Is my son going to get in all this bloody student debt for nothing?

[Gameofbones]

We are a very low income family. Ds is set to go to university in September. I’m really proud as he is the first one out of my lot to go.

Now I’m seeing headlines suggesting new lockdowns in September.

He has secured the maximum amount of maintenance loan which with course costs is about £18.5k a year.

I can’t believe he is going to get into all this debt if he is going to have to ‘do uni’ from home!

We are so tight for space, not sure how he is going to manage it.

If your dc went to university last year did they get money back. How did it work?

It's not really debt though is it? No one chases you after repayments and it doesn't show on your credit file. Just a small percentage taken out each month, my kids don't even notice it anymore.

I know a few people who have done and are currently doing degree apprenticeships and it’s something I am going to encourage my DD to consider. You get a salary, housing allowance, car allowance in some cases and all tuition paid. Plus a guaranteed job of you get a 2.1 or higher.

My dd is in the same age group and she decided to take a year out because she was concerned about having to quarantine etc She's going to save money and do voluntary work that will help with her future career. She is planning to go in autumn 2022 regardless of the Covid situation but it can't be worse than last academic year imo.

@Gameofbones

He has been offered a place at Ravensbourne in London.

He wants to work in production. To be honest I don’t think he really knows at this time.

I’m a bit naive when it comes to uni, I never went and was so proud of him for wanting to go.

Ignore everyone. Media at Ravensbourne should be able to guarantee him a production job if he networks appropriately.

The only way they're going to get a more 'diverse group of people' is when jobs and internships discount unpaid experience. How are you supposed to compete when you need your job to pay bills but your competitors don't?

Well the apprenticeship programme is a good step I think and we've had some really good people who were snapped up and are now in proper jobs, earning the same as their graduate counterparts but 3 years younger and with no student debt.

Experience is definitely helpful, which is why I suggested that three years in London without the pressure of having to earn a salary is a great opportunity for OP's DS to find as much work experience and shadowing as possible. It shouldn't be too difficult then to find running jobs and if he works hard and is good, he'll be fine. Good runners tend not to be around for very long, so productions are always looking for new people.

Op, I don't know where you're based or what exactly your DS is looking for, but is any of this any good?

@LepusLepus

Op, I don't know where you're based or what exactly your DS is looking for, but is any of this any good?

Scotland based, and absolutely not as impressive as doing a production degree at Ravensbourne

Mine is deferring in the hope that there is some degree of competence and sanity in this country by Autumn 2022.

I don’t know anything about this university or field of study, but I’d agree with PPs who’ve said that not all unis and not all degrees are created equal, and this amount of debt might not end up being worth it. I would suggest finding out from the uni: how many of their graduates on this course are employed six months after graduation? Doing what? What do they earn? How about after five years?

I would also suggest finding some people on LinkedIn who’ve done this degree, reaching out to them, and having a conversation about how good they felt their job prospects were after graduation.

This will give you much better info than the opinions of random people online. Your son sounds lovely and your pride in him is lovely too.

@Gameofbones please ignore the unpleasantness. You are right to be proud, your son has done so well to get this far. Read up on courses and unis and help him make the decision, through clearing if necessary, and don’t worry about the loan... as others have said it’s not a loan in the sense we imagine them, it’s much more of a tax. Good luck to your son and well done you for getting him here without his father’s input.

Mumsnet is a great place in many regards but really weird about certain things- universities and degrees are one of them. I have two useless degrees that MN would have caned my parents for “letting” me do, but loved studying them and do a well paying job.

I would let him carry on ,he has chosen the course and place himself- it's him who is doing it and if he is happy that's the most important thing and he will be mentally committed to it so should work hard.

Three of my friends went to ravensbourne and did media, they all work in production. They are 30-31 now, one works for himself, one runs a media agency and the other is a film editor for warner bros. So if ignore the degree snobbery on here they don't know what they are talking about. All three of them got tons of practical experience and connections through the degree hence why they are where they are now.

Hi I'm and independent student just finishing up my final of 4 years study and took a gap year and yes I've acquired about the same debt as your son will, I however worked part time during my studies and used my loans to assist with deposits ect, I think it is worth it because when you graduate you don't have to pay anything back unless you earn over 27/28k which in most areas of the country and for certain careers you can't earn over 20k without the degree or level 5 equiv anyway, also if you move abroad to certain countries straight after it changes things slightly and you just need to think of it as an extra tax you've agreed to, not debt

@Gameofbones please come back and read all the encouraging replies!

