Yes, I went to Northumbria and did a BA Hons in English and History, then at 23 I went to York uni and did my PGCE. I'm now an English teacher. I enjoyed both courses, but York more so because I went away from home, whereas I lived near enough to Northumbria to stay at home, and looking back I don't think that was the best way to experience uni life. I loved uni and would definitely recommend it to people if they have subjects they would like to study at a higher level.
I would add I was lucky to be in the very last year of people who got a grant (1997). I imagine choosing uni these days is a lot more expensive than it was for me, which I think is very wrong and I'm strongly in favour of grants being reinstated.
I toyed with the idea of doing an English degree, but I find the way the subject is taught quite unappealing.
I love literature and language, but analysing and pulling it apart takes something away from the beauty of it. Reading the classics and concerning yourself with the syntax and phonetics etc seems to reduce them to something almost mechanical and dull.
Funnily enough I started with an English degree but hated every minute of it for similar reasons to those you give. Switched to Psychology (BSc) and loved it. Went on to do an MSc and MPhil (which should have been a PhD but I got ill and also became a carer for my parents so had to scale back).
Yes, I went to Northumbria and did a BA Hons in English and History, then at 23 I went to York uni and did my PGCE. I'm now an English teacher. I enjoyed both courses, but York more so because I went away from home, whereas I lived near enough to Northumbria to stay at home, and looking back I don't think that was the best way to experience uni life. I loved uni and would definitely recommend it to people if they have subjects they would like to study at a higher level.
I would add I was lucky to be in the very last year of people who got a grant (1997). I imagine choosing uni these days is a lot more expensive than it was for me, which I think is very wrong and I'm strongly in favour of grants being reinstated.
I did my BA at York! Alcuin College, for my sins, although I think they've done a lot of rebuilding since I was there. Is the lake still there, invested with ducks and geese and fetid water?
£2200? Are you sure ? I started uni in 1988, on a full grant, which was about £1500/year. My hall fees were £30/week or £300/term, so I had quite a bit left over, as the hall fees covered 2 meals/day.
It was a long time ago but I'm fairly sure that my full grant in 1990 was around £2200. Rent was £25/week in halls (middling standard, the cheaper ones were £20 and the "posh" ones with en-suite were a whopping £40 a week!). Money was always tight but it was possible to live on it.
Actually, I found this: http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/sn00916.pdf - the table on p12 shows that the full grant in 1990-1 was £2265 and it was frozen at this level until 1994 though you could take out a top-up loan.
When I started my PhD in 1994 I was on a grant of about £5000, which felt like a fortune at the time.
It was a long time ago but I'm fairly sure that my full grant in 1990 was around £2200. Rent was £25/week in halls (middling standard, the cheaper ones were £20 and the "posh" ones with en-suite were a whopping £40 a week!). Money was always tight but it was possible to live on it.
Actually, I found this: http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/sn00916.pdf - the table on p12 shows that the full grant in 1990-1 was £2265 and it was frozen at this level until 1994 though you could take out a top-up loan.
When I started my PhD in 1994 I was on a grant of about £5000, which felt like a fortune at the time.
Oh thank you. That's a brilliant find. According to that table I must have received £2050 in 1988 - I was positively rich!!! I honestly can't remember having £683/term, meaning once my rent (including meals) was paid, I had a massive £383/term to spend on booze and **** - it's no wonder I didn't work hard enough!
It makes the loan of £3610/year that my two sons will get from September seem even more pathetic. Especially given that their halls will cost about £5000 each and that doesn't include food. Either they or I will be very skint for the next three years!
Looking back I don't regret going, I had three great years socially plus a work experience year, doing business studies. Full grant, fees paid, housing rebate saved up so we could go on club 18-30 holidays, parties, student nights.
I did feel like a square peg in a round hole at times I was a working class kid from a coal mining town. Reading Business Studies amongst a load of middle class kids with totally different values to my own. They all seemed to have a master plan, mine was to be the first in our family to get a degree and the rest would just follow naturally.
The first year was a breeze, re-covering a lot of what I had already covered in my business related A levels. The second year was so so, by the third academic year I lost heart and just went through the motions and came out with a 2:2.
After my last final I remember sitting alone on the beach with a few cans thinking "What the hell do I do now?". I had had my fill of academia I didn't want to be an accountant etc. and take more exams, that was obvious to me. I went to a few general graduate position interviews and came out with the spiel they liked to hear, but the thought of playing the corporate game left me cold. I graduated into the early 90's recession a lower second and no real plan, I only knew what I didn't want to do.
I'm really happy where I am in life and don't regret it, but there is no way I would do it today.
