[swbp]

You go to university to study what you enjoy - if you enjoy media, then it clearly is worth 9000 a year because hopefully you'll love every minute

[laurakate1988]

I think it's a question of what you get for your money.

When I did my degrees it was £3000 in the first year which rose by a few hundred every next year. In terms of the resources that were available to me as a student I don't think that I saw my moneys worth in terms of time in class (I typically did a 4, maybe 6 hour week on average in terms of contact time with tutors and being in lectures) and on top of that, I had to buy a lot of textbooks because you couldn't borrow them for more than a day or two from the library (there were probably less than 6 copies of each text and there were about 100 people on my course). So yeah, I truely believe that my degree wasn't worth what I paid on a year to year basis, especially when I consider that I more recently did a full time college course for about £700 where I was using a lot more in terms of material facilities and the class time consisted of about 20 hours per week.

Having said all this, a degree costs what it costs and if you want to do a degree, then the cost is simply an unavoidable thing that comes with it.

It blows my mind that the £9000 per year thing exists now because it makes my £3000ish per year look small fry (and I don't think this should be the case to be honest).

I genuinely don't know if i would be willing to pay £9000 per year for a degree. On the one hand, paying back the debt isn't too painful because they only take what you can afford to pay out of your earnings and apparantly then it's only at a very gradual rate. I do think it would be a shame not to do a degree if it was only the cost putting you off but on the other hand there's also the question of whether you could further advance on the career ladder via another route. Hmmm, but then uni is a valuable life experience beyond education.

I guess ultimately, there are a lot of pros and cons of going to uni when you look at the course fees and I think it comes down to the individual to figure out if uni is constructive for them.

For what it's worth, I've not mentioned course subjects here because I didn't want to get into a debate of which subjects are more "useful" than others because I think it comes down to the individual and what they hope to do with the degree.

I hope the job market improves for graduates when the next lot of people come out of uni (I graduated in 2009 with my BA and 2010 with my MA). In this respect, with not a lot of jobs about anyway, a person could do worse than fill their time with going to uni right now.

Best of luck making your decision OP

[me_]

A box standard, single hons degree in media probably wouldn't be worth it compared to a joint hons, say media and journalism or media and PR.

[Juichiro]

(Original post by Baula)
I often think that the TSR hate for Media degrees is a bit unfair. I only studied it at A-level so I can't give an opinion on what it's like at university but I found it quite challenging. The practical work involves a lot of time and dedication and the essays involved critical theories such as Barthes' ideas on signs and semiology. Because of this I think that one day it could possibly end up like English Literature in that it also had a lower reputation in the past.

To directly answer your question, for me it wouldn't be worth studying Media at the moment because we're in the middle of a rapid technological revolution. In just three years we've seen the emergence of HD, Blu-Ray, 3D cinema, television & consoles , e-readers . Because of this the value of the degree quickly diminishes as what you are studying becomes less current when you look for a job.

That was already here since the 90s. FYI.

[CJKay]

(Original post by Bismarck.)
It infuritates me the amount of people that go to University with the primary purpose of coming out with the ability to make money. Of course £9,000s worth it for the knowledge if you're interested. Do it if you want, sure you wont make as much money as people with other degrees but I'm sure it will be a great few years!

That's a great idea... let me meet this taxpayer who is totally okay with paying for someone else's happy years.

[ThomasD96]

(Original post by areebmazhar)
I don't know the figures for all degrees, but for medicine for example it costs £250 000 to train a med student over the 5 years. To say your only paying about £50 000, it's a good deal.
Not forgetting the guaranteed job and decent salary

How did you get 250000 more like 150000 plus its more towards your eventual salary it is highly unlikely to secure a job that would pay anywhere near a doctor in media and also what seems alot for a med student to us is nothing for them there practically guaranteed a job and to ear over 100000

[Nvmthename]

If we were in a mmo, this would be an epic rez

[Arekkusu]

I don't understand why media degrees are quite so useless myself. Britain is a world leader in media, fashion, music and generally cultural stuff. What people don't tell you is these sectors are more dominated than any other by sleaze, elitism, nepotism etc. Is there any way to democratise the arts?

[TinFish]

(Original post by sassy123)
Thoughts???

Let me input a few words...

DO NOT DO A DEGREE BIGGEST WASTE OF 4 YEARS IN MY LIFE.

That being said, unless your doing something your passionate in, then by all means go for it. A media degree is just utter garbage. That dream career of a movie producer or something 'creative' aint gonna happen. Just a quick tip..search the jobs you want to do later on in life NOW and just have a look on how difficult it is...

(BTW I did not dp a media degree, it was more computer science. Still If you have no interest in whatever you do at university - especially at that cost it's best not to do it at all.)

[TinFish]

(Original post by Baula)
I often think that the TSR hate for Media degrees is a bit unfair. I only studied it at A-level so I can't give an opinion on what it's like at university but I found it quite challenging. The practical work involves a lot of time and dedication and the essays involved critical theories such as Barthes' ideas on signs and semiology. Because of this I think that one day it could possibly end up like English Literature in that it also had a lower reputation in the past.

To directly answer your question, for me it wouldn't be worth studying Media at the moment because we're in the middle of a rapid technological revolution. In just three years we've seen the emergence of HD, Blu-Ray, 3D cinema, television & consoles , e-readers and ipads. Because of this the value of the degree quickly diminishes as what you are studying becomes less current when you look for a job.

What kind of dog turd is this? About 90% of media students probably don't know what 1080p is let alone 4K resolution. Most people in my experience do a media degree because they think its 'creative, fun and leads to an interesting career.'

Of course that aint gonna happen at all. The market is saturated with people who have done useless media degrees and there is barely a need for them...unless your highly computer literate I guess and/or exceptionally pasionate.

Another point is that most universities especially the upper end ones flaunt these media degrees off with lower entry requirements. Why you ask? It's because they don't cost much to teach compared to other degrees. It is also an easy way for uni's to profit as they know media based interest is always high year in year out. Universities know from day one that dream career will never happen, but of course they don't tell you that.

[UKIPLAD]

Hell no.

You may as well go to a casino and stick £9000 on red.

If it's not a science then its a waste of time to be honest.

[Phil Dunphy]

Take that £9,000 and burn it.

[Cov Uni]

Hey.
It depends what you mean by "worth". If you're looking at employment statistics alone, you can search courses at the link below, which is a UCAS accredited site:

http://unistats.com/Compare-Courses

and you will get employment statistics and a salary estimate for that course at that university, and the course across the UK.

For example, I work at Coventry University. If you search "Law", "Accountancy" and "Media Production" at this university on the site above, then the first two courses have a 10% graduate unemployment rate and Media Production has 5%- so it may not be a bad area to work in if you're worried about employment prospects.

These statistics don't tell you everything- I can't find out the average salary for a Media graduate, for example, and the majority of work available is in London, which has higher living costs. And the statistics also show that the first two courses have a higher percentage of students going on to higher education. However if you're worried about the cost of your degree vs your future earning potential this site is definitely worth a look.

Cheers

Caroline
CDA-Media Department
Coventry University

[Kamilahmn]

If media is your passion then go for it but unfortunately the government had devalued media degrees terribly and therefore you're better off taking a degree that incorporates media but is far more accredited. Also many unis are cutting their media courses which kind of answers the question for you as they don't deem them important enough. Why not do a joint course such as sociology and media or English and media? At least that way you're pairing it with a prestigious subject?


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[Baula]

(Original post by Juichiro)
That was already here since the 90s. FYI.

Meant 3D TV and consoles oops