember hearing a colleague being sniggering about an acquaintance doing a hairdressing degree until she told me that students got snapped up by theatrical and TV companies and many former students now worked on programmes like Game of Thrones.

Do what makes you happy. Remember that a degree is about much more than money though, on average, graduates earn much more over a lifespan. I’ve got 3, couldn’t do my job without them, and am intensely proud of every single one.

Because you need a degree to even be considered most decent paying jobs!

Simply not the case in the business that employs me. Some of our accountants have degrees, some of our lawyers do. Some of our directors and C-suite do not. We have plenty of people on £16k in our call centre with degrees. I think some people underestimate the role that character and personality play in having a successful career.

I was the only one in my immediate circle of friends who didn't go to university and went straight into employment.

By the age of 24 I was the youngest assistant manager in the countrywide organisation of some 12,000 people and earning far more than any of my friends who came out of uni three years earlier with degrees. Some never caught up with me until I changed career path into something much less lucrative but more enjoyable. My lack of degree has not hindered me one bit.