Welcome to university: Is your £50k debt worth it?

So, you’ve ended up at Warwick. There is a lot for you to learn about the maddening culture of this not-so-heralded institution (I’d recommend Will Moore’s ‘A-Z guide to student life’ as a helpful revision tool), and while you get lost in it all, it’s easy to forget the real reason you’re here. First-year tunnel vision is very real, and it really is all too easy to lose sight of the piece of paper at the end of the university tunnel. It seems far, far away now, but I was a fresher only a year ago – I blinked, and now I’m here (which is why I’m holding my eyes open really hard). You’re going to pay approximately £50k as your admission for the rollercoaster undergraduate experience, so it’s time to address the somewhat morbid question: have you made the investment of a lifetime or committed to an obscenely expensive mistake? 

Opening with optimism, most people graduate from university with a positive attitude about their experience, which likely surprises you, according to newly published research on public overestimation of graduate regret. People assume 40% of graduates wouldn’t go to university if they had to choose again, when the proportion who say this is only 8%. Additionally, the public estimates that 49% of graduates are negatively impacted by student debt, whereas only 16% of graduates feel this way.  

Furthermore, the monetary prospects of graduates are surprisingly uplifting. Former Conservative minister David Willetts has highlighted how “it pays to go to university,” pointing to the average lifetime worth of an undergraduate degree, which stands at £280,000 for men and £190,000 for women, compared to those without a degree (after student loan repayments). Regardless of the rise of edu-sceptics, Willetts argues that tertiary education is the best chance for Britons to improve their life prospects, aligning with the 54% of 18-24-year-olds who believe it to be the ideal career route. 

The worst value-for-money degrees are photography, criminology, and geography

It’s not all upbeat, however, as the process of procuring a degree doesn’t benefit all equally. Since the Higher Education Reform Act 1992, the university sector has experienced continual expansion, ballooning the industry to the point where it is too large for its own good. Not only has this led to a vast number of subpar universities, but also many subpar degree courses, which can hinder your career as much as help it, giving rise to the term ‘Mickey Mouse degrees’. According to analysis from Adzuna, the worst value-for-money degrees are photography, criminology, and geography, with notably poor performing popular subjects including politics and history; something I write with great joy as I steamroll into the second year of my politics degree. 

The issue comes from shifts in labour markets. Over-degreeification has driven an oversupply in university graduates, strangling the opportunities for all, as expectations from employers have shifted away from your fancy degree and onto your broader experience and marketable skills. The unsustainable structure of the British university system is itself part of this problem, as the increasing governmental desire for higher education to be accessible to everyone has eroded the value of degree qualifications.  

You’re sitting pretty if you do statistics, economics, chemical/electrical engineering or dentistry/medicine

In the past, the elite nature of universities guaranteed a solid financial return, which, unfortunately, cannot be guaranteed for all courses today. Increased accessibility to tertiary education undoubtedly offers a range of significant benefits, including potentially life-changing opportunities for self-development and enhanced social mobility. But for as broad as universities have become, the monetary benefits they provide are increasingly the opposite; that is to say, they are narrow, and the economic advantage is concentrated among graduates of certain courses at certain universities. You’re sitting pretty if you do statistics, economics, chemical/electrical engineering or dentistry/medicine, but it’s far slimmer pickings for the rest of us. 

Well, hasn’t this article been a laugh? I may as well cap it off by telling the freshers they ought to head home. Instead, I’d like to conclude with a far more balanced stance: while contemporary higher education may be burdened with a range of issues, it undoubtedly has a positive impact on future prospects – although whether this is worth the debt outlay depends on the degree and the institution. Regardless, if you’re reading this in the fresher’s print for which it is purposed, then you’ve already made your decision, so perhaps I wrote all of this, and you read all of this, for nought.  

They say life is what you make it, and no doubt this applies to university too, so make the most of your time here – no matter what analysis says, it only takes one to be an anomaly.