Why is it that going to University Costs so much.

Indie_Kid

iamana1ias wrote: »

Excluding medicine, science etc, how many useful degrees are there?

Your definition of "useful" will be different from someone else's.

exil

There are vocational degrees - medicine, law, accountancy, technology,
business, theology

then degrees which while not specifically vocational could be useful in many fields of empoloyment

science, sociology, economics, politics, English, foreign languages, Maths

Academic subjects which have little practical application and lead directly to no specific job other than research or teaching in the subject itself

History, Philosophy, Classics

Having said that a First in History from Oxbridge would probably allow you to walk into many jobs eg Civil Service, management trainee in big business, etc.

Char_pdc

Been lurking on this thread for a while and just wanted to add my thoughts, although not strictly relevant to the original topic.

In my experience the primary interest of the academic has been their research, not teaching. While most are happy to offer advice and guidance, they expect you to read around the subject or do some thinking about it before you approach them with your questions.

I feel that while people expect more in a teaching capacity from universities, they will stop thinking for themselves and become less capable of working independently. Although I do not share the opinions on graduates given here, perhaps this may help explain some of the previous posters' experiences?

However, I also think there are some essential workplace skills that graduates simply will not have, because they have not needed them at university. An example of this is prioritisation - personally at uni my prioritisation was to organise the assessments by due date and then complete them in that order. Anything else was fitted in and around that. At work there are many other things to consider apart from deadlines, such as the length of time the task will take, the importance of the task (both personal and to the company) and possibly economic value and/or cost to the company.

The_One_Who

I can't speak for every university, but my workload (especially in the final two years) requires quite a lot of time management.

MrsManda

The_One_Who wrote: »

I can't speak for every university, but my workload (especially in the final two years) requires quite a lot of time management.

Definately - at the moment on top of lectures and the work required to learn the material outside the lecture theatre, I have four main assignments (~about 15000 words in total), then practical write-ups, tutorial assignments and presentations to produce each week. This requires a lot more time management than I ever needed when I worked full time.

Indie_Kid

The_One_Who wrote: »

I can't speak for every university, but my workload (especially in the final two years) requires quite a lot of time management.

Isn't this pretty much why generally uni is only 12 hours per teaching?

MrsManda

sh1305 wrote: »

Isn't this pretty much why generally uni is only 12 hours per teaching?

what do you mean?

Oldernotwiser

sh1305 wrote: »

Isn't this pretty much why generally uni is only 12 hours per teaching?

12 hours of teaching is quite a lot for many subjects in the second and third year!

The_One_Who

sh1305 wrote: »

Isn't this pretty much why generally uni is only 12 hours per teaching?

The 12 hours of teaching is highly variable across departments. In first and second years I had just under twenty hours of 'contact' time. In my third year I had about ten or so, and in my final year I have about six. This is per week, obviously.

Despite the lower contact hours, there is a lot of independent work required. Preparation of things takes up huge chunks of my time.

Oldernotwiser

I had 2 hours per week in my third year - I commuted once a week from Wales to Essex!