Is there any point in going to university anymore?

My cousin is currently in a diploma level business program (2 years) and will then be starting a trade program (1 year) so he can start his own business in the trades, He'll probably make as a plumber around 100k a year. That's good money for only 3 years of schooling.

Aberdeen is one of these freaky places because of oil you can either get a HNC in administration/hr then start at the bottom as an office clerk or as a tea girl in an oil company at teh age of 16-17 and be earning 30-40k by the time people have graduated.

I could be a cleaner in a oil company and earn 30k a year.

FML

To the OP -

I study English. University is basically like a book club. They recommend some good texts (which you probably would have found on your own anyway) and they recommend a tonne of terrible texts. Twice a week you have lectures that are the equivalent to reading Wikipedia articles on the author/work (so much so, that you never go). Once a week you meet up in a group and 'discuss' the text which usually involves the tutor asking very basic questions and no one answering. If you have a good tutor, they will actually be interesting and go entirely off topic for an hour or two and every has a big chat with a cup of coffee. If there is a foreign student in your class, everyone will just ask them what they think about the UK and ask them questions about where they're from (usually germany).

Assessment wise.. you pick between 4 and 6 books out of 12-18 and do a couple of essays before christmas and a couple of exams at the end of january. Repeat for the next semester.

The only thing I've actually been taught is Theory (Post-Struturalism, Postcolonialism, Psychoanalysis, Marxism, Feminism, Eco-Criticism, Cultural Materialism).

Is that worth 9 grand a year? I wouldn't go to study English in 2012.

Anyone who wants to learn English to degree standard. Just buy Peter Barry - Beginning Theory and Stephen Fry - The Ode Less Travelled.

Is that any good? I like Fry. I just read the Fry Chronicles - he's certainly stretching out is autobiography.......canny bastard!

Yeah it's really good, I've only been able to dip into it since last christmas but am taking it home with me this christmas to read it properly.

It's a history of poetry but also a guidebook to writing it. Explains how poetry is made etc and gives advice on how to write.

I didn't understand the structure and form of poetry really until I read it.

It's not an autobiography or fiction.

Yes, it's called an education. A university education delivers you out of ignorance. A university education isn't meant to be a vocational school. You shouldn't look to a Bachelor's degree as your ticket to lifelong employment. A Bachelor's degree is meant to enlighten and educate. Professional and Graduate Schools are where you go afterward in order to specialise and pursue a career. Studying on one of the arts and humaities courses like History or English Literature does not train you directly for a specific career; rather, they teach you how to think. They enlighten you and open your mind to the world. They help you see things you never saw before. Attending law school, business school or medical school after graduating with a Bachelor's degree will train you for a career, but don't expect a university to be a trade school.

Yes, it's called an education. A university education delivers you out of ignorance.

Fair points, up to a point.

A lack of a university education doesn't condemn someone to a life of ignorance.

Not so sure about that. Depends on the student.

Speaking of university more generally, everybody seems to think that University is the only way to get educated. It's the only way to get a peice of paper that says you are - and it's a very particular way, nearly all unis offer the same route with no deviation (exams and essays) and usually the same texts etc.

People should bare in mind that universities are also extremely liberal. Not a necessarily bad thing, but on an English course studying almost exclusively black and female authors does get tiresome - especially when you finally get round to a good white male writer (a la hemingway, kerouac...) and all the discussion centres around is how their mysogynistic racists. Too often these courses focus on substandard ethnic or female authors just so you can sit through a diatribe of postcolonial analysis. Rubbish.

No, but not attending university denies you a great opportunity to expand your horizons and learn much about the world we live in that life experiences alone cannot teach you.

From a "life experience" point of view? Well, if you think that living on Pot Noodles, not getting up before noon, and getting pissed in the SU bar is "life experience" then maybe.

How about people who go to uni, get up every morning and do something with their time, getting involved in extra-curriculars, networking, working hard (eating what they want - fairly sure what one eats has nothing to do with anyone else, unless it results in serious malnutrition/it's to do with the career e.g. the person is an athlete)..?

Personally, the main reason I want to go to uni is to learn more about a subject I like.

not to piss on your cousins trade, but no plumber will make 100K a year - Doctors barely make that by the high points of their career

I completely agree, and I also think that the person who thumbed you down is worse than Hitler. HUZZAH!

Yep this is where everyone comes to talk bull****. Sure in 5 years when the cyclical nature of our economy changes and everyones back in the moneys and you'll be wondering damn.

Believe it or not, even a Lefty like me actually agrees with you to a point. That's why you, as a consumer, should shop around different universities for an Englsih course to your likeing. Check out online the key lecturers in the English department of the various universities that interest you and find out what the main focus of their reseach is, and you#ll most likely find what modules will be offered at that institution.

From a "life experience" point of view? Well, if you think that living on Pot Noodles, not getting up before noon, and getting pissed in the SU bar is "life experience" then maybe.