Unfortunately, there still remains a snobbery . I don't know why.
Polytechnics provided graduates with skills.
University provided graduates with academic , thinking skills which didn't necessarily relate to the real world.
This snobbery won't go away just yet but it is fast eroding.
I'm waffling now but my mum, from an Eastern European country almost 60 years ago told me this ... ( which I've mentioned here before)
A man stands in front of a long row of doors at the foot of the steps that lead to the doors of a polytechnic and a university.
It's graduation day. The students congregate at the top of the steps.
A student walks down to the man and the man says ' Congratulations. What is your degree in ?'
The student replies 'History.'
The man turns around and muses. Eventually he points to a door and says 'You can go through that door.'
( you can guess what's coming.)
Another student walks down the steps to the man and the man says ' Congratulations! What's your degree ?'
The student say's 'engineering.'
The man quickly says , 'and which door would you like to go through?'
I'm sorry that your bf is struggling to come to terms with where he went to but I'm guessing there may have been some parental dissatisfaction or continued snobbery.
I'm secretly thinking University of Manchester as opposed to Man Met ?
He is just feeling a bit down about it but absolutely shouldn't given that this imbalance, which there shouldn't be, was over thirty years ago.
In many countries, a polytechnic degree is considered far superior.
Polytechnic just means many 'many technical arts and sciences.' That's all but the government at the time felt that it sounded inferior.
It really doesn't matter.