If I were 16 now, I would be giving serious second thoughts to going to
university with the extorninate costs involved.

It's certainly true that there are too many at university, and not enough
in other forms of education that would give them - personally - a lot
better return.

Of course, the costs haven't changed - it's just that the student pays
rather than the taxpayer - the university still gets much the same amount
as they always did. The repayments are low enough that many will never
repay the loan before it's written off after 30 years - someone on
£30,000 p.a. pays £67.50 a month - if they've never had that in the first
place, they won't miss it much.

But the real problem is that there aren't many (often more suitable)
options.

Assuming I knew I was
handy with computers, I would probaby consider apprenticing with a
company that did something with networking, datacenters or similar. Then
I would find out what, if any, university course was likely to be a net
benefit to me (ie lead to good payback in terms of work and was in
demand).

I could offer you one! We have a very high employability rating too!

I would also make sure I had relevant summer jobs booked for which prior
work experience would probably go a long way to securing.

True. Again...getting a uni course that includes a year in industry makes
a dramatic difference - and can be financially rewarding - we've had
placement students on as much as £37,000 for their placement year,
although they were worked hard and had to be bloody good.

Back in the 80's, I went to uni because I had the A-levels and there was
no reason not to (effectively free). As it happened I did a course
(physics) that seemed easy at school but was actually not suited to me
at a higher level (computing and electronics would have been).

Same here. Electronics was wrong for me but computing would have been
right.

The only use my degree is is in passing the fairly arbitrary "must have
a numerate degree" that most of my university posts require. I have
never used anything beyond A Level maths and physics for anything in the
real world.

Our graduates use rather more, but computers are ubiquitous and I guess
it's to be expected.

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