To not understand people who talk about being the first in their family to go to uni like it’s a badge of honour?

[Kyrgyzstan]

Sorry if this sounds dismissive of their achievements but isn’t it less of a rags to riches tale of personal achievement and more of a generational difference? I mean barely any of our parents generation went to university and now it’s pretty much expected if you want a half way decent job.

Obviously if you were raised by heroin addicts and managed to still get good grades and go off to uni that’s different but the children of ordinary parents who just didn’t go to university talking about it like a huge achievement sounds a little strange to me?

Did I say it was normal? I only mentioned it when someone asked why I hadn’t been to uni yet. I’m only in my 20s and plan on going soon. And as someone in my 20s I can say most of my peers went to uni. Whereas our parents generation not many did. It’s just an observation.

I meant to say it is a legal requirement to be in education/doing an apprenticeship until you are 18 (and was when I was at sixth form around 10 years ago so will have been the same for you since you are also mid-20s)

But you're not 'merely pointing out that not many people went to uni back in the day' (which you rather amusingly believe is the 1990s). If you want to start a thread on whether access to further education has improved, that's great, but it is totally different to what you posted. Your whole post is based on the premise that people shouldn't be proud of being the first in their families to go to University because, even if they're the first, in the current generation, it's expected people will be university educated. Why does a general societal expectation of further education take away the achievement of the additional barriers individuals have overcome? Almost every poster has tried to explain that the flaw in your argument is that having a university education is not a generational thing. Being proud to be the first in your family to go to Uni is nothing to do with the generation you were born into. Anyone who is the first at something faces mutiple barriers. They have to be exposed to or think of the idea, to be interested in finding out more, to believe they can do it...in short, to find their own way, at every stage, often with limited or no help.

Yes, no doubt compared to many, my great grandparents and grandparents were unusual. But my mother faced one less hurdle with her education, because not only were both her parents extremely supportive of education, it was expected she would go to University. She faced other (significant) barriers, but she didn't have to contend with her family thinking she was getting above her station, or try to prevent her leaving the house to go to lectures, ostracizing her, burning her lecture notes, or marrying her off to prevent her leading a better life. If you want something less extreme than those examples that some have faced, her parents couldn't actually help her with practicalities, as she was studying in a language, country and system they weren't familiar with; but their attitudes and the home environment must have at least been some help. Their home was filled with books. It was normal to go to the library, to read multiple newspapers, to speak several languages, be well educated and to be employed. It was normal to expect and strive for great things in life. Not just to 'get by', week to week, with a minimum wage paycheck from an insecure job working in poor or dangerous conditions. They wanted her to have a better life than them. Not all parents think that way. That is yet another barrier you refuse to acknowledge.

they say it’s a legal requirement to be in education till you’re 18 but I know a few people who dropped out and nothing happened. I myself didn’t go for a year because of my dc so started what we call year 12 when my age group started year 13 and I choose to go no one forced me.

Most of your friends went to uni and studied what subjects? PPE? English Literature? What did they study? Going to uni now means studying all those subjects that people completed a course in at technical college or nursing college, music college, agricultural college so they weren't included in your statistics for uni attendance "back in the day"! 🙆

And of course that 5% were nearly all children of at least comparatively wealthy families, who could afford their children not to work to supplement the family income. I remember a neighbour saying, 'you wouldn't be supporting a great (meaning big) boy of 16'. Her 16 year old was offered to stay on at school, but it wasn't going to happen!

I think this is the elephant in the room. I see too many people on the parents groups asking about random courses in low ranked universities which aren’t worth the paper they’re written on and they’re being told a lie that all degrees are equal and it doesn’t matter what you do or where you go it’s just about a degree and it’s really not. It’s unfair for people to believe that and then be shocked when their child finds it doesn’t offer any advantage or open any doors. I don’t men Russell group or not Russell group, there are plenty of outstanding degrees in non RG unis but we’ve got to stop pretending and telling our kids just get any degree from anywhere

Many posters have pointed out the great advantage students have when their own parents have been to uni. They can expect support and advice on how to navigate the complexities of applications, personal statements, and so on. As a mature student in the 1980s I had none of this and there was no internet back then. I had a few hints from a friend who was herself a graduate. And I spent many hours in the central library leafing through prospectuses for the various institutions. Since I retired from academic work I have been a private tutor and much of my work has involved helping students aquire the necessary skills to navigate the higher education system.

I think they probably thought you had extenuating circumstances!

1. It is a legal requirement. If you are not in education/doing an apprenticeship at 16-18 your parents could be fined or even imprisoned. I'm a solicitor and have a client who was fined for this! Obviously you had extenuating circumstances due to your pregnancy/child.
2. Are you going to answer my other question or continue to be deliberately obtuse?

I’m probably your parents generation. Virtually all of my friends went to uni in the early 90’s it wasn’t open to consideration it was just what you did.. My dad didn’t but my mum did and I’d say about 40% of their friends did in the late 60’s

I don’t see how it can be enforced. Who is “they” ?
I knew other people who didnt have extenuating circumstances and nothing happened to them when they dropped out

In my day the leaving age went up from 15 to 16 and parents were enraged. And boys forced to stay on another year were practically rioting. Teachers weren't happy either having to try to teach the bolshie 15+ year olds who didn't want to be there.

But that's irrelevant to the point that poster is making. It is legal requirement to attend some form.of education until 18, apprenticeship in customer services would mIst probably see you affiliated with a college so college is not akin to uni these days.

You just sound really judgemental now. Just because someone wasn’t abused doesn’t mean they had it easy. It’s not a competition about who had the worst life. Lots and lots of people with caring parents are still disadvantaged. Have you ever heard of the concept of poverty?

The one asking what my peers studied at uni? I said peers not friends. I follow them on social media and saw them in their graduation robes I have no idea what they studied

The institution.

They didn't say what they graduated in on social media?

No. It is still a thing in many families.

The local authority.

It can be enforced by criminal prosecution.

No, pictures posted on instagram of the big day they graduated no mention of what they studied. Is that so unusual?

I don’t know if your parents went to university but if they did you have a privilege which you may not be aware of. Mine didn’t and I gradually became aware of how much help, advice and general confidence is given to children whose parents were university-educated.

Would have gone not would of went

I ask because it's relevant to my point that you keep dodging. If your friends did vocational degrees like nursing, beauty therapy or something like that, then "back in the day", they would have completed that at a college or even on the job, no degree status obviously lowers the stats on who went to uni "back in the day"?

It kind of was when I went. I was the only one in a large extended family to go until my own daughters followed suit. It was very different to the self employment which the rest of my family went for and I did it without any guidance at all as I had left school five years earlier and my folks knew nothing about uni applications or courses or careers.