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?

Surely it's the child not the parents who wants to attend university and they also choose the degree? I have 4dc and I have encouraged them to do well at school. 2 of my dc wanted to study engineering and I asked them to consider apprenticeships but they weren't interested they wanted to go to university. One now has a successful engineering career after going to Cambridge and the other still has a year left to finish their MEng. My youngest dc is doing her gcses and has to consider her options post 18. She is completely unsure about what she should study. I wouldn't be surprised if she took a year out after her IB to decide.

This is hilarious 😂😂

Sounds like you have a massive chip on your shoulder OP.

A degree is only useful if it is going to land you in a well paid job, otherwise, why waste several years of your life and walk out with a 60k debt

Is it? Nursing pointless is it? Good to know.

Quite. This poster is so ridiculous 😂

Yawn. I have a fine art degree and work in a tech job that barely existed 20 years ago. Creative degrees are more transferable than you think. If I'd done computer science then it would have been obsolete by now, my creative problem solving skills have helped me keep ahead of changes in the workplace and my degree absolutely trained me in that way.

Lots of my uni friends did degrees that you call ‘BS’, most of them have gone on to have careers related to that degree. I don’t think they’re BS at all!.

I mean this with respect. You are very ignorant of careers that degrees open up beyond of course the proof of being able to learn.

Your statement I quoted is case in point. Of course banks employee people with arts and media.

Our products and services are designed by people from art school, design thinking is critical for example. I routinely scan for the best and brightest.

It is ok to be curious about where unusual (to you) degrees might lead but the assumptions you make to judge are fundamentally incorrect.

Jnr is off to study an ESports degree .. probably count as “Mickey Mouse” to some people. It will be a $5bn a year industry by the time she graduates, and a new industry so lots of opportunity.

She has ASD, so the independence she will get from going to uni will be worth more than any degree .. the life experience, learning to manage her time etc in a safe, campus, environment.

Are we going to go to Oxford & Cambridge .. stop people studying Classics, because it doesn’t lead directly to a job ?

@DistinguishedSocialCommentator They're not going to be implementing anything though are they?! 😂😂 For a self proclaimed education snob may I ask, do you actually read the daily fail ? 🤦🏼‍♀️

I think ESports will be OK because of computing element. It's fashion, music, art , dance , and probably lot of creative writing , history and classics courses, anthropology, archaeology (not at Oxbridge as you say) that will fall.

And what apprenticeships will most of the students who want to study those thigs apply for?

It reminds me of that awful ill judged ad stating a ballet dancer should really work in cyber.

If anything apprenticeships are less helpful, they'll teach how to do the job there and then but not necessary the flexibility of soft skills to be as adaptable to an industry or multiple employers. Apprenticeships are great and I think are brilliant for people who wouldn't go to uni otherwise but the education aspect isn't as broad or in depth.

And there aren’t enough apprenticeships.

So the goverment is talking BS - is it??

1 in 5 end up in a jog earning less than 25k a year and debts of 50/60k and 5 years of their lives down the pan - what for??

So the goverment is talking BS - is it??

Yes. It's also not a policy given the OfS already has those powers and has had for several years.

1 in 5 end up in a jog earning less than 25k a year and debts of 50/60k and 5 years of their lives down the pan - what for??

Factually incorrect (the 1 in 5 under £25k bit).

PS don't tell the government but apprenticeship drop out rates are far higher than uni drop out rates!

Bless. It’s kind of adorable you sound so surprised this government might not know its arse from its elbow.

You can be a narrow-minded, snobbish twat with a degree in any discipline, OP. And indeed without a degree at all.

Bless
No wonder you are not a decision making person

No wonder you are not a decision making person

And you are?

Your 18.42 post is ignorant rubbish - I've posted why. Feel free to ask me more questions.

I think 4/5 earning above £25k is good.

Uni produces well rounded individuals.

My degree was stem and it was too hard to get a job in stem so I’m now in education. Peers on fashion all went into fashion and earn £££.

Possibly some more insightful reading for you @DistinguishedSocialCommentator

https://www.hesa.ac.uk/insight/28-11-2023/getting-real-about-graduate-earnings

this one's even from the Government

https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/graduate-labour-markets

Lifting of student number caps - hmmm another one from the past 14 years

https://wonkhe.com/blogs/is-it-time-to-think-again-about-student-number-controls/

as announced by George Osborne - you know one of those Conservative Chancellors of the Exchequer

Each year, around 60,000 young people who have worked hard at school, got the results, want to go on learning and want to take out a loan to pay for it, are prevented from doing so because of an arbitrary cap.

That third link also re-inforces an observation from @titchy regarding the powers that the Office for Students already has. From the existing Regulatory Framework

where forecast student number growth risks having a significant negative impact on quality and the student experience due to the overstretching of a provider’s finances and resources, a specific ongoing condition might require the provider to have a student number control (175c).

and

If the OfS is not satisfied that the risk of future non-compliance [with regulatory requirements] is low, monitoring may be more frequent and/or more intensive and the OfS might set specific ongoing conditions including… student number controls (351).

The 1 in 5 is selectively quoting from an IFS study

https://ifs.org.uk/publications/impact-undergraduate-degrees-lifetime-earnings

Quoting from the IFS introduction it recognises:

This study only looks at financial returns. Other personal and social benefits may be as or more important. We also only consider the effect of each student’s choices on their own earnings holding constant the choices of others, limiting the scope for using these results to predict the effects of major changes to the higher education system

and finally perhaps understanding how the student loan system actually works could help build at least a modicum of understanding

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loans-decoded/

and, for Plan 5,

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loans-england-plan-5/

and again rather more credible that the DM

https://wonkhe.com/blogs/what-does-the-general-election-mean-for-higher-education/

Thanks for that @boys3 (I suspect you do the same job as me ).

So the 1 in 5 was that IFS report - thank you. Am I right in thinking the LEO data they used doesn't take part time work into account - and of course many women in their 20s and 30s (the age groups they extrapolated from) work part time. (It also doesn't account for self employed people paying themselves NMW...). Be interesting to see the new improved LEO data which I think will attempt to deal with some of these issues.

just an occasionally enthusiastic amateur 😁Part of the Creative sector.

Quick plug to further educate the OP

The government - yes OP the current one - estimates that creative industries generated £126bn in gross value added to the economy and employed 2.4 million people in 2022. A range of research is also examining the way in which creative industries and the arts can positively impact wellbeing, for example through public health interventions.

https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/contribution-of-the-arts-to-society-and-the-economy/

You're very knowledgable! And patient