@Notjustanymum
I don’t want to derail the thread, and I stand by my previous point that the OP’s DC should agree not to spend their inheritance while OP makes a huge contribution to their education, by tying their funds into untouchable savings until they finish their degree courses.
However, I’m genuinely puzzled by some of the comments on here. If University students are being advised that they “ should take out the student 'loan' because the likelihood is that they will never have to pay it back in full.”, exactly how valuable are their degrees?
To me, this suggests that it’s more likely that following graduation, most will end up in a job with no great likelihood of any career progression - nullifying all the reasons that they are given throughout GCSE’s and A-levels to aspire to getting onto a degree course.
As parents, should we be complaining about this potential outcome? It seems that there’s an awful lot of pressure on young people to go to University, rather than to start training earlier to gain alternative qualifications more suited to them which would enable them to join the workforce and make progress in their careers without accumulating debt that otherwise they may never pay back…
I would hate to think that I’d somehow “proved myself” by becoming a BA or a BSc, but only be able to find employment in jobs that don’t offer either career progression, or a decent enough salary to clear a student debt…
Honestly?
Most
full-time degrees aren't worth the paper they're printed on!
Students are just cash cows.
You'll see a few people come up with stories like.. 'my DS went to a rubbish uni, suddenly blossomed academically and then ended up at Oxbridge'.
Fair enough, but what about the rest of them who instead ended up in low paid jobs with a huge debt? I volunteer to review CV's, provide career coaching and the number of young people I see in dead-end jobs, even 5 years after graduating is heartbreaking.
The world is fluid now. So many unis offer part-time courses, online degrees, etc.
If someone discovered a passion for a subject, they can THEN quit their job, be funded and go to full time uni. No issues there. Or even do degree PT.
However there's no reason to push all young people into uni, using 'getting a job' as an excuse. Degrees don't teach any 'transferable skills' that people can't get by ither means. In fact a lot of qualifications (like the accounting ICAEW) are equivalent to an NVW level 7.
Btw I was in finance, now switched to computer science.
I downloaded the textbooks for free off the internet, Harvard, MIT etc have free courses, I taught myself loads.
There lots of ways for the thirst to awaken, and be pursued to an extent BEFORE committing to a degree.
I say.. to those who are passionate.. like I was about my first subject. Go to uni. If they want to do Physics, Chemistry, heck even Theatre,.. go.
But to those who have no idea, 'average' grade, choose some generic subject.. no not worth it.
It's a bit of a vicious cycle though, the more graduates there are the more jobs demand 'degrees' for jobs that don't need them, and forces more people to go to uni... but the tide is turning somewhat.