http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/ed ... debts.html


Hardly surprising really. Free education is the best way even if it restricts the numbers to those excel academically. It was hardly easy with free education and grants because the grants were so low.

"and are ever more conscious about pursuing a degree that will lead to employment." I lol'd

otherwise... I don't think this is true for everyone , or even a majority of students.
Also a study proved that students who have a part time job are more likely to do badly or fail a year by quite a high percentage that those who don't

I can't remember how much debt I was in when I finished university, but I do know it took me ten years to pay it off, and that's with pretty much constantly being employed since graduation.

Mark

It also affects how soon you can even contemplate buying your own home as well.

I don't get how a 20 smtg person can afford the upfront payment for a house... you don't have to contribute 10% of the amount in the UK?

I left uni ten years ago, with £20k of debts. I'd have thought the figure would've been higher now. I'm still not done paying it off either.

I graduated with around £20k debt (student loan only, no other debt) almost three years ago. Through regular wage deductions, I've paid back £5000. My debt is still £20k. Why? Coz all I've paid off is the interest accumulated over the three years!

Despite saving as much as I can, I will not be able to pay off the debt until I've finished my training and am in a stable job for life. One of my mates managed to pay his off but he was lucky enough to get a job close to his parents' home, so he lived with them and had minimal expenditure.

I worked full time and went to Uni part-time. I graduated with a little over £9,000 in the bank

I managed to get through UNI on very little. I was living with my parents, and as I was a mature student, I got a better grant that the school leavers had.

Right now, I would not want to go back to university and continue studies because of the expenses and debts incurred, despite getting the occasional encouragement from my other half.

I'm going to appear as a statistic saying I'm £20k in debt when I graduate. I won't be though. I'm taking my full student loan every year, and any I don't need is being put into various high-savings accounts. It's interest free, after inflation, so I reckon you'd be insane not to get it if you can! And I've got the benefit of gaining interest on it.


Remember we go to one university, and one that has been a "proper" university it's entire existance (ish). With more people being pushed into doing degrees, I guess those most likely to end up in debt are those who wouldn't have normally taken a degree, and have to go without income when they could have been earning as part of an aprenticeship scheme.


According to here, 10% is the standard deposit figure, but another site suggested anything between 5% and 25%.

This year I will probably graduate with around £20k given interest and having my tuition fees paid this year.

I can understand those wanting to get a job that will lead to employment, however there is an issue that universities promote their courses in order to try and get more students. I know a few years ago everyone that graduated from my course was pretty much directly into a job in the industry, however now I was one of the minority to get a placement last year and tbh struggling to get a job after over 100 applications I have had 1 reply so far, waiting on another that I have already applied for (spoke to the head of recruiting yesterday) and another I was strongly encouraged to apply for yesterday.

Strangely enough the only reason I was so heavily encouraged to apply for the one yesterday was because of the skills I picked up on placement. Many companies have no interest in someone that has studied Java as it is too high level, having C# .Net (with half a formal qualification in it under my belt) and experience of writing and testing apps against a server give me a pile more experience than even better performing academics on my course. Businesses want people with business skills, it's ok teaching C++ on a games course, but there needs to be more into other useful languages such as Lua/Python and C# for tools development.

Even the main CS degree they only learn Java, it may be a fairly easy transition to C# but there is a gap for teaching. Would you take a fresh graduate with no experience and only used to one high level language or one with multiple languages and experience of developing for different platforms?

I looked at Uni when I left school, but I missed student grants by one year and would have had to have taken out a student loan instead. I gave up the idea and got a job instead, leading on to become a high paid consultant and guest lecturer at a university (they gave me the job, before finding out I had never attended a university! ).

My brother didn't do well at school, started working in a shop at 16, went on to become a steel salesman, then switched to working in recruitment, had a Porsche and ran his own business. Last year, he was a project manage for logistics working for Airbus. All of that without any qualifications whatsoever.

Being flexible and being able to learn new things is more important than having studied.

That said, here in Germany, you have to have a master's certificate in your chosen profession, in order to start a company (bakers, plumber, electrician, garage etc.) or you need to have studied the approriate subject at university (IT etc.).

If you study philosophy at university, you can only get a job that needs a philosopher! Or you will need to start as an apprentice and re-train into that profession.

The same if you are a clothes salesman and you decide you want ot become a mechanic, know-how is of no use, you need to server your apprenticeship and get your master's certificate, in order to open your own back-street garage.

It's ironic. The more people that go to uni, the more it costs them, but the less their degree is worth.

No that is supply and demand. If the supply keeps increasing, the demand at a specific wage will fall. It is not a problem if your education is free, but if you are in debt as a result, then you need a course that has employment prospects. Most degrees are not really suitable for businesses unless they are very specific.

Exactly why since I was a student I thought it should be £5k a year for fees.