Anybody else regretting and feeling bad about encouraging their kids to go to uni?

[Gh0ststory]

The loans situation in the media has really made me regret encouraging them to go. I did encourage apprenticeships but wish I’d pushed harder and actively discouraged uni.

Depends entirely on what they want to do. Labour marker is competitive. If they are studying sociology or applied arts - well, probably pointless debt unless they're wanting to teach.

STEM here so needed qualifications but apprenticeships were like gold dust.

I‘m still worried about the debt and think I should have encouraged them to sit it out and keep trying for apprenticeships instead.

One of my DC went to university and the other didn’t. They’re both doing fine and made the choices for themselves.
For good or ill, the choice of whether to go to university is for the young adults attending, not their parents.
I don’t regret giving my DCs free choice and supporting both their decisions, they are adults and have enough intelligence and information to make an informed choice.
Student loan debt is just a kind of graduate cost, and the DC that has student debt is fine with paying it.

@Gh0ststory what scared you about the loans?

The reason I ask is that my son is in first year of A-Levels and now looking at Unis.

Has the loan repayments changed?

Same with mine.

One went to Uni and did very well leading to a solid career. (He did a subject that covers both arts and sciences).

The others made different choices and will probably both earn well in their chosen fields.

try not to be hard on yourself. It was their choice to make.
If they got a job that requires a degree and gives them a fulfilling career they enjoy then the debt is worth it.
I feel for you if they ended up hating the subject and now are doing something they didn’t need the degree for. Which is it?
You don’t say, however you mention STEM. I am in the stem field and it is hard to progress without a PhD let alone a degree. Apprenticeships in stem do not get you that far - anyone who takes to it we encourage to get a degree. So they would probably end up with the debt anyway, just later on.

I do, yes. Between the strikes and Covid she didn't actually get an education and yet has all the debt.

The problem is New Labour and successive governments choosing to privatise higher education and turn it into a business model.

I really feel for young people saddled with debt when a few individuals profit from their misery.

It doesn’t have to be like this. Not in the 6th richest country in the world.

Lower repayment threshold (25k) and 40 year rather than 30 year term. 25k is barely over minimum wage.

DS is doing a degree apprenticeship but if he hadn't he'd have been going to uni without a second thought OP. I'd say though encourage them to really make the most of those uni years. They need to be competitive when they come out - so work experience in a part time job, a summer placement or year out, leadership experience - perhaps from running a relevant society, voluntary work, relevant online courses and anything else that they can put on a CV.

No

they could not have got their jobs without a degree

no apprenticeships in their fields

There aren't any apprenticeships especially if you don't know what you want to do. Its hard getting any job right now so no alternative really.

Not at all. Mine are both academic and thrived in their uni environments. They gained confidence and experience as well as qualifications.

I do agree that uni doesn’t suit everyone though.

You’ve done nothing wrong. Everyone wants apprenticeships, and as you said, they are absolute gold dust. My partner was telling me that people are now actively moving to Scotland to take up the free university places, so people are prepared to be quite extreme in the pursuit of avoiding uni debt.

Ill be navigating this with my eldest in around five years time. I’ll only be promoting the uni route if it’s a worthwhile subject that requires a degree. If he can commute from home to the uni that would massively help as we could afford the fees outright, im not sure he would get into the unis right on our doorstep though as they are incredibly competitive courses. If the only option is uni debt though we’d just have to take in the debt as a family and try and pay it off as quick as we could.

Going to university is never a waste of time or money. Education is about much more than getting a job. As many people as possible should go to university for the sake of society as a whole.

Do you understand the loan system? It's the only loan where the repayments fall or stop if your income goes down, and where any balance is wiped out after a set period. There's no point worrying about the headline balance unless your kid is in a high paying job where they are likely to repay in full - most people don't repay in full, and many never repay any of the interest so the amount owed is irrelevant. Your repayment is the same if you owe £5, 10, 20 or £200K - it's determined by your salary. What does the child who went to uni earn? Their income, loan plan & loan amount will tell you how much they will repay - it may be less than the capital.

This. It's all very well saying 'do an apprenticeship instead' but there are very few of them. Employers cannot possibly offer them in the volume needed, even if they wanted to (and not enough of them do want to, or have the capacity to give an untrained young person the time they need to learn on the job). Unless you know you want to go into a specific career they are also very narrow fields. The debt is crap but it's more or less like a graduate tax. The jobs market for non grads is worse than for grads, so in many cases it's uni or unemployment.

The noise in the press has generally been about the old Plan 2 loans which had really high interest at one point. The Plan 5 loans are capped. Though it’s still not great - despite everyone siting Martin Lewis - and it’s too bad that employers seem to require a degree (and not necessarily in a relevant subject) in order to get a job. And the so called skills they learn at uni? What, people don’t think any other 18-21 year old is also learning those skills through real life experience?

I feel so guilty. My son missed out on 6th form thanks to COVID so we encouraged him to go to uni to bridge that gap. I was reassured by Martin Lewis that student loans were acceptable and the best way of financing it. Feeling guilty now for pushing it. There were no apprenticeships around then though so what else was he supposed to do?

Son doing nicely, thank you, on the back of his Sociology degree. Good transferable skills with his report writing and statistics, and business acumen from his third year on a work placement. Neither he nor his brother and sister could have gone to uni without fees and maintenance loans, and repayments are based on earnings, rather than amount borrowed. No regrets. They worked hard, got excellent results and have found interesting jobs.

DC only has two years of tuition fee debt and only an HND but the balance owing has climbed to £23,500 from £18,500 in under six years. His flatmate's university debt is well over £50k, and increasing even though he's paying off £6k pa.

Thanks to being in Scotland and staying at home for the whole 4 years DS left uni with money saved from his loans. No regrets.

Work back from a chosen job and see what you need. But gone are the days of doing underwater basket weaving because you quite like it. You’re facing unemployment and debt. You need skills that not everyone else has.

The plan 2 version of student finance was designed by the financial services industry to make them a profit IMO. And I am generally a capitalist that thinks anyone borrowing money should pay very close attention to all the ways you can be fleeced.

One of my dds did a degree apprenticeship and is doing very well. DD2 went to uni and graduated in July. She’s struggling to get a “proper” job and I’m quite worried about it to be honest.

Whilst my job is possible without a degree through an apprenticeship there is only space for a lot fewer people via this route and the skills that I learnt at uni are very valuable. I earn well and have paid my loans off so don’t regret it all although I do understand that fees went up a lot (they were 3k in my time).