AIBU to feel that some parents just want their children at Uni even if its a BS degree

[DistinguishedSocialCommentator]

Hello
I come from a background/culture where education is seen as very important and going to a university is a must (My parents came to England in 1962)

Yes, more and more jobs are seeking degrees and often even when not necessary. There are many professions where you must have a degree to join the course training

However, what I and my family call BS degrees, to name but a few

Arts
Studio Fine arts
Arth History
Business studies
Exercise Science
Fashion

I cant see what jobs they will get as there must be other routes, less intensive and extensive to get the job they want

When I've talked about mickey-mouse degrees at parties etc and not be aware that some parents children or they may have studied them, they start to defend the indefensible.
The biggest bS degree is 'Politics' - WTH!! Sadly, we know a few people whose children have done that and ended up running the family shop/business - total waste of a degree

There are other degrees just as crappy - they should be banned IMO

AIBU to think these degrees are a waste of time and often do not aid the person into a job in that field?

No idea as I could not care less.

I'm all for the fees route as long as everyone pays and this does to an extent keep out the lifestyle brigade. Yes, there will be others that could have done well but could not afford to go to uni, but I'm all for the fees.

Tbf, I'd say the difference between most people's children and yours is that ours wouldn't be mortified compared to yours at the tripe that comes out of your mouth.

Many thanks for sharing your experience and real-world facts.
The poster above you banged on about paying back 16 pounds a month on a 30k debt, not sure how accurate that is

I am pleased for you as you are very sensible type.

🙄 I have friends who are professors of art, photographers for film companies, politicians, book cover illustrators, that’s just off the top of my head. None of them earn less than £60k a year. What utter thick person tosh.

Exactly my point. Property is expenxive and even when someone has a decent degree, life is expensive here is london and not everyone has a decent degree

Moving to London as my parents did from the north of England to ensure their children and their grandkids had better ops

Where we lived in the north, there were hardly any jobs 40 years ago and its not much better now

Parents sold a det house for 3k and ended up buying one for 30k - the people/family in the north though we bought 2 mnisons - days before the internet and even people where dad worked in London could not believe property prices as you only really knew via newspaper ads etc if you were buying/selling or thinking of doing

Getting a degree is just part of it, its how you mange money is the key

What is 'the lifestyle brigade '? I don't understand your point as it pertains to third level education or it's value.

Unfortunately ChatGPT is even better.

That career route (good knowledge of niche coding language leading to highly paid job without any qualifications) is not really available any more, and frankly hasn’t been since about 2008 (global financial crash). DH found his first job in that sector during the first dotcom boom, which, given he was 22 at the time, would have been around the time your children were leaving school if they are in their late 30s now (and we also bought a house in London aged 21 and 22 - I was actually still a student with no income, mortgages were given out like smarties back then and house prices were far lower).

You are pretty out of date, as I’m sure your fictitious children can confirm. The bottom has completely fallen out of the market. Tonnes of people doing coding boot camps during lockdown has led to a glut of early career coders. You can buy off the shelf solutions for code that would have taken months of dev time twenty years ago, and AI and machine learning can fill in a lot of the gaps. Wages have plummeted as a result. Nobody is employing a sixteen year old with no qualifications in £80k these days, if they ever were.

So you don’t actually value education, you just value money, and things that make it, or lead to making it. Not the same thing at all.

Lots of us value actual education for the sake of a love of lifelong learning.

Where we lived in the north, there were hardly any jobs 40 years ago and its not much better now

Where in the North did you live?

I think you are mainly getting flamed as there are much nicer ways to put some of your points. You don’t have to be a complete knobhead about it.

Anyway I happen to agree with what you are saying but I by no means think that if someone wants to go to uni and understands the depts they will land etc then that’s up to them.

i did a degree in communications (pop that on your list most BS degree there ever was! I wanted to work in the media). TBF my degree got me a good job as a radio producer for a while as a lot of the ‘media element’ of my degree turned out to be pretty useful.

anyway I digress. I now work in marketing (fairly senior role), my degree helped me get a slight foot in the door skipping the bottom ‘assistant level’ but that’s all, I have worked my way up.

now my daughter is at university studying, wait for it, marketing! 🤔I told her time and time again that you don’t need a degree to do this job, there are lots of apprenticeships in marketing (albeit they are quite tough to get on to). Or you can start at entry level and work you way up and it will be quicker than spending time getting a degree and being in lots of dept. - and nepotism aside I could give her a job!

we went over and over it but in the end she wanted to go to university, move to another city, make new friends, join societies etc and she is having a blast! She is well aware of the crippling dept she will be in and has accepted that (although I feel a moment of me thinking I told you so coming up in a few years).

so I do agree with you but honestly try and be a bit more diplomatic about your thoughts as these are peoples lives and it’s not for you to shit all over them!!!

I'm not in England, but close enough to be quite familiar with it. The way some people talk about 'The North' reminds me of pictures in my history books from the industrial revolution. Rain, misery, and death. I have cousins there though, and they seem to have survived and thrived, despite their loans.

The poster above you banged on about paying back 16 pounds a month on a 30k debt, not sure how accurate that is
It's not on 30k debt. Repayment isn't calculated on the amount you owe. It's calculated on the the amount you earn

My figures are accurate, I used a student loan repayment calculator. The info from gov.uk student loans page on repayments quotes similar figures.

@DanielGault ridiculous isn't it?

Manchester and Leeds have a thriving graduate labour market!!

Well just given that I know this, from a different country and all, the OP seems somewhat dramatic. I've visited Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham and Huddersfield and they all have have colleges, and I assume trades. All seemed to be pottering along nicely. All ok.

I wouldn't even begin to compare your insufferable children with mine. We all knew that they would thrive in each of their very different fields, as it has proved. HTF does that make them "different" to your alleged paragons? What a crock.

Arts and fashion are BS? Have you heard of St.Martin's or The Royal College? World respected graduates.

@DanielGault indeed.

All of those places have (at least one) university and somehow the inhabitants managed to get jobs and earn decent wages. Who'd have thought it?! There is work outside of London! 🤷🏼‍♀️

Many degrees open doors for graduate programmes and employment. You must have known you were being disgusting when you started this thread. I hope your children never disappoint you and want to do a BS degree!

Careful now! The kids could be perfectly normal!

Or more likely, perfectly fictional…

I doubt it if that's the attitude they've been steeped in all their lives!

That's more likely!

Quite! Or their 'salaries' anyway 😂

That may be true, but did she really need a degree to be able to do that? I earn a good wage now, but it's nothing to do with my degree. I went to university because, to be honest, it's what my sixth form pushed, and what people expected you to do. If I'd known more about the realities of life, I think it would have been better for me to just start working when I left school at 16.

OP, You do sound like a bit of a knob, though, even though I sort of agree with you.

You missed my point. London did not give me opportunities. I had more opportunities from companies with either latge office or HQs in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham.

Leeds is an amazing place for high quality, well paid jobs, and way more affordable than London.

London is not the hub for opportunities.