Sam Pinnington examines university life, and decides it really isn’t worth it!
This September, university lecture halls across the country will be swelling with the largest ever intake of students.
And while another tide of hapless adolescents get set to pack their pots, pans and beer goggles, I wonder how many problems this annual migration is really storing up for our debt infested land.
Ask most 17-year-olds what they want to do and they haven’t got a clue.
But the problem is, many who go to university still haven’t a clue when they leave.
Mainly because a lot of degrees are not tailored towards gaining employment and higher education seems little more than a rite of passage.
But the fact of the matter is, there are a lot of people at university who simply shouldn’t be there, not just because they can’t spell university, but because they are poorly guided.
We need people in trades.
But the mentality is this- If you can’t get into York to study business and economics, why not try sports psychology at Loughborough because there’s always social studies at Lancaster to fall back on.
And if worst comes to worst , you can settle for landscape architecture at Leeds Met, all you need is two Ds and E. And you can do that through clearing. One phone call- easy as pie.
Because as long as you get in that’s the main thing. You don’t want to be left out now, because all your friends are going. And it doesn’t matter if you don’t know what you really want to do yet. Go to uni and have three years to think about it.
For what it’s worth, a degree in journalism means nothing.
It might take three years but it won’t get you a job. You still need to the NCTJ qualification which is mandatory and you can do that straight after leaving school.
And if you take the shorter route, you can have two years paid experience on the job, while your contemporaries are back to square one, with a pretty dissertation and a heap of debt on graduation.
So why bother.
It looks great for government statistics – look at all those academic kids we’re producing- a leading light of academia.
But then look at how many young people leave after three years, with an inability to wake before noon, a non-existent work ethic and no common sense.
And what about the weighty student loan, what a way to enter into the working fray, £12,000 in the red.
The next generation has contempt for money. So much so, that an £80 night out on the Peach Bellini’s is an acceptable way to spend Wednesday evening.
And for those without a large chunk of self-discipline this can be hard to turn down with all the peer pressure.
So here’s to all those embarking on the journey of a lifetime through the echelons of higher education.
Don’t work too hard, it’s really not worth it, you’ll be back to square one when you finish anyway- with the rest of us looking for a job.
Sam Pinnington writes a weekly blog published every Tuesday on www.newportadvertiser.com.
