Planning to become a web developer, is uni worth it?

Hello everyone!
I am completely new to the student room but I was hoping that I could find help.

So, ive just recently got my HNC in web development and interactive media from college and ive just started my degree today. Ive already covered HTML, Javascript, PHP, mysql, app inventor. The course first ran last year so its completely new apparently. Using html5 and everything... huzzah!

Basically I was told that going onto uni would help my career, however I found myself staring at a bunch of computing courses that I didnt think had anything to do with actually creating web pages! And I looovvveee html (yes that is a little sad but its what I want to do).

My reason for asking is because I was reading a blog about web dev and the person who wrote it said uni would be completely pointless as universities struggle to keep up with latest tech and code!

So I ask you all, am I going to benefit from a university course?

I assume if you do want to go to university you would be doing a CompSci course?

Anyway, the thing is, universities aren't really there to teach you the latest and greatest technology - any good CS course starts from the ground up and teaches you the mathematics/logic behind computation so you are able to have a solid foundation to build upon when you enter the world of work. There is no point in throwing a student into a course which only teaches them how to use today's technology - you have to learn the basic principles first so that you can understand tomorrow's technology.

Quite a few people will disagree with what I said in my previous paragraph, and if you're the type of person that just wants to get hands-on immediately, then I would go for an apprenticeship in WebDev. I know three people who hated the academia but loved the practical side of CompSci and all three are now working as WebDev apprentices at a few local firms. They seem pretty successful so far.

Having lots and lots of experience is much better than a university degree in this field, to be honest.

I believe [IMHO] that you have it exactly right in your first para. I learned to program on an IBM mainframe in Fortran - using punched cards. I still have most of my first programs. I was fairly easily able to graduate to coding on a mini, and later onto a PC. The same was true of 'circuits labs' i took [i'm an electrical engineer]. We were transitioning from tubes to transistors at the time [integrated circuits had yet to be developed]. Later transitioning to LSI and gate arrays was fairly easy. Once you learn the basics, you can advance with technology as it develops. Many of today's students will be working jobs after they graduate - that do not exist today. I occupy my spare time doing satellite earth terminal design. That industry did not exist in 1969. With it, i've lived in 14 countries (at customer expense), and made a decent living whilst doing it. Good luck!!

Punch cards! I watched a Computerphile video on it a while back, and dear god they look like a right pain in the backside! Especially if you drop them....

You do two things: 1> You number your statements frequently, and keep a current listing handy. 2> you draw diag lines on the top and sides of the deck. You also hold the decks together with strong rubber bands. If you do all of that, dropped decks are rarely a problem - although you shouldn't drop them in the first place. There was a computer center near D.C. that had a fire once. It got so hot that the aluminum chairs melted. When they got it out, the hard drives had melted, and the magnetic coating melted and ran off. The backup tapes also melted, along with the reels. The last resort, the cards, were in non-'fireproof' card files. They had to pry the drawers open with crowbars (the plastic wheels melted). They got the cards out, and found that they were undamaged, except that they all had a little brown edge around the outside edge. They hauled the cards to a similar computer center further away from D.C., and over 3 days (24 hour days), the rebuilt the operating system, and were operating on the 4th day. So much for "obsolete" technology. If they had depended upon tape backup, they still wouldn't be operating. This was in 1982. Cheers.

Wow... that's incredible. Thanks for sharing.