And in regards to degree and university, the university does not matter honestly, I'm already on a graduate role and after switching from a russell group to a London uni will come out with a first in Bioinformatics. I've found from friends, the statistics pages and forums, that STEM seems to be the easiest to get into higher earning and the others depend on your work experience.

@Gameofbones

I’m actually stepping away from this thread.

I’ve worked since I was 16, im a single parent and i don’t get any help from his dad. I thought he was doing really well and was set to achieve big. Obviously not.

Thanks for all your advice. And that isn’t me being stroppy. I’ll get him to look into it more.

Ignore the moaning Maisie's.

You should be proud, it is an achievement to get into Uni, and he absolutely has the right to choose which degree he does. Not one single person on this thread has the right to say he shouldn't do this degree.

The world changes rapidly, a worthless degree today could be a very valuable degree by the time he ends his course.

Years ago media wasn't anything, now days the world runs by media, just look how influencial social media is. Many big business now have social media departments that expands 8n head count pretty regularly. This will just increase and increase in the future, social media is how most businesses get their business

Good luc t your son, and carry on being proud, you have every right to be proud

@gameofbones

I hope you are still reading this thread. Mumsnet is a hotbed of shocking snobbery. My nephew took a media based degree at Ravensbourne, had a whale of a time, gained lots of practical experience and good contacts. It's a well thought of institution in the industry. He's been in relevant employment ever since, bar a blip due to covid.

Really some of you need to be sure of your facts, before you rubbish a young lad just starting out.

[quote ViewFromTheTowers]On a different note, please watch this video from Martin Lewis (MoneySavingExpert) talking to year 12 students about student finance and that it should really be called a graduate tax.

If your son doesn't earn above the income threshold after graduation he never pays any of it back. It doesn't count against you for mortgages etc. It is an investment in your future. Please stop seeing it as a debt as there are negative connotations to that word.

[/quote] This is the most important post on this thread.

Your son will only pay 9% of his earnings that are ABOVE £27,000 . It’s a graduate tax really rather than a ‘debt’.

Op you should be proud, sounds like you've brought him up well in tough circumstances.

I can't offer advice re media studies or his uni choice as it's completely opposite to what I studied. However I do think you're right to be cautious about the debt if this is a career he can get into without university. Yes the debt isn't seen as a traditional by mortgage companies but they do take it into account when working out affordability. It could therefore cause an issue if he needs the max mortgage possible in order to get on the ladder.

Good luck to him.

I just left one forum for older people where an unpleasant clique were constantly on about "mickey mouse degrees". Few (if any) of them had been to university and there was certainly a lot of jealousy and resentment going on. Very sad really. Just because people are older does not make them wiser or more intelligent.

I hope everything goes well fro your DS. I was an older student and valued the experience of attending university.

But Ravensbourne is top of the field for media isn't it? Fantastic contacts in the field and impressive alumni.. I think there are plenty of people posting here who are just a bit out of date. He's done really well OP.
The student loan will be fine. My DD's both have them for tuition and full maintenance.. and neither is doing/did anything traditionally vocational.

I really hope the op comes back and reads the supportive replies.

Mumsnet is often really out of date about degrees/A levels/vocational qualifications.

In the nicest possible way, University is now a huge money making business. It would be financial folly for him to do a Media degree with those kind of costs. I always advise students to only go to uni when they know what they are going to do after leaving. It would be very unlikely that he wouldn’t need to retrain after his degree and would probably need to pay for it.

Be proud of him but also have a good sit down chat about the realities of Media degrees and outcomes.

@Fiercestcalm

In the nicest possible way, University is now a huge money making business. It would be financial folly for him to do a Media degree with those kind of costs. I always advise students to only go to uni when they know what they are going to do after leaving. It would be very unlikely that he wouldn’t need to retrain after his degree and would probably need to pay for it.

Be proud of him but also have a good sit down chat about the realities of Media degrees and outcomes.

And this is exactly the kind of post I mean. I doubt this poster has ever heard of Ravensbourne!

Media degree is worthless in the real world.