My sons are hopefully going to be heading off to uni this September, and I have been on lots of Uni open days over the last few months.
It was unheard of in the 80's for parents to attend Open Days, - it seems such a contradiction of everything that progression to Uni represents. I suppose the trend started with the introduction of fees.
No. It's never really been of much interest. My faith in conventional education had been being eroded since I was in secondary school.
Most jobs simply don't require degrees. I remember when I was 18 and I landed a job paying about 20k, and all of the people I was working with were 25+ and had degrees.. yet were doing the same job as me.
I'm self employed now so it really is irrelevant. I'd certainly implore any young person to seriously consider ditching university and jump straight into the world of work or more vocational training.
It's unnecessary, expensive and possibly even damaging to have a society where it's normal and expected to accrue vast amounts of debt for an education that isn't required by most.
It's only worth it if you actually want to be something which is paid relatively well and in demand, or that there's a shortage of. Basically professions such as doctors, teachers and social workers.
I went for a year and hated most of it - the travel, my mental health declined and the fact I wasn't taught how to write proper assignments at college due to my course. We did do assignments, just very different to how you usually do them due to the course. Plus I thought I knew what I wanted to do but I don't think I really did. About 18 months before going, I didn't even WANT to go and half wish I hadn't planned it. But I don't regret that year.
Anyway after a year out, I went back to college and got my level 3 in childcare. Then madly and bravely decided to stay on and did my HND That's almost done now so will be graduating soon. Then going to another college (a university one tho) in September to do my third year and get the degree. After that I'm either going to go into working at long last or do my PCGE to be a special needs teacher
It was unheard of in the 80's for parents to attend Open Days, - it seems such a contradiction of everything that progression to Uni represents. I suppose the trend started with the introduction of fees.
That's right. If you turned up at an open day or interview with a parent in tow it would be frowned on. My trips around the country to interviews were all great adventures as they were the first time I had ever been more than 20 miles away from home by myself. Arriving at London Victoria coach station as a 17 year old from a small village in the North East was like landing on a different planet.
By the way, am I the only person who hates the term "Uni"? When did it come in? In the 80s and 90s, it was always "University".
I did psychology at university. I originally wanted to stay on and do a Masters, but by the end of my third year I knew I'd hit my limit for studying and so went onto work. What I studied for my degree hasn't come into use at all since leaving university, but if I didn't have a degree I wouldn't have been able to get my visa to work here so it was worthwhile in the end!
I went with the prospect of being a primary school teacher so did a 3 year degree in English and history and then did a PGCE ( which i left after 3 months ). The main problem I had was that although I'm reasonably intelligent I find academic work rather hard going and tedious. Also my biggest regret was due to my dreadful shyness at the time I ended up going to a uni right next to where I live as I didn't have enough confidence to be away from home. If only I had had more confidence I would have had a better time I think.
I worked most days while at uni as well and scraped a 2:2 in the end. Got into doing a PGCE but after just a few weeks and school experience I realised this wasn't for me at all and just dropped out.
The job I have now is totally unrelated to my degree and doesn't even require one. I always think "what if?" about the whole thing.
I unfortunately have not been to university because I had such a bad experience in college. I had a tutor who played the race and religion card to keep her job. She was a bad tutor but my class wasn't having any of it so we protested to the head of the college and got her sacked. It was a long, pain staking process and at the end of it we didn't feel like we had achieved anything because we had all spent so much time trying to get rid of her that we had completely lost track of our education. It was a bad time. The college employed supply tutors to come in and teach us but it was too far in the year to be able to do well and because of this I just went for a pass instead of a distinction. To be fair the work was really easy. I was being lazy but because it was so easy it felt like we were learning primary school things like how to make power points and this was supposed to be the best level of computing before university. It was boring as well.
I would like to go to uni in the future if I ever get the chance to fund my education however I think it's too late for me now. The best thing for me would most likely climb up the rankings at my place of work.
Have you been to uni? What did you study?
I got a Mathematics & Computing degree BSc Honours from what is now the University of Glamorgan, when it was the Polytechnic of Wales. It was basically a four year piss up for most people, interrupted by lectures and all paid for by the government, i.e. tuition fees, student grant, rent rebate, unemployment benefit during the sandwich year and income support for the other three years. Them the days. And yes, I have paid it all back in taxes in the following years. One year alone I had a 10k tax bill.
Comments
I would add I was lucky to be in the very last year of people who got a grant (1997). I imagine choosing uni these days is a lot more expensive than it was for me, which I think is very wrong and I'm strongly in favour of grants being reinstated.
