55% drop out rate on dd's preferred uni course!

[Scabbersley]

DD has finally settled on a degree choice and is excited about open days etc etc. She's looking at quite a vocational degree. I was looking at a few of the colleges/unis that she likes and her preferred one has a 55% drop out rate Is this normal?!

Yes - how many graduates find well paid employment that uses a sports science degree? I'm not being snippy. My DNephew is considering this degree - at Loughborough.

The rate of employment is high. The rate of pay is medium. You can look up the stats for Loughborough quire easily.

Rate of pay after 6 months is 18k this seems standard across sports science unis. All I have to go on are the stats on what uni though not sure if there is another way

Gold TEF is across the uni. One individual course could be much worse. Can she find some current students on the student room website and ask what they think?

Yes sports and fitness is a big industry so I can see that there would be a lot of jobs out there.

I just don’t like the “long list of jobs you could do with this A level/degree approach” though because it lacks perspective. Art History has to be the worst - only a very small number of those grads are actually employed within the list of target jobs.

EventNotinData I 100% agree with you about collecting data on what graduates are doing with their degree.

I'll go further to say I would like to see the return to funded places and grants. But base the funding on percentage of graduates who are in relevant employment.

All the jobs I've listed are perfectly possible with this degree and some extra training in some instances

She's doing this degree precisely because it is more vocational!

You have a point about jobs, but seriously sports degrees aren't where you should be pointing the finger. English lit has to be one of the most pointless degrees in existence as far as jobs go. (I did English lit BTW)

If you are thinking of doing that jobs analysis you should also do a list of jobs and careers that can be done by almost any graduate regardless of initial specialism.

Ending up in a reasonably well paid career not directly related to your degree course doesn’t equal failure. Far less does it mean your degree is in itself worthless.

yes I agree applekatie. I ended up in a completely unrelated field and did well and was happy.

I know two young men who did Sports Science degrees. One is now an area manager for a drinks company and the other a football coach at a mid league team. Both are happy and well paid. Nothing wrong with the degree choice but you need to email and ask them about drop out rates!

If you are thinking of doing that jobs analysis you should also do a list of jobs and careers that can be done by almost any graduate regardless of initial specialism.

Ending up in a reasonably well paid career not directly related to your degree course doesn’t equal failure. Far less does it mean your degree is in itself worthless.

@event that information is out there. It's not presented in prospectuses etc because it's a lot of information but there are people out there collating that data

Vocational degrees such as nursing and sport will lead directly to jobs in these fields. For sport, there is probably a debate as to whether there are enough jobs to go round in this field, and grads can, of course, try for other jobs.

English, Geography, History etc are not really comparable because the only obvious career leading directly from the degrees is being an academic. Many grads will require further training and grad schemes to get the jobs they want. However, at the top universities, the A level grades required will be pretty high for English and History and these degrees open doors for many careers. If no Arts grads ever got good jobs, there would be no takers, and that’s not the case.

History of Art tends to be a special case. (Plus maybe Arch and Anth) I rather think many grads are not particularly looking for jobs in that field. My friend who did this degree is now training racehorses. Doing the degree was the fun, the job afterwards was down to her passion and her parents’ wealth. Your career is what you make it regardless of degree taken.

Think she's going to look around at other places. There's a couple of others that she likes. Depends how well she does in her exams!