‘I Regret Going to Uni’: UK Degrees Don’t Pay Like They Once Did

18 comments

1. Vast majority of the people in my class have not ended up working in the same sector as their degree even though there is a “demand” for people in that sector and they are building loads of new places for that work.

   Pretty much all told a lie from the start and most regret going.

2. Just remember a “graduate” includes both students who got 75%, a first class degree, and someone who got 45%, a 3rd class degree. I skimmed through, nobody was forthcoming with their degree classification.

3. So I hire grads into my department each year. It’s a bank, so we get loads of applicants. Here are my reflections thr good thr bad and the ugly.

   Many British graduates are not equipped for modern work.
   They think thay they are the cream of the crop cause they can write a good essay in 3 months….but when we ask them to do something in 3 hours they struggle.

   University professors don’t have a clue what is needed in the real world. They tell the students what they think is needed but it’s always out of date.

   When it comes to tangible skills… especially technical skills…we simply find that international grads come with the industry qualifications.

   Why? Because in India or China, universities often encompass industry qualifications as part of their course. So take Google cloud platform… we can’t get qualified grads from the UK… we get lots of qualified applicants from.india.

   Before anyone talks about pay…the pay offered is the same for international and UK applicants…high.

   We also see drive open being higher in international students tbh. We see British grads unwilling to move due to friends and fsmily and international students willing to come across the globe.

   So if we wanna make university better value it needs to prepare people for work.

   In the UK, we have this childish idea that it’s all about finding yourself and having fun meanwhile the grads from other nations often come prepared and knowing more.

   So as we see less and less graduate level jobs I’d recommend that we think about this.

   You’re gonna need to be qualified and ready.

   In the UK we have such competition…and thr graduate visa…that simply being one of the crowd is rarely enough now

4. years back you went to university, if you were in a small minority of the population, you worked reasonably hard – the idea wasn’t to fail people but to show their ability afterall

   then you went to an employer, said I have a degree and they gave you a job

   now employers have the temerity to ask what you have a degree in, and from where, and what grade you scored

5. Who would have thought that by artificially reducing standards to get more people into Universities, it would result in a glut of reduced rate of return when the students enter the workforce!

   Much like the dumbing down of standards in spelling, punctuation and grammar has resulted in a generation of graduates who have degrees, but are unable to produce professional content.

   Just because we want our Country to offer economic and social mobility, simply reducing standards might achieve a short term bump of graduates – but leave them with a lack of ability to perform at a graduate level in the workforce.

6. Fuck all pays like it used to

7. Partly because they aren’t in the productive things they used to be in.

   Tony turned university into a business and lobbying group. But with a set price.

   So like any business they looked to grow, couldn’t do it through pricing so went for mass expansion. Widespread unconditional offers (no longer the best and brightest) and thousands more courses in more and more things, many unproductive with little earning potential.

   Added to that it’s a good way for banks to make money at students and taxpayer expense. They seem to be the only ones who gain if you look into student debt and repayment.

8. Nothing pays like it once did.

   Apart from pensions, and benefits.

9. Before I got my degree they told me I wasn’t qualified enough because I didn’t have a degree then I got my degree and they told me I didn’t have enough experience then as I got older and got the experience they told me I wasn’t the right fit and hired someone young.

   So the problem here is that nothing ever seems to be good enough in this market.

10. I got a 2:2 BS/c and frankly it was a waste of fucking time.

    If I had my time again I’d have just gone to work 3 years earlier.

    However it was over 20 years ago when fees were ultra low and loans were essentially interest free.

    Paid it off before my 30th birthday, today I’ve got a house and children so it didn’t hold me back.

    Sure you can argue it taught skills like critical thinking and analysis etc but I likely picked those up prior to university in school with GSCE and A-levels.

11. Well, there is a reason behind it. The courses are designed to get as many ppl possible through.

12. I defo was never told to get a trade but neither was my father.
    Got a couple of woke degrees that were a waste of time but still got my own gaff before 30.

13. Getting the degree is the bare minimum for your chosen field. You actually have to do the work to get the good stuff. The person who networks even before they start their degree is the person who will get the chances.

14. BuT itS aLl aBoUt tHe eXpErIeNcE

    Yeah, well worth the debt and £30k salary 20 years later.

15. Well at least you had endless ket hole weekends

16. Nothing in the UK pays like it once did.

17. Top Uni – top pay

18. For most courses nowadays, it’s just people writing essays with ChatGPT, and the lecturers marking them with ChatGPT

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