Is university really worth the investment?

A-Level students across the UK will finally find out how they’ve fared as they pick up their exam results tomorrow.

It’s a big day for young adults – and for their parents. Indeed, if you’re a mum or dad anxiously waiting to find out whether your child has got the grades they wanted or needed to get onto their university course, or whether you need to help them find a plan B, it can feel like just as stressful a time.

But is attending university nowadays the most cost-effective way to achieve your dream job? Levels of satisfaction with university “value for money” have fallen for the fifth year in a row, in a major annual study of student attitudes.

Fees in England, Ireland and Wales are now in excess of £9,000 a term, whilst in Scotland, for Scottish students, there are no tuition fees.

There is a wide variation in the number of teaching hours – with subjects such as history having an average of eight hours per week, while medicine had 19 hours plus many more working hours outside of the classroom.

Students on medicine and dentistry courses were the most likely to feel they were getting value for money, while social studies and business students were the most likely to feel they were not getting good value.

There was a strong sense that universities were not doing enough to explain how tuition fees were spent – with only 20% of students saying they had received enough information.

Competition for jobs after graduations is now greater than ever with work experience being vital to set you apart. So is it better to start working to accrue three years work experience or to spend in excess £30,000 to gain a degree?

What are your views? Is university really worth the investment?