University has never been more expensive, so is it still worth it if it will cost new students £100,000 in graduate debt and take 40 years to repay?
Recently we’ve seen the cost of everyday items skyrocket. From pasta prices to fuel and energy bills hitting record highs. But while the cost-of-living crisis is making headlines, a lesser-told story is the fact that the average graduate today ends up with almost three times as much student debt as they did 10 years ago.
In addition, this cost-of-education crisis is expected to balloon further. The upcoming changes to the student loan system could see graduates pay back £100,000 of debt and interest over their working lives.
With such a huge price tag, you would expect university to still be the superior option. However, the research I conducted for my book, Is Going to Uni Worth it?, showed that there are many cases where an alternative, such as an apprenticeship, could be a better option.
How can you determine what’s likely to work for you? There are five key areas detailed in the book, but answering the three questions below can act as a starting guide.
1. What do you want to do in the future?
If you know what you’d like to do in the future and that path requires a degree, university is an obvious choice. For example an aspiring astronomer or biologist must complete a degree. In contrast, you don’t need a degree to work as a journalist, accountant, or banker. These careers can be pursued via an apprenticeship.
2. What’s your learning preference?
University emphasises academics (i.e. lectures, reading assignments) while an apprenticeship focusses on the practical applications of knowledge. Practical learners are therefore better served by an apprenticeship, while conventional academia is better pursued at university.
3. What’s your affordability consideration?
Some university courses can be expensive. For example, just 4% of doctors come from a working-class background, and part of the reason for this is that many graduates of medicine accumulate £80,000 or more of student debt and often require additional financial support from their family to complete their training.
Thankfully, from 2023 it will be possible to train and qualify as a doctor by taking a degree apprenticeship, which doesn’t come with the student debt of a traditional path. So if you wished to be a doctor and the cost was out of reach, a degree apprenticeship would be a no-brainer.
These three questions are just the start when it comes to figuring out whether university is for you or not. But — as is the case with all interesting decisions — there’s no perfect answer, just one that’s good enough and hopefully worth it for you.
Is Going To Uni Worth It? by Michael Tefula (Trotman £12.99), is available now at Amazon and all good bookshops.
A version of this article was originally published in the Autumn 2022 edition of the WhatLive.co.uk magazine (page 33.)
(Photo in the blog by Susan Q Yin on Unsplash)