University degree not worth as much as touted

donaldtramp

It's very easy to denigrate the subjects you name, but today's 17 year olds may look at the world around them and notice where money appears to be; celebrity magazines, digital technology and new media, all forms of advertising,

If they are foolish enough to believe the crap in "celebrity" magazines, more fool them.

and the cash sloshing around the Premier League would suggest that Sports Science could well be lucrative.

Cash they will never see. The guys I met at Uni who got a "degree" (I use that term very loosely) in Sports Science ended up working minmum wage in the local Council sports centre.

It's not as though tourism and global travel is dying on it's ar5e either. So although many of these subjects may not be obviously academic, they probably have a high practical and vocational content and an obvious industry to aim for.

Why is it these days you need a "degree" (once again very loosely) in hotel management? What a joke. Why waste 3/4 years of your life studying that nonsense?

Whether the type of institutions that offer such training could still be called universitites is a moot point, but those who apply for some of these courses in good faith shouldn't be written off as Mickey Mouse losers.

Not Universities in my eyes, in name only, and bringing down the name of education as a whole in the process.
If someone came to me asking for a job brandishing a toilet paper degree certificate, they'd get shown the door.

moggylover

donaldtramp wrote: »

Maybe not an arts degree but definately a Mickey Mouse degree.

I'm not sure I would agree! It would rather depend on what one wants to do in the future. My son wants to be a sports teacher or rugby coach (OK, truth is he wants to be a pro rugby player first and foremost but the others are very sensible plan B's:D for a young lad who already plays district level and is being referred to the Scarlets Accademy:o).

Sports in schools has changed, and for those that actually study this as a subject it is fairly rigorous and an understanding of what happens to the human body under stresses, its nutritional needs, etc. would appear to me to be an essential for any teacher putting young bodies through that stress.

For those seeing it as a soft option I think they are in for a very big surprise (as some of DS friends were) when studied as a GCSE subject. I know that the son of a friend of ours who went on to study at UWIC (apparently the very best sports degree course in the UK) found it a tough course, but felt it was worth it because he knows he can (and has) got employment in the sports field on the back of this.

lostinrates

donaldtramp wrote: »

If they are foolish enough to believe the crap in "celebrity" magazines, more fool them.


Cash they will never see. The guys I met at Uni who got a "degree" (I use that term very loosely) in Sports Science ended up working minmum wage in the local Council sports centre.


Why is it these days you need a "degree" (once again very loosely) in hotel management? What a joke. Why waste 3/4 years of your life studying that nonsense?

Not Universities in my eyes, in name only, and bringing down the name of education as a whole in the process.
If someone came to me asking for a job brandishing a toilet paper degree certificate, they'd get shown the door.

Human performance is one of the few areas of improvement as a result of increased understanding of nutrition/health/sports sciences. How fast we actually need to run in a world with carsor how much we need to lift now we have cranes is debatable. owever, how t increase activity in normal daily life seems an important question, but perhaps equally to ''management'' grads. ?

Hotels, I would have thought, need grads with modern languages as opposed to just management.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

donaldtramp wrote: »

Maybe not an arts degree but definately a Mickey Mouse degree.

Just looked up Loughborough's sporty options, as I understand they're the best for that field. For Sports & Exercise Science the requirement is 3 As, with A Level Maths advantageous. Includes modules on physiology, biomechanics and sports medicine. There is a less techy one with management options. I should think these graduates must be pretty employable in health and gym industries, as well as on the coaching side of top level sports.

StevieJ

lostinrates wrote: »

Hotels, I would have thought, need grads with modern languages as opposed to just management.

To converse with their staff

Out,_Vile_Jelly

The_White_Horse wrote: »

now, younger cousins of mine and my wife's are getting into top universities and they are as thick as sh t. its unbelievable. in my day they would have been laughed out the campus.

It can't be a really "top" uni or they would have had to have got the highest grades and passed an entrance exam and/or interview, as happens where I work (an actual top university).

lostinrates

StevieJ wrote: »

To converse with their staff

Naughty, but possibly true.

re sports science and industry: usually in ''premier league'' sort of environment there is a mixture. The guy who is the pummeling part of the treatment some of you have commiserated with me about also pummels premier league footballers...with no degree, however, he takes trainees, most of whom, but not all, have a relevant degree, not necessarily sports science though. Most of these sorts of jobs I guess involve knowledge of more than just one thing. Many sports scientist will continue after wards to non-academic training in things like personal training, and also sports massage etc.

StevieJ

lostinrates wrote: »

Most of these sorts of jobs I guess involve knowledge of more than just one thing. Many sports scientist will continue after wards to non-academic training in things like personal training, and also sports massage etc.

Presumably the Oxbridge of sports science would be somewhere like Loughborough ?

Kohoutek

The_White_Horse wrote: »

i didn't go to a top top uni, but i went to a decent one. now, younger cousins of mine and my wife's are getting into top universities and they are as thick as sh t. its unbelievable. in my day they would have been laughed out the campus.

and i mean really thick. these are people with lots of cash who were chucked out of two schools because they couldn't cope (not bad behaviour - just an academic inability) and they end up at top top universities????? !!!!!! is that all about???

Private schools are machines that churn out people with 10 A*s at GCSE, 4 As at A-Level etc in exchange for a lot of cash. Success at GCSEs and A-Level, and therefore university admission, is largely knowing what hoops to jump through.

The only thing 'comprehensive' about the state system is that it's a comprehensive failure to give opportunities to bright people who come from modest social backgrounds. I went to a comprehensive that used a streaming system and went on to a russell group university, but at school I was no more intelligent than friends who didn't go to uni and now work in unskilled jobs like call centre assistant and supermarket assistant.

Amongst my ex-classmates, the people who went to university are the ones whose parents also went to university, and have jobs like lawyer, accountant, doctor and the people that didn't go to university are those whose parents didn't go to university, and encouraged their children not to.

Intelligence or suitability for university is virtually irrelevant in our current system, it depends almost entirely on social background and wealth.

lostinrates

StevieJ wrote: »

Presumably the Oxbridge of sports science would be somewhere like Loughborough ?

I don't know, sorry.