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The student issue again

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    #11
    I graduated some 14 years ago now with a CS degree. Even before I started I didn't expect to learn much during the course, I only knew it was a required stepping stone to get me the job I wanted. At the time (and probably still), it's very hard to get a job as a software engineer/developer/programmer without a related university degree.

    At the time, tuition fees were 'only' £3k a year unlike the £9k they are today. I didn't think it was good value then (in my final year I had only 6 hours contact time per week) and I'm sure it isn't now. I don't understand why colleges and sixth forms assume most students will go to university. Had I wanted a different career I would definitely have either started work straight out of college or done some vocational qualification instead.

    University has to be the most over-priced and over-rated way of spending 3 years of your life. Whenever I talk to young people, I actively discourage them from going unless they want a career that absolutely requires it (e.g. doctor). Many of them don't even know what they want to do after university, they've just had it drummed into them that it's part of their education process.

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      #12
      Originally posted by Willapp View Post
      Many of them don't even know what they want to do before OR after university, they've just had it drummed into them that it's part of their education process.
      Exactly.
      In the dim and distant past, the only people that went to University were the top 10-15%.

      Once there they generally studied Degrees that were in disciplines that the nation as a whole might require such as Medicine, Law, and Accounting and the like.

      The country could afford to subsidise that level of attendees as there was a clear quid pro quo nationally.

      Most others would take up posts within companies and be trained according to the needs of those companies either through Apprenticeships or relevant in-house courses. Their suitability being gauged by their Academic achievements at School.

      Sadly these alternatives have been whittled away over the years, with parsimonious Companies cynically latching onto the fact that they can save the costs of providing much of this Training and Development by sitting back and letting the students themselves absorb the attendant costs.

      A sad indictment of the penny-pinching mentality of modern Britain.
      “The period of the disintegration of the European Union has begun. And the first vessel to have departed is Britain”

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        #13
        What's wrong with you lot?
        You didn't enjoy 3/4 years of behaving like a reprobate at the cost of an inflation only loan?

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          #14
          Originally posted by Willapp View Post

          At the time, tuition fees were 'only' £3k a year unlike the £9k they are today. I didn't think it was good value then (in my final year I had only 6 hours contact time per week) and I'm sure it isn't now. I don't understand why colleges and sixth forms assume most students will go to university. Had I wanted a different career I would definitely have either started work straight out of college or done some vocational qualification instead.

          University has to be the most over-priced and over-rated way of spending 3 years of your life. Whenever I talk to young people, I actively discourage them from going unless they want a career that absolutely requires it (e.g. doctor). Many of them don't even know what they want to do after university, they've just had it drummed into them that it's part of their education process.
          And yet applications go up and up every year (Note they are down this year due to lack of bursaries for healthcare, so this is the first year they've had to pay - expect that to be up again next year).
          Foreign students pay more than £9k p.a.
          So is it over-priced? The market suggests not.

          Me. I went in the 80s when it was totally free and dropped out. My CV says 'studied for' a BSc. After 5 years it made no difference anyway.
          On reflection, in this day and age, I'd suggest that people got accepted, and if they didn't fancy it, make sure that the acceptance is on the CV as getting into a good university is almost certainly harder than passing the degree.
          See You Next Tuesday

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