Funnily enough I started with an English degree but hated every minute of it for similar reasons to those you give. Switched to Psychology (BSc) and loved it. Went on to do an MSc and MPhil (which should have been a PhD but I got ill and also became a carer for my parents so had to scale back).
err I mean.. it's a waste of time innit? just a big pub crawl. went to the university of life nahwatamin?
I did my BA at York! Alcuin College, for my sins, although I think they've done a lot of rebuilding since I was there. Is the lake still there, invested with ducks and geese and fetid water?
Enjoyed it and my dissertation got top marks in the class. :kitty:
It was a long time ago but I'm fairly sure that my full grant in 1990 was around £2200. Rent was £25/week in halls (middling standard, the cheaper ones were £20 and the "posh" ones with en-suite were a whopping £40 a week!). Money was always tight but it was possible to live on it.
Actually, I found this: http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/sn00916.pdf - the table on p12 shows that the full grant in 1990-1 was £2265 and it was frozen at this level until 1994 though you could take out a top-up loan.
When I started my PhD in 1994 I was on a grant of about £5000, which felt like a fortune at the time.
Oh thank you. That's a brilliant find. According to that table I must have received £2050 in 1988 - I was positively rich!!! I honestly can't remember having £683/term, meaning once my rent (including meals) was paid, I had a massive £383/term to spend on booze and **** - it's no wonder I didn't work hard enough!
It makes the loan of £3610/year that my two sons will get from September seem even more pathetic. Especially given that their halls will cost about £5000 each and that doesn't include food. Either they or I will be very skint for the next three years!
I did feel like a square peg in a round hole at times I was a working class kid from a coal mining town. Reading Business Studies amongst a load of middle class kids with totally different values to my own. They all seemed to have a master plan, mine was to be the first in our family to get a degree and the rest would just follow naturally.
The first year was a breeze, re-covering a lot of what I had already covered in my business related A levels. The second year was so so, by the third academic year I lost heart and just went through the motions and came out with a 2:2.
After my last final I remember sitting alone on the beach with a few cans thinking "What the hell do I do now?". I had had my fill of academia I didn't want to be an accountant etc. and take more exams, that was obvious to me. I went to a few general graduate position interviews and came out with the spiel they liked to hear, but the thought of playing the corporate game left me cold. I graduated into the early 90's recession a lower second and no real plan, I only knew what I didn't want to do.
I'm really happy where I am in life and don't regret it, but there is no way I would do it today.
It was unheard of in the 80's for parents to attend Open Days, - it seems such a contradiction of everything that progression to Uni represents. I suppose the trend started with the introduction of fees.
Others were vocationally led FE/ HE quals.
Same here.Left school at 16.Straight into an apprenticeship.Like my parents wanted.:(
Most jobs simply don't require degrees. I remember when I was 18 and I landed a job paying about 20k, and all of the people I was working with were 25+ and had degrees.. yet were doing the same job as me.
I'm self employed now so it really is irrelevant. I'd certainly implore any young person to seriously consider ditching university and jump straight into the world of work or more vocational training.
It's unnecessary, expensive and possibly even damaging to have a society where it's normal and expected to accrue vast amounts of debt for an education that isn't required by most.
It's only worth it if you actually want to be something which is paid relatively well and in demand, or that there's a shortage of. Basically professions such as doctors, teachers and social workers.
Anyway after a year out, I went back to college and got my level 3 in childcare. Then madly and bravely decided to stay on and did my HND
It was very strict when I was at school. Very few universities and no silly subjects studied.
That's right. If you turned up at an open day or interview with a parent in tow it would be frowned on. My trips around the country to interviews were all great adventures as they were the first time I had ever been more than 20 miles away from home by myself. Arriving at London Victoria coach station as a 17 year old from a small village in the North East was like landing on a different planet.
By the way, am I the only person who hates the term "Uni"? When did it come in? In the 80s and 90s, it was always "University".
So I went straight into work on a fast track programme.
I work in a college now and look at students wishing to go to University who are nowhere near the level I was back then and wonder
A) Should I have had the chance to go or
I worked most days while at uni as well and scraped a 2:2 in the end. Got into doing a PGCE but after just a few weeks and school experience I realised this wasn't for me at all and just dropped out.
The job I have now is totally unrelated to my degree and doesn't even require one. I always think "what if?" about the whole thing.
No, I detest it as well.
I got a Mathematics & Computing degree BSc Honours from what is now the University of Glamorgan, when it was the Polytechnic of Wales. It was basically a four year piss up for most people, interrupted by lectures and all paid for by the government, i.e. tuition fees, student grant, rent rebate, unemployment benefit during the sandwich year and income support for the other three years. Them the days. And yes, I have paid it all back in taxes in the following years. One year alone I had a 10k tax bill.