to feel like we were scammed into going to University?

[Schleep]

When I was at school (completed sixth form 2009), if you were academic it was assumed that you'd go to University. The whole thing was pushed incredibly hard on us and, in retrospect, was quite propaganda-like - we had external people come and do loads of assemblies on how amazing Uni Life was, lots and lots of talk about how University would guarantee us high paying jobs and we were repeatedly told to not worry about the debt, the interest rate is practically zero and we'd never even realise the money was coming out.
(Of course, when you're in your teens, debt looks like free money anyway)

Fast forward 10, 15 years later - and all my friends are saddled with huge debts that they'll likely be paying off for the rest of their lives.
A lot of them have had their repayment contracts changed so its no longer written off after a certain time, the payment terms are not as favourable and interest rates have gone up.

I dodged a bullet by being rebellious and dropping out after just 1 term, and that term was just before the fees tripled (at the time, you'd have thought I was ruining my life the way the University/everyone responded.) and I feel incredibly lucky. A degree would not have increased my employability and I have no student debt.
But I have friends and family genuinely upset at the hundreds they're forking out each month for something they didn't want and (at least in their cases) they simply do not use.

I find it baffling that the system was funnelling people out of the workforce, into unnecessary (in many cases) education and saddling people with huge amounts of debt.

@JudgeJ

Far too many courses are a waste of time and would be far better being something akin to the old sandwich courses or apprenticeships. I have quoted this before but I recall my old Headteacher asking me if I believed that his son was wanting to 'study' golf course design at University!
I think that degree has a really high employment rate ironically enough.

@vickylou78

I'm a science graduate and although you don't need a degree to do the job I do in the Environment Agency, most of the workforce here has a degree or equivalent.
Dint need a degree but the chances someone would even get an interview without one is sadly very small. I think it's crazy. Most degrees are not related to the jobs people end up doing

YANBU.
It depends on the degree and University as to whether it is worth it.
We also need more trained trades people, plumbers, electricians etc.

Like what? Not trades because they have their own training system. What jobs are well paid that hire with no degree

@CantHoldMeDown

I was 20 when I was given a finance job and £5bn to manage. I had an HNC in Business and Finance
I'm not sure of your age now but I think your opportunity at 20 is not something that would be offered ti young people now

It's all graduate schemes and you aren't getting on one of those without an internship in your second year at uni

Well clearly not if you think that it was 'propaganda' that 'forced' you to go to university

Most univeristy degrees offfer a 'sandwich' course option (now called a professional placement year). Or at least, it's easy to choose a university/ degree that offers that option

I left school in 1994 when there was still the option to join the financial services industry straight from school and work your way up.

However, that isn't the case now and it changed shortly after 1997. So although I would say on a societal level this is wrong, on an individual level I would tell my son to look very closely at jobs and if you are most interested in those that ask for degrees well then you're going to have to get a degree (or find a degree-equivalent apprenticeship).

I use my post-graduate degree all the time. Everybody I work with is degree-educated (usually to postgraduate level). Obviously we don't have the level of debt this would incur today but for me it would still be worth it for the degree alone, nevermind the life/world experience that I gained by leaving my small working-class community.

This is appalling

YANBU at all OP. Well done for having the guts to drop out.

This is my story - it’s potentially triggering for me.

I only went to the Uni I went ‘cos I was afraid to stand up to my abusive, alcoholic mother who pressurised me to go - I only went ‘cos I thought she’d make my life hell if I didn’t. I felt she wanted me to go away to uni to get me away from my working class, uneducated boyfriend.

At the end of my second year at uni, around the time of my second year exams, I hated uni and was counting down the days ‘til I could leave. At second year exam time I had a massive nervous breakdown, a major depressive illness and was under the psychiatrists. I feel aggrieved that this is now on my medical records when it ultimately wasn’t my fault. I’d been driven to go totally against my natural inclinations by my abusive.alcoholic mother. Me and my boyfriend stayed together through it all btw.

I’d dropped out of A levels at 17 and my mum told me to leave school as I was getting bad results - then when I did leave she scolded me for leaving, fake crying etc.

I went back to sit A levels at a college aged 20 and got 3 As. I was a self proclaimed swot and enjoyed the A level course. However I asked my mum - if I’d left school at 16 and never done the first A level course in the first place - would she have accepted it ? Was it the fact I dropped out she objected to? My mum said something to the effect of “No I felt you HAD to do A Levels”. Several decades later I have a MASSIVE problem with my mum’s attitude. Surely she should be a bit more open minded than this ? People can still be successful if they don’t do A levels and go to uni, ffs!!!

My Dad was also very OTT about having to go to uni. He thinks EVERYONE should go to uni if they have the opportunity. I mean this is so narrow minded I can’t even !!!!!!

Both my parents were graduates from good unis but came from rather humble backgrounds, realistically.

I feel very bitter about this decades later and I’m trying to cope by focusing on the positive things/people in my life

My attitude overall is that Uni is a great thing OBJECTIVELY - of course it is, I doubt whether anyone would argue with that. However ABSOLUTELY NOT at the extent of anyone’s mental health !

All my life I felt I wasn’t loved for myself - just for my (especially academic) achievements.

BOTH my parents died of the effects of alcoholism, btw

It all depends on what you study. There are many degrees with zero unemployment rate (STEM).
Now, if you go for a worthless Mickey Mouse degree from Stinkershire University, then you are definitely screwed. Naive students assume that university is some sort of a glorified job agency. Then reality kicks in their face.
It is important to carefully assess the employability of a degree before applying.
It is just common sense really.

