Okay so at the moment I am fairly young, and most of what is going on at the moment won't affect me too much, as I am not paying bills (apart from my mobile phone bill) and I am not a home owner with a full time job. So after the spending review I have to admit I didn't panic too much.
However I am a prospective Uni student and with my excitement growing more and more each day about going to University next year I am wondering just why it is going to university has become so popular?
Has it become a fashion? What with Freshers week kickstarting Uni Life it appears to me the attraction of University is perhaps more the social side? For me it is about working hard and getting the best degree, so I can go on to get the career of my choice. I would be dishonest if I said the experience of university was not at all about the social side, because partially it is, it is about meeting new people, experiencing new things and taking part in activities that will allow me to make friends for life. I do like to go out and have a good time but I have heard stories of students that have simply spent all their money on accomodation and their course, went to Uni for freshers week and after that came home leaving university.
With the announcement on November 3rd by David Willetts the universities minister said that 'universities should be able to charge up to £9,000 a year' this is definitely a worry to those who may be taking a gap year, perhaps they will think twice. This won't affect me as I'm going to Uni in 2011, but for those applying next year this surely will influence their uni choice.
Are uni's becoming elitist? Just like the hierachy system of schooling, will the top 5 uni's Oxbridge, Warwick, St Andrews & UCL be classed as the 'top private schools' such as Harrow & Eaton, and the middle top uni's like Edingburgh, Sussex, Southampton, Nottingham etc classed as the private and grammar schools. So will the very low down universities will be classed as the comprehensive schools?
The better the university you go to surely the better the job you will get at the end of it all, but I think there are other factors to include when choosing the right uni for you. For example cost of living, I ruled out London because I know it's not going to be a cheap place to live and I don't want a constant worry in the back of my mind about money. Although I know as a student money will be a worry, but I will keep my part-time job at Boots and this will help to fund all those nights out, (okay and the copious amounts of books I will have to buy). Not only this but to me the city in which I will be living in for three or four years of my life has to suit me, I want to feel safe, I want to be able to go out and have plenty of choices as to where to go. I want the city to be interesting to me, I do not want to go somewhere that is quiet and has not really got much going on, I like the hustle and bustle of a city. But when all is said and done, I know that university is very important to me, and I think to miss out on the chance of going to uni is madness.
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