Should I discourage my kids from going to Uni?

pigpen

by the number of people who studied it before and are jobless or doing a degree in something useful or working in something completely unrelated.. it isn't difficult. the universities hold this information.

I agree it should be free for those who can hack it.. like scholarships I guess.. but then.. I also think it should be available to everyone.. but they contradict each other..

The_One_Who

Why is working in something unrelated not okay? Or should all jobs have some sort of vocational degree attached? The surveys can provide some useful information, but you really need to know how it has been carried out and their definitions of graduate jobs in particular. When I applied for university the economy was booming and the graduate market was expanding all the time, now though, the situation is entirely different. Things change, and that can't really be accurately predicted.

Again you are using a financial context for the person to benefit from it. People benefit from university in all sorts of ways, not all of them financial.

peachyprice

pigpen wrote: »

good.. they may stop making our children pay stupid sums of money to waste 3 years of their life.

But it isn't a waste. It's an experience.

I don't want my children to feel that the only thing to look forward to is a lifetime of work.

I want to see their time at uni, if that's what they choose, as an experience that will shape the type of person they are. I want them to travel the world, see interesting places, meet interesting people, not spend their whole life working. There's plenty of time for full time work when it becomes necessary.

poet123

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Unfortunately your attitude has become more and more common as university education has become devalued.

To be fair, the costs associated with FE/HE now make it much more of a "commodity" and for that reason students and parents have to factor in the cost/benefit ratio far more than was the case in years gone by.

They do also have to factor in the employability factor, as few want to incur huge debt to end up financially no better off, or no more attractive to an employer in their field of choice, than a school leaver.

FE/HE for the sake of learning and for the skills learned ( in isolation) is a laudable aim, but sadly, this has fallen by the wayside somewhat in the face of the costs levied. Certainly those who have multiple children that we have supported through University want to feel that learning aside, the employment prospects of those we have made sacrifices for will also be enhanced. Times are very different now.

pigpen

peachyprice wrote: »

But it isn't a waste. It's an experience.

So is taking drugs.. and getting run over .. and rolling in cow poo... hopefully we learn not to do these things a second time or spend 3+ years doing them.

And really it is just a continuation of school.. with extra homework

The_One_Who

pigpen wrote: »

And really it is just a continuation of school.. with extra homework

I don't agree, but even if so, is that so bad? No one is forcing this on anyone else, and if someone wants to go to university and has the academic ability to succeed in that environment, then that is their choice.

I learnt a lot of things at school which will have absolutely no financial benefit (or even any benefit) for me in the future. Unless I can carve out a job using basic trigonometry & algebra, some broken French and some very simplistic information about WWII. So that was obviously a waste of six years of my life.

poet123

pigpen wrote: »

So is taking drugs.. and getting run over .. and rolling in cow poo... hopefully we learn not to do these things a second time or spend 3+ years doing them.

And really it is just a continuation of school.. with extra homework

Really, it is isn't, it is a life changing (hopefully enhancing) experience which opens up so many opportunities and paths.

ViolaLass

pigpen wrote: »

So is taking drugs.. and getting run over .. and rolling in cow poo... hopefully we learn not to do these things a second time or spend 3+ years doing them.

Are you really comparing university with getting run over? Isn't the point that the former is/can be desirable and the latter isn't?

peachyprice

pigpen wrote: »

So is taking drugs.. and getting run over .. and rolling in cow poo... hopefully we learn not to do these things a second time or spend 3+ years doing them.

And really it is just a continuation of school.. with extra homework

So you can see absolutely nothing positive in a university education and feel it's comparative to doing something that can lead to death?

Why so negative?

pigpen

ViolaLass wrote: »

Are you really comparing university with getting run over? Isn't the point that the former is/can be desirable and the latter isn't?

er.. no..

It was stated university is an experience.. I gave other examples of experiences..

university may not be desirable nor worthwhile.. same as being run over.. but people choose to do both.. either by misadventure or other reasons

peachyprice wrote: »

So you can see absolutely nothing positive in a university education and feel it's comparative to doing something that can lead to death?

Why so negative?

I haven't once said that.. I have.. for the billionth time.. said MANY courses are pointless (and given examples of a couple that are less useless and could list more but that would be pointless too) so unless they lead to a better future employment prospects I would not encourage my children to do them.. I would not want them to waste their time and money on something they would not benefit from.. I don't understand why anybody in their right mind would ..

Would you honestly want your children to be in thousands of pounds worth of debt just so you could say your child went to uni.. even if they were unable to get any kind of employment as a result of that course.. the fact it was 'fun' would be enough? £20k worth of 'fun'... that they have to pay back... Though it is more likely that 'fun' would include peeing off the neighbours, drinking themselves stupid and behaving like morons because mummy and daddy weren't there to remind them they are in fact human beings than anything they learned/experienced at uni.

You'd wish that crappy start to adulthood on your own children?

So.. with a degree, 20k of debt and no realistic hope of a decent career because they 'studied' something inane.. how would they get on this precious housing ladder? ... do mummy and daddy bail them out again?

What happened to cutting apron strings?

If they want to study something sensible and have decent prospects for their future I would back them every step of the way but I would seriously question their decision should they want to do something silly and waste their time, money and ability. It is my job as a parent to guide my children to make sensible choices fortunately they are sensible enough to see for themselves the stupidity of studying for useless courses and looked into a career before applying. DS1 has 5 unconditional offers. DD1 applies next year.