I agree.

i went to uni in the mid 90s at 18 because it was drummed into me by my parents and school that I MUST go. That was the end game and if I didn’t I wouldn’t have any hope in life.

so I did. I did a degree that was unsuitable, I didn’t like and I couldn’t cope. I got a 2:2 and never ever used it.

ive done dead end jobs since whilst raising a family, discovered that I was adhd and so have my dc.

now I look at things I’d like to do and now can’t do, I’ve had my funding and my loans and can’t get any more. I wish I could have done an apprenticeship, I wish I’d waited to go to uni but it wasn’t the done thing back then to do something else at least not in my family.

Oh how the 'Mickey Mouse' analogy makes me laugh, when he is the icon of THE MOST SUCCESSFUL homegrown media corporation in American history.

It’s easy to say ‘it’s just common sense’ but 17 and 18 year olds, at least when I was in 6th form, are pushed to continue into further education, regardless of the uni or even the course.

And at that age not many of of us are too good at looking long term prospects and often go along with what is expected.

And how many kids are pushed into going to a prestigious university as it is seen as the only correct thing to do ? You only have to read the forums on here re higher education to have an idea of the mindset of some parents.

I don’t know anyone who regrets their degree or whose kids don’t want to go to university. From this thread I am a minority.

@CantHoldMeDown

Currently working in HR in banking in an organisation with a heavy social mobility agenda. So that is far from the only way in.
Amazing. This is exactly what my dd wants to do. HR in a big corporate. Do you have tips on best ways to enter the industry? What she should do to make herself stand out and be employable?

@Schleep NO repayments are based on loan interest. You obviously don’t understand student finance. You pay according to what you earn, not what you owe. On the previous scheme, it’s written off when someone is 50. They are not paying for life. Also someone starting uni in 2009 had fees of around £3000 a year. Unbelievably cheap. DD has paid hers off. Her contract (2010) was not changed.

Also, why not think for yourself? Are you always a follower? Someone who is told what to do?

Most grads get an earnings premium. The better the uni, the better it is. Some degrees pay more. The IFS has done the sums. Medicine is near the top. Economics is good too but only from the top unis. Ditto law. Not all sciences are good. Some biomedical and environment science and animal welfare degrees are not so good overall. Arts degrees are the worst but we enjoy them! English doesn’t translate into high pay overall. However are these young people really going to be plumbers and electricians? Unlikely. What about media studies grads and all those 22,000 studying psychology and the same doing law? The majority don’t get a job in either field. What should they do instead?

We do need some unis to merge and 37% of 6th form going to uni is too high. They are money fodder for the less good unis. They need to revert to providing HE. Hopefully on a day release or pre degree course.

As for sandwich courses ! The unis do not have a bank of placements! Students have to apply to companies and it can take many applications to get anything. Many get nothing. It’s now an oversold dream. Another reason to cull unis.

If you completed sixth form in 2009 you would have been arriving at the work/ university crossroads at exactly the time the global economy was in meltdown.

University made sense back then (and still does) as long as students were at highly rated institutions and studying subjects that were likely to lead to jobs that paid well. All others were badly advised.

There are systemic issues in the UK that make "university for all" problematic. The main one is that it's a low wage economy.

Another is the changing of terms of loans, making financial planning extremely difficult given the low wage problem. Basically, student debt being packaged and sold will ultimately hurt the economy, but robbing Peter to pay Paul is the MO of the Exchequer for a long time and there's no indication that's going to change.

Another huge issue is the lack of a proper vocational alternative to universities (thinking of the Institutes of Technology in Ireland here). Apprenticeships might have been a cool idea back in 1910 but they're not now.

And back to money - UK universities don't have the endowments they need in order to offer need based write offs of tuition and loving costs they way US universities do.

There's a tragic lack of attention to financial detail in the UK university sector on the part of administrators and students alike.

Accountancy? You don't need a degree, quicker to go via AAT then professional exams, you have to do the professional exams after a degree anyway. You also get no work experience doing a degree, I would take AAT qualified over a degree every day when I employ my staff as they generally have 3 years accounting/bookkeeping work experience by that point

Sounds like the story of my life.

Did very well at school (early 2000s) and the full expectation was to go to Uni. I wanted to be a doctor, but wasn't prepared for the interviews, so was rejected. Had nervous breakdown #1, and scuffed up my A-levels. Then went through clearing and chose the wrong degree for the wrong reasons. Hated it, struggled, then had nervous breakdown #2 in my 2nd/3rd year. Barely scraped a 3rd. Never had a job that paid more than minimum wage in my life. Never bothered pursuing an ADHD or autism diagnosis, but it's clear I've got one, the other, or both.

Fortunately I've since found my way into the NHS, and I'll be applying to do an apprenticeship to start September 2026 later this year. But it does feel like my only hope of any future advancement. No way I could ever afford to self fund another degree. And with my CV and "degree" what hope have I got competing for a better paid job against virtually anyone else?

Paying according to what you earn, not what you owe is nuts from a psychological pov.

It basically makes you think twice about incremental increases in responsibility or pay. It encourages people to be happy with the low wage economy, struggling along.

If you had to pay a guaranteed interest rate beginning six months after graduation, there would be a lot of people thinking twice about university in the first place, a lot of people looking long and hard at subjects they studied if they decided to go, and a lot of pressure on employers to offer starting pay to graduates that wasn't insulting.

No one has to go to Uni. It’s free choice. So, no, it’s all upfront and no scam. 😉

Yes I agree. Same timings as you. Luckily I have paid off my loan so at least don't have it hanging over me.

I really feel for my siblings. They went to uni 2 and 4 years later when the fees rose dramatically, doubt they will pay off the full loans.

On the other hand it was one of the best times of my life from a coming of age point of view. I'd feel sad for DC not to experience that.