IS UNIVERSITY WORTH IT?
With rising fees and job insecurity we asked five millennials: is university really worth it?
By Hrishika Maniar
THE FEES:
Within the past decade university fees have more than tripled, going from £3000 per year to £9250. The higher fees are paired with higher interest rates of 6.1%, meaning that the average student debt for an undergraduate degree will now be more than £50,000.
Dilesh Solanki, 32, is a London-based Photographer. He chose not to go to university because he “didn’t want to get into copious amounts of debt”.
Similarly, Delesha McIntosh, 24, chose not to go to university, because “fees were a huge deterrent” when she was about to go to university in 2009.
But it’s not just the fees themselves that may be an issue, it’s about whether the teaching and the resources that students receive are worth the money they pay. In 2017, the level of student satisfaction with university value for money fell to its lowest at just 35%, after falling steadily for five years. The number of students who rated their value for money as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ doubled since 2012.
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Krupa Thakkar, 21, who studies Biomedical Sciences at the University of Manchester feels that although she very much enjoys her course, a £9000 fee per year may be too much for what she gets. “For £9000 I think the amount of support we receive should be greater, there should be more transparency in the support system, and in the availability of tutors," she says.
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Meera Narendra, 22, is studying a Masters degree in Cybercrime and Criminal Psychology at Portsmouth University. She says that for £9000, during her Bachelors, “at times lecturers [were] terrible”, but highlights how this helped her develop her own way of learning. “I just became more confident and independent and did it all myself,” she expresses.
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According to statistics one in four people drop out of university. AP dropped out of Birmingham University in his first year of studying Business Management. He recalls how he went to university for the social factor, going out four nights in a week and being able to "count how many lectures [he] went to on one hand".
“My intentions to go to university were completely for the wrong reasons. So, no, I did not get my money’s worth, but the blame for this lies with me alone. I clearly did not care/respect the money that I ultimately wasted," AP says.
Krupa Takkar thinks £9,000 fee per year for her university course is too much
CAREER PROSPECTS:
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Around 40% of graduates aren’t in graduate jobs up to four years after finishing their studies, and it has been suggested that the high number of graduates is bad for the UK economy.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has therefore called for the government to stop their campaigns to encourage people to go to university. Chief Executive Peter Cheese says: “Graduates are increasingly finding themselves in roles which don’t meet their career expectations, while they also find themselves saddled with high levels of debt.”
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So the question is, does going to university really help with job prospects?
Meera feels that she has good career prospects after she finishes her Masters degree. She says she feels “quite good” about getting a job after her studies, but also emphasizes the importance of networking rather than university sources.
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Delesha currently works in luxury retail. According to her, choosing not to go to university has affected her job prospects but she is content with not going. She was planning to study Politics and was given an unconditional offer from the university of her choice, but her school was investigated due to allegations of marking malpractice and her offer was withdrawn. However, Delesha took this as sign that university was not for her, and is happy that she didn’t go because she doesn’t enjoy Politics anymore.
MENTAL HEALTH:
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Mental health issues are getting worse in university students. Nine out of ten new students find it difficult to cope with social and academic aspects of university life, with many having anxiety due to money problems and the prospects of debt. The UPP Group found that 48% of male and 67% of female students find academic stress difficult to cope with. As a result of the mental health problems these cause, the number of students applying for extenuating circumstances has soared. In Cambridge University alone, the number of students applying for extra time in exams and special allowances tripled between 2012 and 2017.
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THE BOTTOM LINE:
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So what do each of our five think about university, is it really worth it?
AP:
“I believe the prospect of university, especially in this day and age, is pretty worthless apart from students seeking out a professional career. Careers in medicine, law, science, to name a few, are highly sought after and university is great for that. A lot of students however, tend to follow the norm and attend university for the sake of it. And for what reason? Just to end up in a worse off position you were in three years ago? I would recommend upskilling yourself as much as possible. Work hard, pay your dues, and you will be rewarded.”
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Delesha McIntosh:
“I think it’s worth not going because I don’t have the debt and I don’t have the commitment. I’m quite content with my decision not to go, although I would like to expand my knowledge, but if I applied myself I could probably exceed the knowledge of someone who has gone to uni. I personally believe if you’re going into a specialised field like pharmacy or medicine or IT, definitely go to uni, but a recreational or creative course can be found online or on YouTube with little to no cost to you.”
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Dilesh Solanki:
“University is only worth it if it’s cheaper, and students don’t get into ridiculous amounts of debt. It also depends on what you actually want to study. Some things you need to go but most of the time you don’t.”
Krupa Thakkar:
“I chose to go to University for many reasons, mainly, I wanted to learn how to be independent so I chose a university far away and I also wanted to figure you what I wanted to do with the rest of my life and I think university acts as a great buffer to show you your likes and dislikes.”
Meera Narendra:
“During second year I realised that a degree is good to have. But experience is key – jobs want experience and I was focusing on my grades. Additionally, my friends who didn’t go to university were working full-time jobs and earning money and obviously as a student you don’t get a lot of money. I had a job but it made me realise you can also be successful without a degree. I went to a grammar school which drilled into me that a degree was really important. I wish I could have skipped to my Masters but then I wouldn’t have learned the skills and knowledge I needed – so it was useful for my career path.”
AP now works in a FTSE 100 company as a Certified Software Engineer. However, after dropping out of university, finding a job was difficult. So, he used a different approach. “In 2010/2011 job prospects (with most jobs) were pretty poor for students fresh out of university, let alone people who had no degrees on their CV. Per job role, there would be 100+ applicants. 80% of which had degrees. I had lost the fight there already. What did I do? I lied about having a degree. The reasoning: it's a piece of paper that no one would really check, how much of a big deal could it be? And it worked," AP tells.
Dilesh says that the big shift in his career came when he moved from Leicester to London, not through education. "I personally feel if you want to learn something then you can do it privately. There’s so much out there at the moment. For example, with photography, I’ve learnt a heck of a lot on my own, without taking any classes or anything. Some companies require you to have some sort of qualifications but even you can do that on your own,” he says.
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According to AP, a lot of his lack of stress was due to having a job which meant he didn’t have to worry about money. He says “having had a part-time job during university, as well the luxury of not studying, I lived pretty comfortably compared to most students”.
However, the amount of stress a student might experience may be up to the individual themselves. For example, Meera said that she felt little stress during her Bachelors degree, and only felt stressed when she was doing her dissertation.
"I personally feel if you want to learn something then you can do it privately"
DILESH SOLANKI
Dilesh Solanki chose not to go to university because he didn't want to get into debt
"I think it's worth not going because I don't have the debt and I don't have the commitment"
DELESHA MCINTOSH
