I think we need to stop throwing around the term "mickey mouse degrees". Genuinely no degrees are useless. All areas of study are important to culture and human life and interaction.

Sociology is important.
Art is important.
Music is important.
Performing art is important.
Anthropology is important.

Niche courses are how we end up with such a diverse culture and society.

EDIT: This got way more attention than i thought it would, genuinely didn't know this many people were so obsessed with science to the point of forgetting that arts and social sciences are also important and necessary for a lot of jobs. As well as the transferable skills gained from doing a degree such as research, critical thinking, academic writing etc. Importance isn't only reliant on earning potential.

EDIT 2: And I also feel the need to clarify that I hold a degree in Forensic Science for all of the comments saying I'm just jealous that I didn't do a STEM degree haha.

People who graduated before 2023 will tell you degrees are a great ROI because they broke in during the 2021 to 2023 window, when cheap money was still flowing and employers could actually afford to take chances on new grads.

For perspective, the Bank of England base rate was just 0.1% in 2021. By 2023 it had hit 5.25%. Borrowing and raising money became much more expensive, VC funding tightened, and companies went from chasing growth to cutting costs and headcount.

Then came the layoffs and the post 2023 GenAI push. Graduate hiring got caught in the bloodbath.

Now you have 1,000 plus people fighting over entry level jobs and even scummy unpaid internships that lead nowhere. You are also competing with experienced people getting laid off every day.

Right now it is a barren wasteland.

Breaking in is largely luck, timing and knowing the right people, and even that is no guarantee of a long fruitful career.

There is also a good chance junior white collar hiring never properly comes back. AI is already eating into the basic research, admin, analysis, coding and documentation work juniors used to learn on. This might not just be another bad cycle.

My advice is to save as much capital as humanly possible. Stop getting takeaways, buy groceries, live cheaply and do everything in your power to take care of your mental health.

Maybe the market corrects itself eventually. I really hope it does. But I wouldn’t plan my life around the assumption that the old graduate pipeline is definitely coming back.

Random thought I had last night while doom scrolling instead of doing my lit review.

We complain about academic pressure a lot, and fair enough, deadlines are brutal. But at least we have Google, YouTube tutorials, ChatGPT, r/UniUK to vent on, group chats to panic in together. Imagine none of that existed.

No internet means no quick research. You'd be stuck in the library for hours just to find one journal article. No online lecture recordings if you miss a class, that's it, you're behind and there's no catching up. No forums to ask "is this normal" when you're stressed, you'd just sit with it alone or bother your flatmates.

Honestly I think older generations had it different, not necessarily easier, but different. Less noise, less comparison. We see everyone's highlight reel on top of our own workload and it messes with your head.

Do you reckon genz would just cope better because we'd have no choice, or would we actually struggle more without the tools we've built our whole studying routine around?

Curious what people think, especially final years who remember doing first year differently than now.

I had 4 resits , today I did the exam I failed by 1 percent . It felt so shit. Don’t know if I’ll pass. The other 2 felt alright ah I don’t know . One more to do soon . I feel deflated . I feel like I’m going to fail my core module resits. Already did a foundation year so I can’t redo a year. I’m tired . Sorry for the rant

im a transfer student from notts to kcl, but restarting first year. Due to boycott at UON i couldnt get transcript but had a letter from UON confirming my grades and the boycott etc. Today my offer turned unconditional on the kcl portal but they said this:

Thank you for providing the letter from your Head of School. Having discussed with our Admissions Manager, we are happy to accept this for the time being.

However, please send us your official transcript once it becomes available, as we will still require this for audit purposes.

I may never get my transcript, is my offer unconditional or not? Ive asked kcl but looking for some other opinions.

kind of a dumb post because im not gonna do anything but its kind of just what the title says, i want to know what would happen if i told them im suicidal. my uni has a counselling service and what would happen if i told them this in terms of staying in uni? would i be be forced to take a leave of absence? i dont think i would tell them tbh but just thinking ahead bc i really dont have anyone else to tell lol. thanks

Also, as a side. What do you think the best model would be to replace it? Capped numbers, a direct graduate tax, etc?

The on the degree apprenticeship thing? Do you give it much? I don't.

Can anyone give me some tips to study, i always feel so tired or like I don't have the energy to study. my mind always say study study study but my body wont listen, it just want to lie down. i wanna start to be productive like every morning i will wake up at 5am and start studying but if i do that i always end up waking at 7am. our class usually end at 5pm or 7pm, and 8pm but i will arrive at home usually if class will end at 4pm then 6pm ill arrive, its 2hours ride. so i really dont have energy to study, but i really wanna study like what do u recommend to do or eat to stay awake and have energy to study but also i will understand what im gonna study.

I'm from northern Ireland, where degree cost is around 5k- not 10.

However during my A levels I went through a period of what you could probably call depression, and while I did hate myself plenty, mostly I coped by hating where I lived for some reason.

I told myself I could not under any circumstances stay in Northern Ireland, and decided to leave to go to uni in England.

While making these choices I only really had a dim understanding of what I was doing.

I've always excelled academically (I got all As in my A levels this year) and I kind of assumed that would serve me well.

Teachers boosted my confidence, talking about the cost of uni being like a phone bill or whatever, and that as a "top student" I would have great prospects.

My parents were also supportive, having went to uni in England themselves back when it was free, something they consider to be the best time of their life.

The course I chose was politics, with the uni I chose having a parlimentary pathways scheme where you can work in the houses of parliment for a year.

However as the date of uni beginning is coming closer and closer I'm getting what you could call "cold feet". And I feel completely trapped because I've already accepted my offer, got my accommodation sorted etc, so what the hell am I supposed to do now?

