12-04-2012, 10:09 PM
Might not be making a new point here but here's how I see it:
The issue is that there is no proper alternative to going to uni in the UK. In Germany (sorry) you still have proper apprenticeships that are respected, well paid, competitive, and high quality for teenagers leaving school at 16. So in the UK lots of people struggle through school to the end and end up in uni courses they don't enjoy/don't do well in.
As an EU student studying part of my degrees in Britain I don't feel I can comment on the loans system but I get annoyed at the students who see uni as one huge piss-up and hence ruin everyone's image of students. After five years in uni I'm now in a full-time job and I have to say the job is a walk in the park compared to uni. I worked my arse off, said goodbye to my social life, lived off very little money (funded myself out of savings) but I reaped the awards and now am where I wanted to be. And all along I had to listen to people (both folk who had been to uni themselves and those who hadn't, so not generalising here) tell me how easy I have it and that they hate how students only get drunk and party... Well, I didn't and I still loved uni but then I'm an academically minded person so it was what I wanted.
Not sure where my point is but now I've written too much to just delete!
The issue is that there is no proper alternative to going to uni in the UK. In Germany (sorry) you still have proper apprenticeships that are respected, well paid, competitive, and high quality for teenagers leaving school at 16. So in the UK lots of people struggle through school to the end and end up in uni courses they don't enjoy/don't do well in.
As an EU student studying part of my degrees in Britain I don't feel I can comment on the loans system but I get annoyed at the students who see uni as one huge piss-up and hence ruin everyone's image of students. After five years in uni I'm now in a full-time job and I have to say the job is a walk in the park compared to uni. I worked my arse off, said goodbye to my social life, lived off very little money (funded myself out of savings) but I reaped the awards and now am where I wanted to be. And all along I had to listen to people (both folk who had been to uni themselves and those who hadn't, so not generalising here) tell me how easy I have it and that they hate how students only get drunk and party... Well, I didn't and I still loved uni but then I'm an academically minded person so it was what I wanted.
Not sure where my point is but now I've written too much to just delete!