University, students loans. How would you save money?

[Le Chat]

Watching the TV last night, I saw a section in the news about the government wanting to make cutbacks, some of which may involve hitting the areas of education.
There is one thing that has never been mentioned to my knowledge and this is the length of university courses. I myself went to Uni (many years ago) and to be honest, my 3 year course could easily have been done and dusted in 2 years or even less. Many hours were spent not in Uni itself but simply 'hanging around' for want of a better description. Revision and course work was easily slotted in and around my other leisure persuits!!
Surely shortening the course length would save on tuition fees, housing costs, travel costs and many other hidden costs. What do others think?

[Sqad]

Le Chat ....I agree entirely......but why now? Over staffing waste, long courses ect have been going on forever.......why decide on the cutbacks now?............because the Unions would never allow this to happen, but now, they have little choice.

50yrs ago......the top 5% would go to University.....now it is 95%, most of them doing Media Studies or IT, causes that take 3 yrs.........Media Studies? IT?....3yrs? ........a total nonsense and when they qualify.....no jobs.

Education, education education...........no big deal................50 yrs ago, one applied for a grant and this was "means tested" and if your family were poor enough ( as in my case)....your fees etc were paid.

So what has changed for the better?

[sophie_1003]

But why would 'they' make 3 year courses shorter when instead they can charge over £3000 pounds a year for them (with proposals to put the fees up to as much as double this) no matter how much time is actually spent using the university?

[craft1948]

I don't understand this 'everyone must go to university' situation. I went to a grammar school....about 30% from that school went to university......the others left after GCE's and went into the civil service, nursing, or general office work.
If 45 years ago only 30% of pupils from a supposedly top school qualified for uni how can 95% from all schools be clever enough to go to a university...........without exam and admission standards dropping.

[sophie_1003]

I don't understand the everyone to university thing either but I may be able to offer some insight as to why more people are going. When I was at college taking A-levels I didn't want to go to university but I also didn't know what my other options were so I went to see the careers advisor. I told him I had an interest of working with children and wondered if there were any college courses that would enable me to do this as I didn't want to go to university. He insisted that without a degree I would be restricted to retail and warehouse work and refused to listen to the fact that I wouldn't mind doing another college course. During weekly tutorials all the emphasis was on applying to uni, there was no advice offered to the few of us sat there with nothing to do as everyone else was writing their personal statements. All of my lecturers (apart from one) placed a lot of emphasis on uni. Luckily one of my lecturers said "If you don't know what you want to do yet, don't go to uni for the sake of it, do anything else for a while until you know, even if it means stacking shelves at a supermarket for a couple of years" She was the only person in my entire time in education that had this attitude. With such emphasis on the perceived importance of uni it's no wonder more and more people are going!

[Sqad]

craft......I agree entirely.

sophie.....why are more and more going to University......because every college is now a University and without a degree, you have little chance of a job and even with a degree, you are likely to be out of work.

I understand that not everyone knows what they want at 18yrs of age, but if there is any doubt, go to Uni, as a degree in ANYTHING will not stand you in better stead than no qualifications at all.

[sophie_1003]

But what's the point in spending nearly £10,000 just on tuition fees when you may be doing a degree that you'll end up hating? As it happens, I did a childcare course which lead to employment as a TA for myself and nursery, TA and hospital jobs for others on the course. I am now at uni but have little doubt that if I had gone when eveyone else my age had I would have become disenchanted by the second year and dropped out. I am not arguing against going to university full stop, rather stating the case for waiting until you know what you want to do.

[Sqad]

sophie......point taken.

[rov1200]

I suppose you could take an 'Open University' course where you can fit your studies into your available free time. But some would say this is a 2nd class degree and would not compare with a university one. They said the same when Polytechnics got equal status with universities and maybe the stigma is still there. A degree from Oxbridge has all the status needed to get a decent job but this is restricted to the few.

If the aim of getting 50% of students to take degrees it does not take much working out to see how this award will be satisfactory in most employers eyes so where does that lead?

Personally I think the new 2 year Diplomas started last year are the answer for future employment as they have a percentage of hands-on experience and don't rely on just pieces of worthless paper. Strange when the Tories have threatened to scrap them but they always did believe in eliteism.

[tamborine]

wots wrong with working (or doing an apprenticeship) and doing Uni online with the Open Uni - I did, got the degree but no career worth utilising it.

[sophie_1003]

I think OU and online degrees are a great idea but when you're at school and college you are very much pushed to the conventional route which is, I think, one of the reasons why so many people are now going to uni, there isn't much advice for those who are able but unwilling to go to uni so some people just go for the sake of it.
Apologies to LeChat by the way, the original subject has kind of been abandoned!

[Le Chat]

don't apologise Sophie. It's been so long since I used the answerbank (I used to come here all the time) that I forgot about my post...and now it is too late! x