9K University fees which degrees are worth it?!

9K University fees which degrees are worth it?!

So i graduated under the 3k regime :cool:

back then we were sceptical of media studies. Has a lot changed since then? are people much more serious about what they study for 9k? (it is a big decision).

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Reply 1

Smack

Volunteer Team

If think that, if you're at university solely for the career prospects, then very few degrees, bar vocational ones and a small amount of academic ones, are "worth it" in terms of short term pay off, which is what the statistics seem to measure. Longer term, it's harder to say as degrees become less relevant to prospects and there does not seem to be much statistics pertaining to the careers of graduates several years after their degree (or maybe I haven't looked hard enough).

But I also think that lots of people are at university to study a subject they enjoy, and to engage in what is a fairly unique social scene; to these people, this question is irrelevant.

I didn't pay any tuition fees (Scottish, and studied in Scotland), but even if I had to pay £9,000 per year I'd still genuinely say that, from a financial perspective, it'd have been worth it.

It should be 16k.

University of London International programs - still around £1,500-£3,000 for a degree, I think? Haven't checked out the site in a while. Offer quite a variety of degrees too (including an LSE Economics degree), but no Science, Engineering, Medicine and the like.

At traditional universities, I'd say Medicine and Engineering are worth that cost (Medicine is probably much more expensive to teach than that). But in other subjects I think you are overpaying at that price considering the teaching universities currently offer.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 4

Mackay

In my experience, university was nowhere near £3,000 a year, let alone £9,000.

Reply 5

SmallDuck

The £27,000 question!

In my opinion, university was more beneficial when you did not have to pay for it. 20-30 years ago, going to uni would almost guarantee you a good job, and it didn't cost anything!

These days, uni comes with a hefty price, and job prospects are pretty skint. Many graduates spend thousands on their education and then spend their lives in dull office jobs, or worse, have no job at all.

Too many young people, who have yet to learn how to spend responsibly, go to uni in order to get smashed every night.

Reply 6

Mackay

Original post by SmallDuck

Too many people also go into university purely because they don't know what to do. They fall into it and do a course they aren't passionate about. It's madness.

Reply 7

SmallDuck

Original post by ChaoticButterfly

It should be 16k.

Are you just showing off your wealth or are you deluded?

Reply 8

ChaoticButterfly

Original post by SmallDuck

Are you just showing off your wealth or are you deluded?

Some Tories have been talking about it :erm:

I'm just seeing what it's like on the winning side for once.

Reply 9

KingStannis

Original post by ChaoticButterfly

It should be 16k.

Already the fees cost the government loads in subsidies as a lot of debt will be written off, and the returns for the loans are very low. This will exasperate the problem, for no real gain I can see. You can't get the jobs people want to get without a degree; not many people will stop. So much for reduced public spending and austerity.

I personally think about 30% of the country (I think it's about that) being educated to a university level for purely the social benefits pf that, regardless of economics, is a good thing. The idea that a degree should be what gets you a job in the modern economy is ridiculous; stopping the poorer people going will not solve that. Even if we cut back the people getting degrees by half next year, there are still so many people with degrees that it's what subject/uni of secondary importance, and experience/class of primary importance.

It's not as if there's huge demand for unskilled labour anyway. We don't have a 1980s industrial based economy.

Reply 10

nulli tertius

Original post by Smack

There is evidence out there but the problem is that it is historic evidence. The career paths of those who graduated before the mass increase in HE may not be replicated in the future.

Reply 11

uberteknik

Original post by nulli tertius

There is evidence out there but the problem is that it is historic evidence. The career paths of those who graduated before the mass increase in HE may not be replicated in the future.

I think that is inevitable with ever increasing drives to increase productivity and profit.

The general standard of education will continue to increase but peoples expectations must be tempered with the reality of job availability. High achievers (not necessarily academic) will always find ways to advance their careers.

An analogy is with the London/South East housing market - ever greater numbers chasing the same stock which means demand outstrips supply and the inevitable inflationary pressure on prices.

The standards required for the entry level career club continues to increase as demand for them outstrips supply.

The bubble of post-graduate 'career expectation' is building alarmingly and must surely burst in the not too distant future.

Reply 12

Emma:-)

Entertainment Forum Helper

Original post by SmallDuck

I agree

Reply 13

nulli tertius

Original post by uberteknik

You may be right, but unemployment is falling rapidly. It is not clear what effect political parties' attitude to immigration will have on this, but it may well be that the labour market will split three ways.

You will have graduates who basically get all the salaried employment. Gradually one is seeing non-graduates being squeezed out of jobs in sales. Traditionally if you were a salesman for say industrial sewing machines or double glazing you wouldn't have been a graduate, but that is gradually ceasing to be the case. If you know the Likely Lads (the 60s/early 70s situation comedy of social change) Bob and Terry both started out on the factory floor but Bob moved into the "new" middle class of sales. 40/50 years later that is a world being lost to the school leaver.

Secondly you will have the tradesmen; the largely self-employed outlet for the ambitious but non-academic. Whether that is the seamstresses selling on ebay or plumbers and electricians, these are people whose future is not bound up with career structures.

Thirdly, you will have the rest and it is very clear that even when they are in work, their incomes are falling well behind the first two groups. In Victorian times there was a vast chasm between the income of a lord and a labourer, but not such a lot between a clerk and a labourer. The gap between the 21st century successor of the clerk and the labourer is opening up and there are many more clerks than there are lords. If you are the wrong side of this chasm (and that chasm will often be market by possession of a degree or self-employment) you won't really see the benefits of increasing prosperity.

Reply 14

lozasaurus99

I've met so many unemployed graduates where I work part time at Amazon! ! It's sad to see ..

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Reply 15

MancStudent098

Original post by nulli tertius

There is evidence out there but the problem is that it is historic evidence. The career paths of those who graduated before the mass increase in HE may not be replicated in the future.

The other problem is that degrees are a positional good. It may make sense for you individually to get a degree, but if everyone else does you're all back to square one and about £40k poorer.

Reply 16

Maker

The real cost of a 3 year degree is around £80,000 if you add up the cost of the tuition fees, cost of living and lose of 3 years wages.

£27,000 tuition fees
£23,000 living costs
£30,000 lose wages

I think far too many people think about the fun, getting away from home and prestige side of uni and not enough about what happens at the end.

If they leave uni with a degree in a subject and/or from a uni which employers don't rate or there is over supply, then they will have a hard time getting a job. Even for non graduate jobs, they are competing with people who have several years more experience doing the job or are cheaper to employ because they are not graduates and are willing and able to take a lower salary.

Reply 17

Okorange

Original post by Maker

Yeah but lifetime earnings are much higher with a degree. Its still worth it.

Reply 18

Maker

Original post by Okorange

Yeah but lifetime earnings are much higher with a degree. Its still worth it.

That is true for most STEM and medicine/dentistry/law but most humanities are actually less than break even i.e. humanities graduates earn more than none graduates but not enough to pay for the cost of their degree.

I know there are always outliers like history graduates make a mint in banking but on average, humanities graduates will never earn enough to cover the cost of their degree.

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2014/02/how-much-does-a-degree-improve-your-lifetime-earnings/

Reply 19

Okorange

Original post by Maker

If you look at your own link only one degree Creative Arts and Design for Males makes you worse off. All the others still have net positives.

I agree perhaps that if you are studying an arts degree at an ex-poly you are probably better off doing something else though... Its just a fact that the world doesn't need as many arts grads as they need stem grads, the top arts grads will always have a job but the ones at the bottom, might as well just do something employable.