As thousands of pupils nervously opened their A-level results this morning, many of them will be asking themselves whether a university degree is still worth it – as I did.
That puts me in the camp of our new Cambridge-educated prime minister Andy Burnham, who claims Britain will come to “value the hard hat every bit as much as the graduation cap” as he shakes up the education system.
Burnham plans to end the decades-long preference for university over vocational training, with students from the age of 14 to be offered technical routes alongside traditional academic subjects.
I take my own hat off to him for trying to give students another way out of student debt and (possibly) wasting three years of their life. It’s exactly what I decided to do – the best and worst decision I ever made.
I often get embarrassed when I’m asked at dinner parties what university did I go to? I look blankly and reply “I didn’t go – I got a job”.
Sometimes I skirt the question nervously - and even change the subject, or run to the bathroom. I feel like I somehow failed – that I’m less intelligent and desirable, a fraud who suffers bouts of imposter syndrome.
I also grieve the fact that I didn’t go – and have nagging doubts about it. Not only did I not experience the bonding of university social life – which is a rite of passage for many that I didn’t share and isolates me as I have no epic university stories to wield – but I particularly feel loss over the intellectual fulfillment of it all and how much i’d have loved to study English literature. I often wonder how my life would have turned out differently if I’d gone to university.
But for many others, like me, university felt like it has been oversold for too long, and embarking on a degree apprenticeship instead, gave me the chance of laying the groundwork for the sort of job prospects many of my peers could only dream of.
I’d got decent results, including a B in English, but as I sat under a palm tree in Phucket, Thailand, on my gap year with my holiday romance boyfriend, I did a U-turn. Unlike the rest of my family who had been to university, with Cambridge high on the list, I decided to make the massive decision to give it a miss.
I was far too ambitious – so it felt then – to spend three years of my life having the debauched time drinking in the halls of residence my other friends would enjoy, even if it was a sanctuary for mental cultivation. A party girl since the age of 16, I’d had enough of all that.
Instead, I was driven to become a journalist – which in hindsight wasn’t a bad mindset to be in. So many graduates find themselves disillusioned by a lack of job offers after al that study, being themselves ghosted during the interview process and saddled with a mountain of student loan debt for decades. I decided to get the rejection out of the way early.
I wanted to be on the ground learning about my trade – and my zealous enthusiasm was exactly what got me my first regular paid work aged 20 at Harper’s & Queen, now called Harper’s Bazaar UK, after a stint of work experience at national newspapers and Tatler. After one writer stormed out of the office in a huff, I offered to finish her feature on posh cricket clubs. I never looked back.
And as record numbers were accepted onto university courses today – 446,690 compared to 439,180 last year, according to admissions body Ucas – I wish them luck. A part of me is a little envious of their forthcoming academic adventure.
But going to university is a gamble - and one in which there is no right or wrong decision. Schools should stop pushing university as the default path – and as pupils celebrate, or commiserate over their A level results today – it’s important for them to also follow their hearts and instincts.
Going to university isn’t a guaranteed path to success by any means – sometimes life takes a different turn and in economic turmoil, poor job prospects and the onslaught of AI – there’s perhaps more to life than university: You need to sieze the day.
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