Is university really a scam?

I watched this video on YouTube https://youtu.be/jrTPwcH8hN8 and now I’m scared that uni really is a scam and I don’t know if I want to be throwing money away like that. Can someone watch it and lmk, I’m in sixth form atm.

1. This video is incredibly obnoxious.
2. Of course, photos on University prospectuses are staged. This shouldn't be a shock to anyone.
3. The fact that you will have to work hard at university at some point is not something that's remotely covered up. Again, why would they show you pictures of people struggling in a library? That's nonsensical. You're in Sixth Form, I'm sure you already had some concept of understanding that work is involved in full-time education.
4. He sort of goes on with platitudes for a while. Feel like this is another time to emphasise how this is obviously his personal experience and tastes. It's unlikely to apply to you.
5. Universities are blatantly clear about when you have to find accommodation for yourself. I've never read any information or been to any open day where a university hasn't made it abundantly obvious that on-site accommodation is for first years. As for accommodation, you can go and see it first hand for yourself or ask other students.
6. More awful editing.
7. He's sort of touching on a valid point when it comes to pricing, so I'll try and convey something more coherently; the amount of money you pay is certainly dispropriate to what you get for university. However, since you'll likely take a loan which is paid back over an incredibly long period of time in small increments, it's unlikely that you'll feel 'scammed' as a result. If you see a viable career path in going to university, then go for it. This guy is sort of predicating his argument on trusting the word of the university as gospel. That is an ignorant stance to take with anything in life. Do your own research and come to your own conclusions.
8. Maintenance of the shower head thing - university to university. This anecdotal evidence is going to be totally different when comparing it with any other of the hundreds of universities.
9. This nonsense about everyone at university being insane is just that, insane. Besides the obvious generalisation, how would a university mitigate this if it was to happen, or make you aware of it.
10. He basically contradicts everything he says by saying it's worth it, but not worth the money. Despite literally saying 30 seconds beforehand, it's not character building or a good experience, he says it's a good experience.

Can't be bothered to watch video. Scam if you do Mickey mouse course

Would an English based course be considered a Mickey Mouse course? Like law or even journalism?

Law isn't a mickey mouse degree lol. English and Journalism aren't 100% mickey mouse degrees like gender studies or something, but they're not particularly good for much other than a Starbucks job.

Would an English based course be considered a Mickey Mouse course? Like law or even journalism?

Careful with the phrase "Mickey Mouse degree". It's pretty subjective.

A lot of jobs don't explicitly require a certain degree - sometimes it's from a list, sometimes they'll just say "yo any degree is fine". But with courses that don't have obvious transferable skills (like maths) then the way you actually spend your time at uni is important - if you just do your degree and nothing else, you're not likely to be that employable.

pls be careful with the phrase "Mickey Mouse degree". It's pretty subjective.

Thanks so much, when I get to uni I’ll be sure to do extra stuff n extra revision x

yes and no.

University at its core isn't a scam at all. Its a very established and successful mechanism of learning/education...

But there are certainly 'scamm-y' parts to modern universities. These would be:

1, courses that have next to 0% employment prospects in their field.. obviously they have general employability as any graduate does, but I have been to countless music, photography, drama open days, where they have openely lied about their graduate statistics.. they constantly and subtly switch between the employment rate (usually very high, includes even part-time supermarket workers) the graduate-level employement rate (only grad-level jobs, bit lower for most course) and the 'employed in reliviant industries' stat, which is scarily low for many creative courses. There are certainly many creative students who have no idea going in that it would be a great year for the university if 2 of their class of 100 became active creative professionals in the field they were studying.
2, course naming.. Universities have realised that people like specific names, and to feel like its exactly what they want, so they frequently trick people with 'specialised' names. For example my old unversity had three courses: Music, music composition, music performance. It was entirely possible to study the exact same course under all 3 names. None had exclusive modules or taught content that was only for that cause. All that seperated them was that different modules were compulsory.. but all the modules that were compulsory for one course, were optional for the others, so you could have studied 'performance' but chosen an identical course to the 'performance' course. 17 year olds often miss this though.. they think "I want to be a composer.. ooo! here is a composition course, that must be more specially for me then a general course!" without realising that they could be identiical in the end.
3, numbers. Easy one - since the place restrictions were lifted and universities were allowed to take in as many students as they could, they frequently over-subscribe courses, lowering the quality, because each student is more money，and managers have recruitment targets. Its why clearing can sometimes feel more like universities are desperate for students, rather then students are desperate for universities
4, fees. Not all courses cost 9000 or what it is now a year. Some cost far far less per student, some cost more. Its not a scam as such - but some students should understand that they are reciving awful value for their money so that they can subsidise other students in other diciplines.

I may add more later - but its time for my dinner now.

In the US they name for this that hasn't really made it over here so much 'Higher Education Bubble'. I feel this better conveys things in a few words to cover a large number of issues.

I would very much agree with comments above ^^ about the UK obsessions with what I call nameology, that is a huge amount of overlap of modules and content between completely different sounding courses but to the public they sound totally different. The unis are versed in this. Because we don't have a culture of transcripts that describe in detail as default what we do at uni and instead have as default a very plain 1900 style certificate that looks like it isn't real and been mocked up by someone on photoshop, in the UK people are generally completely and utterly disinterested in what modules someone does at uni. All people care about is Name, number, place and even then it often defaults to number. Which then perpetuates the problem further.

I was referring more to internships and societies and part-time work

Is it a coincidence that this is pretty much word-for-word what I wrote