Uni is just over-sold and disappointing

[Greedybilly]

My lovely 19 year old has just finished Yr 1 of uni ( when did the courses end at Easter? What happened to term 3?)
She was unlucky with her flatmates who were awful to her and her course mates mostly commute.
Part time jobs are none existent and she's done umpteen trial cafe shifts only to be ghosted.
She had such high hopes and seems like a shadow of her former self. It does all feel like a massively over marketed business.
Anyone got any words of wisdom/happy endings??
Gutted for her and angry at all the hype and nonsense.

It was for me, and I wish that I'd had the courage to ignore everything that I was ever told ("Do your A-Levels, get a degree and a proper job, and then you'll be set for life") and do what I wanted to do in the first place. As it was, I crashed out of the "proper job" with a nervous breakdown, did what I'd wanted to do (agricultural college), and I'm much happier now.

Your OP is a bit confusing because you are complaining about uni, and then talking about part-time jobs, which is a different issue. It’s not clear what it is about the university that she’s not enjoying.

I enjoyed uni, but I went before the 9k fees. I do think that it’s very poor value for money these days (and I’m not surprised that kids are down in the dumps due to the cost of living, state of the economy, and high levels of debt). I really expected university student numbers to halve when they introduced 9k fees, and was astonished when they didn’t.

Oh, I see that she doesn’t get on with her flat mates. That’s unfortunate, but it’s life, you’re always going to get on with everyone. Surely not all her course mates commute? I think there were 200-300 people on my university course.

Sounds like the poor man was ill and needed support rather than " kicking out".

50% of kids overall don’t leave school / college and head to Uni. Is not and never has been even close.

36.3% in last completed cycle. Compared with 32% back in 2016.

DCs from London being the exception at 51.4%. Though that London figure increases to 56.1% for women vs 45.7% for men.

@MidnightMeltdownThat was never going to happen. There was still a grad premium for grad jobs and most dc get loans. Repayments are based on earnings, not amount borrowed. So of course dc kept going to uni. The bad news was in 2013 the cap on student recruitment was lifted. That made a huge difference to quality and now availability of jobs. It never was 50% of school leavers or 19 year olds. 36-37 for 10 years.

Not for digital media production. Media tends to be more theoretical and less practical at rg unis . My oddest two went to rg unis one for her undergrad and masters and the other for her undergrad and then did her pgce in secondary education mfl at Liverpool Hope which used to be a teaching college. Some more practical
degrees like graphic design or fashion , or digital media production are better in non rg unis .

@RockyKeen That’s a typical course where university is oversold. My DD went to LCF so I know all about that. Clearly these skills could be learnt on the job, if there were jobs!

I know but she has plenty of paid work experience and her tuition fees will be paid for through a scholarship so she might as well go enjoy herself. She was torn between graphic design , animation or media production., but she has more scope for work with media production with her current connections.

@RockyKeen Most students don’t get £30,000 given for fees though. They often don’t get work.

Well there’s no way that I would have gone if I’d had to pay those fees. Yes, it’s based on repayment threshold, but the repayment threshold has always been low, so it was obvious that most people would be paying for most of their working lives. There hasn’t been a decent graduate premium since at least the 1990s. Maybe for a select few subjects (like dentistry and medicine) but certainly not for an all degrees regardless of subject. I graduated in the 2000s and graduate employment was a problem even then. I know several people who ended up going back to the part time jobs that they had before uni.

@MidnightMeltdown ??? But you aren’t paying the fees are you? You pay a sum each month based on earnings! I can assure you this is the mechanism that means poorer people can go! No money needed for fees and a full loan means no money up front for rent either! This is exactly why so many dc do go! The 40 year repayment has just come in! Before that it was 30 years but some paid it off. The vast majority didn’t and we, the taxpayer, paid.

The IFS has done a lot of work on grad premium salaries. Yes, it’s coming down but even a few years ago it was 8% over a lifetime. That’s not just the obviously well paid jobs either. They list the degrees where you won’t get your moneys worth and it’s subjects like arts and media and English. However the majority still do earn more. Students need to be savvy about what degree and where because there are obvious differences but it’s up to students to build a cv because the degree alone won’t get you far! Yes, medicine is the best return but degrees like economics, engineering, maths won’t disadvantage any student. Doing performing arts and art is a lottery.

Unfortunately your comments on the grad premium are not right for the current cohort graduating. All the analysis by all the think tanks is based on historical graduate premiums. There is absolutely no basis for saying the current cohort of students will earn an 8% premium over their lifetimes. It’s all wishful thinking based on optimistic assumptions.

Forecasting a graduate premium over the next 40 years is likely to be as accurate as forecasting the weather.

The stats show that 50% ultimately go to university. You keep citing 36% but thats only immediate school leavers. It's therefore completely misleading since that misses all those who have gap years etc.

Well my DD is staying till the end of the third term because she does so much outside her course - I’m collecting her end if the month. University is so much more than their degree. She’s just finished editing her college’s Academic Journal and is continuing a paid internship for her department. Then a week at home then off to South America on another paid internship! She loves her course, is meh about her fellow students (has not found her ‘tribe’, but has one good friend).
However she’d be the first to argue that university is not value for money, but the system is that employers want degrees.

I hope it looks up for her in second year, I found it was a real lottery for my children and their friends, how they got on. Hopefully you can keep reminding her as well that this isn’t the be all and end all, though it is a shame when the reality isn’t what you expected

@User88765 The gap year people with a place are in that figure I think, @boys3 is an expert in stats. There are more dc who go later, of course, after working up through apprenticeships and as adults etc. it’s true we have around 50% in the workforce with degrees but some are immigrants, some did degrees much later in life and some were young adults. The 50.% are not one cohort leaving school and securing a place at university at 18 or 19. This has been fairly static for years but is of course much bigger than 30 years ago. The figures also reflect people retiring who don’t have degrees - the vast majority. The workforce is then skewed to younger people who are more likely to have a degree. You can also do masters (eg MBA) with no undergrad degree and these skew workforce figures too.

I think university needs to be really well thought out. So many parents and their kids seem to shrug off student loans and say they won’t end up paying them back so why worry. My son’s sixth form is very pro university and 80% of the cohort go onto university. My son doesn’t want to at the moment as he’s not found a subject he’s hugely passionate about but he says sixth form really push it. Three university visits are offered, talks often centre around going to university. It feels like it’s quite negligent to be focused on that one route.

Whilst it feels great that university is open to all, for some it isn’t the right path.

Many sixth forms and colleges promote non-uni options. The ones local to me offer information, presentations snd support with applications for apprenticeships.
On social media apprenticeship offers are celebrated alongside uni offers. I have seen posts were students are holding both.
When young people are making choices the question isnt really 'should I go to uni?' It is more 'what should I do next?'. Apprenticeships are only possible if available and the young persons application is successful. Some level 3s wont accept young people who have already attained level 3 qualifications. Nearly all level 4+ apprenticeships are fiercely competitive and there are very limited opportunities. It may be a choice between going to uni or low paid/low skilled employment or unemployment. This isnt necessarily a reason to go, but choices are made in the context of the alternatives. An aprenticeship or job with prospects to progress can be a great option. However, those opportunities arent always possible.

@Wildturnip Well we know a huge % of grads don’t pay them back. It’s dependent on earnings. The low paid pay for longer though and it’s now 40 years. The other issue is that 10% of grads, 5 years after graduation, are only earning the minimum wage so there’s no grad premium for them. I think increasing student numbers, poor economic performance and poor degrees that serve little purpose are the big problems. Around 10% of degrees need to be culled!