h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My entry today is all about Teenagers and Education. I have two children; one a boy of 15 who is mid way through his GCSE's, taking modular exams every few months. The other is a 12 year old girl who although is technically not a teenager yet , though as any parent of a 12 year old girl knows they are teenagers in spirit! She has started in Year 7 last September, for those without children in education Year 7 is the same as Year 1 in senior school.

I really worry for my son in Year 10 (4th year at Senior School) as he will be thinking about A-Levels in the near future and wants to go to university in 4 years time. When he goes to university the amount of debt that he will incur, as we are an average family, will be immense. He could end up paying back over double the amount of loan he incurs and it will affect the rest of his life. For example I met my husband at University and we got married a couple of years after we left Uni. So today two young people who meet at Uni and decide to get married will incur double the debt. This will affect their ability to have a mortgage as they have to calculate how much they can afford to pay each month. Also if a student gets a job being paid under the threshold of £21,000 surely that debt he owes will stay with him for 30 years. That debt will count against them on any credit rating as it would count as a debt owing.

If the government wants to cut down on university costs it needs to cut down on the amount of students who go to university. Not by making it possible for only the rich to go to university but making it academically more difficult for students to go to university. Stopping GCSE's/A levels like media studies which are not valuable to employers but give students and schools better grades would be a start. How does a University offering media studies as a degree think that all the graduates are going to be employed?

Education has become more about schools/colleges/universities getting good exam results than young people getting an education that will allow them to become useful citizens in employment.

Hi Mickylash

Welcome to h2g2 - nice to here your views.

I really agree with you about Universities. I was very lucky as a student because I knew I wanted to be a Dr from when I was 12, and I got into a lot of debt as a student to do it. If you're passionate about something and want to study just for the sake of it then University is a great way to do it.

I have a good friend who is very keen on Latin got an excellent degree, and now teachs whilst working on a part time PhD. I got a lot of debt at uni but it comes out before I take my pay home, so I barely notice it, it's just like being a higher rate tax payer. Also the fact that I wouldn't have to pay it back if lost my job makes me feel a lot less worried about it than if it was a bank loan or something.

But there are lots of people who don't know what they want to do but are pressured into something that they don't want to do, and then don't get a good quality degree. If I was a parent I wouldn't encourage a young person to go to university unless they really knew what they wanted to do, or they were doing a practical degree that would give them a skill.

Count me in to this party. I should never have gone, although it game me life skills and whatnot. I just wasn't the academic sort, and I would have done much better getting out in to work.

If education really is that important that half of our children have to go there, then, why isn't it being paid for? If we can't afford it, does it not mean that the graguades we're getting out of the system aren't supporting the country economically? And if not, why not?

Thank you both for your thought provoking comments.

It seems that if you know what you want to be when you 'grow up' then yes uni is for you, as it is a tool for getting the qualification you need to further your 'dream'. However if you are not sure then uni does not seem to be the answer, just going to uni does not seem to help students get a job as it did when I went. Back when I did my degree back in the late 80's it did not really matter what degree you took as only about 10% of young people got the grades needed for degree courses and so employers wanted graduates as rightly or wrongly they were seen as the best.

Increasing the numbers of young people at uni has not enabled all of them to get good jobs, in fact it seems to have hindered them. Too many graduates come away with qualifications that are no good for the workplace. For example what is a student with a BA in Popular music going to do? Ideal for anyone who wants to work in the music/media industry is what the blurb says but it seems like a lightweight degree to me that gets the university qualifications but does not help the graduates get a job.

I think that in the future young people are going to have to think carefully about their futures BEFORE they go to uni as they need to have a clear idea of what job they are aiming for when they graduate so they can tailor their degree to attain the qualification they need. Especially with the amount of debt they will take on.

Thanks for your comments - they are most helpful to me and my son who is in the middle of his GCSE courses.

A pleasure, and it's good to see you back!

The only thing I would worry about it being left behind, if you like. If so many people go to uni, it can be hard trying to explain to an employer why you decided not to go unless you have a plan (I got a job as a trainee accountant who paid for me to complete my ACA et.).

Perhaps you're in trouble unless you have a plan. No wonder I'm still aimlessly drifting through employment, no idea where I'm going to end up. I would be lovely to have such a clear idea of what I wanted to achieve, like Z does. At the moment my only real idea is what I don't to do: to work shifts, to work in sales, to be self-employed.

I guess I think I also felt let down by university because it was sold to me as this wonderful experience which would make me fantastically employable. It's a lie. The experience is as good as you put in, and nobody cares once you've finished, unless, as Z says, it's directly related to your work.

A degree doesn't have to be lightweight to be useless - I put in a lot of work for mine - but it's it's transferability afterwards. Music sucks, maths would have been much better.

When I was a child my Dad sat me down and told me that it was time I decided what I wanted to do with my life. There was no point just turning up to education every day without a clear plan.

I was 11.

I made a plan to make things for craft shops, then I decided to be an MP, then I finally decided to be a doctor when I was 12.