What if you couldn't go to Uni till you were 19?

Malthusian

For those who know what they want to do and want to study a useful degree that adds value, you are essentially condemning them to a year of wasted life.

I never wanted to do a gap year, but I did go "travelling" in the long summer between the end of school and university. I came home after a week because I was bored and lonely.

Perhaps if I'd been banned from going to uni I'd've signed up to build schools in Sierra Leone or something, but it's more likely I'd've just worked in Argos for a year while living at home. A year of learning nothing and gaining no useful experience - a year working a minimum wage school-leaver's job isn't going to give me any experience of any relevance to the job I'll eventually get after leaving uni. (I'd already had summer jobs so I'd already learned basic working skills.)

We don't get enough years on this planet to force teenagers to waste one of the most important.

If this law had been in place when I was 18 I would probably have gone to university abroad.

breaking_free

LHW99 wrote: »

Not sure what I would have done, as I went through secondary school 2 years younger than everyone else and finished uni at 19. I would have really hated to be told "you've got to wait until you're 19 to go"

That's a fair point. Simple enough to change 'must wait till 19' to 'must wait 1 year after graduating high school'.

breaking_free

lisyloo wrote: »

The downside is for those that are sure what they want to do you are imposing an unnecessary 12 month wait.
I don't know how many are sure and how many are unsure so couldn't say whether it was justified but if I was sure then I'd consider going abroad, so that could initiate a bit of a brain drain if the UK loses the best talent.

Another excellent point, well made. I can't offer any practical solution for working around this. Perhaps someone else has a clever idea.

Cakeguts

There are about 75 universities in the UK that it is not really worth trying to get into. A degree from the top 30 or so are what employers who are offering graduate level jobs are looking for. All the subjects at the bottom 75 or so universities can be studied as an apprenticeship or just by getting a job with a bit of training. So the problem you are talking about only really applies to people with top A level grades because there is an argument that attending any of universities that offer courses to people with less than top A level grades is a waste of 3 years valuable time anyway because the degrees won't get someone a graduate level job. Some degrees from the 75 universities that aren't worth going to make it more difficult to get a job because the jobs they are going to get are entry level but at age 21 so they make them less employable. Anyone who gets a degree from a university that asks for less than top A level grades runs the risk of competing for work with someone who has completed an apprenticeship in the job and is better qualified than someone with a degree that no one is interested in.

Making someone wait until they are 19 before going to university will make a lot of students even more unemployable because that extra year makes them even older than the 18 year olds school leavers that they are competing for work against.

So what you are talking about here are only the students who might apply to the top 30 or so universities and there is an argument that as they have higher A level grades they have a much better idea of what they are going to study at university.

Anyone going to anywhere under the top 30 or so will have a lucky escape if they drop out after the 1st year. There are a lot of universities that are not worth paying to go to so dropping out can be a good move.

WobblyDog

Eric_the_half_a_bee wrote: »

While I have sympathy with your concerns, an enforced gap simply won't work with some subjects. For example, a number of universities do not allow a gap year for maths and physics students, because their ability deteriorates too quickly when out of practice.

That makes sense, the first year of a physics degree is fairly maths-intensive. Taking a year out would be a disadvantage, unless the year was spent studying maths, which I suspect would be a good idea in some cases.

silvercar

The gap year returns. For those able to afford it, it would be spent travelling the world - though many already do that.

I suspect that 18 year olds looking for work would really struggle as every employer would suspect that they are only looking as a stop gap before uni. With so many 18 yr old's looking for work, pay would go right down to official apprentice/ intern levels.

GreatApe

lisyloo wrote: »

The loan that's not a loan.
They don't have to consider it as real money because it's simply a tax on (good) future earnings.

I'm not criticising young people here, but the way it's being sold to them.

A tax or loan whatever you call it its still a burden for the kids that get non graduate jobs and earn decent pay.

Someone who for example does media studies and finds it was of no use and then becomes say a self employed barber on £40k a year. He will pay all his media studies loan off but it was nothing but a waste of time money and resources for him. He would have been much better off not going. He is probably down £100k+ in loans and lost earnings.

In time there will be resentment from those that have paid off £60-£80k in loans via a job that did not require their university degrees. This is assuming the system actually lasts. Each year its getting more and more people through the system and more and more people become upset by it.

zagubov

lisyloo wrote: »

The downside is for those that are sure what they want to do you are imposing an unnecessary 12 month wait.
I don't know how many are sure and how many are unsure so couldn't say whether it was justified but if I was sure then I'd consider going abroad, so that could initiate a bit of a brain drain if the UK loses the best talent.

That's easier said than done. There's no student loan system in place for that. Most students haven't the resources/support in place to make it work.

[Deleted User]

My DD has gone back to uni after dropping out first time round due to illness, she is in her final year and her friends on the course vary in age now from 21-mid 30's
i don't think you can force students to take a year out any more than you can force them to go to uni, each one knows whats best for them as opposed to the state knowing whats best.

breaking_free

venison wrote: »

... each one knows whats best for them as opposed to the state knowing whats best.

That's where you and I disagree. At 18 I sure as heck did not know what was best for me. I sleep walked into university because I didn't have any direction or guidance. Back then (20+ years) dropping out after the first year cost me very little money, but if I made that mistake today I'd have around £10,000 of debt.

When I joined the workforce I earned minimum wage in a series of jobs. It was several years before I came to the realisation that getting a degree would be a good investment, and thus it has proved to be. My point is that I needed more life experience, and in particular, I needed low-paid job experience before I woke up to the idea that further education would be beneficial.

I totally get that other kids knew their own minds long before I did, but I'm equally certain that a lot of kids only go to uni because they know no better.