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The great University con


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Posted this in the Uni thread initially but decided I didn't want to clog up that thread so separated it out.

Here's a long article from the New Statesman about grade inflation, the expansion of Universities and the financial consequences of this for the UK and students.

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/education/2019/08/great-university-con-how-british-degree-lost-its-value

Do P&Bers think that University is a con?

Have any P&Bers got a useless degree (I think I probably do)?

 

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9 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

Posted this in the Uni thread initially but decided I didn't want to clog up that thread so separated it out.

Here's a long article from the New Statesman about grade inflation, the expansion of Universities and the financial consequences of this for the UK and students.

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/education/2019/08/great-university-con-how-british-degree-lost-its-value

Do P&Bers think that University is a con?

Have any P&Bers got a useless degree (I think I probably do)?

 

First Class post.

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I went to Uni as a mature student - largely to get out of the rat race for four years, which was brilliant - a lot of hard work, but probably the best years of my life.

Most people would say that my degree has been fairly useless in that I haven't been able to use it in my career, but that was never really what it was about - I think and hope that learning is about much more than just for 'getting a joab'.

It may well be a con, but I think it's probably a good thing - it certainly was for me, and I'd do it again if I could.

 

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Funny how Universities spending millions putting support mechanisms in place to help students with their studies, providing a greater range of how they assess students to make it fairer and also giving quicker and deeper levels of feedback has improved grades.

Astonished at that outcome tbh.

Could have saved a lot of money by just putting everyone up a few grade bands IMO

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Have a masters in engineering from Edinburgh. Waste of time completely and it's alot easier than people make you believe.

Left a few years ago but it was already creeping in where you just had to say you were struggling with mental health and you'd get deadline extensions and special circumstances exemptions in exams. Whole thing is a massive scam.

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Everyone I have met from the University of Hard Knocks apears to have studied "How to hold a life long gruge" it it seems to work for them. I didnt go to Uni and I dont think I missed anything

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32 minutes ago, CountyFan said:

Anyone looking at the value derived from university attendance solely through the prism of 'career success', which is completely subjective anyway, is spectacularly missing the point. 

Tories gonna tory, m9.

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My undergraduate degree was electrical and electronic engineering in the early 80s. For a lot of companies in what was then quite a large (and growing) sector, a degree was necessary or you were at best limited in how far you could rise. In my first job, one of our sister companies (with which we collaborated on several projects) had an ex-apprentice pipe-fitter as their MD. Well, he had actually been a day/block-release mechanical engineering apprentice; but he had been hands-on and was quite happy getting stuck in with cutting and bending gear even in his MD days. So those were sort of similar industries, but the electronics side hired graduates and the work needed quite a lot of mathematical understanding as well as electronics. My opinion is that the special knowledge and skills that we needed were part of our electronics courses.

Subsequently I did a couple of Masters degrees, both in engineering.

The first was like a "softer" version of the undergraduate course, actually quite stimulating and enjoyable, and with less grunt on the calculations front (apart from one of the 10 or so modules). I don't think that degree taught me so much that was both particularly relevant to my job then or subsequently, and couldn't have been learned through self-study. However, it was day-release as part of my full-time employment, all aspects paid for (including my time), so it was certainly "worth it", given my particular circumstances. No down-side and quite a lot of mildly good stuff.

The second Masters was in software engineering, which they might have been better to have called software "engineering": much less rigorous, some real "filler" modules (of virtually no relevance to the degree's purpose); but saved by very good content and lecturers in the two main modules: programming and software engineering. That was over 20 years ago, and I use concepts and practices from that degree in my current job on a daily basis. I initially applied for the course because my project management skills were stymied by a lack of BS-detecting ability on the software parts of projects I was managing; but I quickly decided I enjoyed the process of software development. Taking that degree was valuable to me for both "useful content" and "career path" reasons.

In short, my experience across different degrees varies widely, and I doubt whether blanket statements can really cover how much a degree was "worth", in general, even several decades ago. I do think that there's real pressure nowadays to "be degreed", or perhaps even just to "go to university", that would have made little sense to those of us who were trying to get degrees that were useful to us.

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In my line of work you need a degree just to get your foot in the door for an interview for your first job. I went to Uni for that reason. I didn't find much of it very interesting if I'm totally honest. It was geared more towards getting people into research than preparing them for using any of it in real life.

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1 hour ago, CountyFan said:

Anyone looking at the value derived from university attendance solely through the prism of 'career success', which is completely subjective anyway, is spectacularly missing the point. 

I think there's a growing realisation that for a lot of careers the University route might not be best.  Since I graduated in 2002 I've worked for a number of large companies and during that time there's been a definite increase in the recruitment of school leavers on apprenticeship schemes, alongside the traditional graduate schemes.  When I worked for Standard Life, I attended a meeting addressed by the then CEO who said that in Technology they would move to recruiting school leavers because they'd be better placed with modern technology and would understand user experience better than graduates or older recruits.  My current job, in a media company, don't have a graduate scheme but do have an apprenticeship scheme for school or college leavers.

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Complete con, especially those outside of Scotland who are paying 30k or whatever for a degree. Invest that at 18 years old instead and you'll always end up richer than any "career" will give you.

I thought the bit about the finances of student loans was really interesting.  I paid off my loans a few years ago, I think my wife is still paying hers but now she's only working a couple of days she no longer contributes much.  I think in England it's not a "proper" debt and you don't pay it back until you are earning enough.  I watched Bernie Sanders interview with Joe Rogan the othe rday, apparently there are cases of Americans having social security docked for their student loans, insane.

 

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Romeo Junior is at Glasgow doing Politics, just about to go into his 4th year.

He has a plan of sorts to either teach or go for a civil service job (possible a 007 type spy) in London.

I don't think it's been a waste of time for him or anything; i'm glad he's done it.

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No jobs for school leavers coupled with the amount of shitty polytechnic universities means the minimum baseline for youngsters looking to get a job is to have a degree.

They are wide eyed after graduation but a job as a bank teller on minimum wage awaits them.

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