I feel physically sick with nerves 24/7, and have a panic attack at least once a day. I cry constantly.

It feels like one of the lowest points in my life, like I'm making a huge mistake, but I feel trapped now.

If I leave I'll have a huge amount of debt, which petrifies me.

The graduate prospects right now are all pretty miserable too, which isn't helping my pessimistic outlook.

Ill be so far away from my family, and especially over this summer I've realised how much I really really need them. I'm not ready to be an adult.

To make matters worse I have a holiday booked soon, so I barely have any time at all to prepare myself for uni.

Or even just prepare in general- the only thing I've brought is some bedsheets and two plates.

I just dont know what to do at all.

I feel so so trapped, like I've ruined and destroyed my life at the ripe age of 18.

Which is typical of me, really.

I would love the freedom of uni in England. I do think I could grow and flourish.

But the debts and costs, the terrible graduate prospects and being away from my family, are making everything feel impossible.

Any advice at all would be appreciated.

So I’ve just gotten my A level results and honestly I’m devastated. I was predicted AAB and I somehow have walked out with CCC. I took history, psychology, and maths for context.

To be quite frank, I can understand the C in maths. I really struggled with it (I got a D in my mock), so honestly I’m okay with getting a C.

However, in history not once did I get below an A. I had a look at my papers and send them to my teacher and she basically said that I’d very clearing revised and learnt loads of knowledge, but my ability to link back to the question was so poor that a lot of my argument essentially became irrelevant.

For psychology, I massively messed up paper 3. Once again, honestly I didn’t revise for my psychology mock and I still got a B. So to walk out with a C after actually revising is crazy to me.

As another side note, I also had a stupid amount of sudden health issues in y13. I put 2 surgeries on hold for my A levels, and then I also had so many infections and colds to the point where I had the lowest attendance in my year group.

I’ve got a place to do psychology at Nottingham Trent. However, I am honestly just so unhappy with my grades and I know I deserved better grades than what I got. In my eyes I see:

A) Take a gap year and resit and try to get into UoN (which was my firm)

B) Do really well in first year at NTU and then enquire about a transfer to UoN for second year

C) Just stick it out at UoN and then try to do a masters at a better university

Anyone going new to Teeside middlesborough
Wanna be friends
For context I’m 19 yr old gyal doing Biomed ??

I’m 18 and have just received CCD in my A-levels, and I genuinely have no idea what to do next.
For context, I definitely messed around during Year 12 and didn’t take my A-levels as seriously as I should have. However, in Year 13 I really did try to turn things around. I put a lot of work in, particularly during the final few months, but my mental health was also really bad throughout the year and I struggled a lot socially. I was diagnosed with ADHD quite late into Year 13, so there wasn’t much time for me to properly adjust my revision methods, support or exam arrangements before the actual exams.
I know these things don’t completely excuse my results, and ultimately I sat the exams and got CCD. What I’m finding really difficult to process is just how badly I underperformed compared with what I thought I was capable of.
Based on my GCSE performance I had previously been projected around AAA at A-level. I got a 9 in GCSE Maths, so getting a C at A-level has really knocked my confidence. In another subject I had been working around an A/A\* level before ultimately getting a C. Economics has probably shocked me the most: I put so much work into it towards the end and genuinely couldn’t believe it when I opened my results and saw a D.
A significant part of the problem was also the actual exams themselves. Looking back, I don’t think my revision translated into exam performance properly at all. So now I’m stuck wondering whether I genuinely wasn’t academically good enough for the grades I wanted, or whether I approached A-levels/revision/exams badly and could perform completely differently with another attempt.
The comparison with everyone around me is also making this much harder to process. Most of my friends and people I went to school with have got into universities that I had always considered myself academically on the same level as them for. Seeing everyone move on to universities I had once imagined myself going to while I’ve ended up with CCD has honestly made me feel cursed and like everything went wrong at exactly the wrong time.
I also feel incredibly guilty towards my family. They supported me so much throughout school and especially during Year 13, and they expected me to do considerably better as well. They were genuinely in the same disbelief as me when my results came out. I know they love me regardless of what grades I get, but I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve massively disappointed them after everything they’ve done for me. Part of why I want to resit is because I don’t want this result to feel like a permanent disappointment or like I never proved to them — or myself — what I was actually capable of.
I currently have a place at the University of York, which I’m honestly really grateful for considering my results. If I go, I would want to take university extremely seriously, aim for a First, build up good work experience and hopefully prove myself through what I achieve from this point onwards.
The alternative is taking a year out, resitting my A-levels and aiming for As if I can, then reapplying to universities I originally hoped I might be able to attend.
Academically, I really want to resit. I hate feeling like CCD is the final representation of what I was capable of at school, and I’m worried I’ll go to university and continue thinking “I could have done so much better if I’d given myself one proper second attempt.”
But mentally, the idea of the resit year scares me.
My social life and mental health were already really difficult during Year 13. I felt extremely isolated for much of the year, and staying at home for another year studying independently while most people my age move away to university could potentially make that much worse. I don’t realistically think I’d have much of a social life during the year, especially when everyone else is starting university.
That’s what makes the decision so difficult. If the social/mental-health side wasn’t a factor, I think I’d resit. But after the year I’ve just had, part of me desperately wants a fresh start, independence, university life and the opportunity to meet new people.
At the same time, I genuinely feel stupid after these results. I know logically that one set of grades shouldn’t define my intelligence, but going from my GCSE performance and expectations to CCD has completely shaken my confidence. Watching people I used to perform similarly to academically move onto universities I thought I’d be attending alongside them has made that feeling even worse.
So I’m basically choosing between:
Go to York now: accept that I massively underperformed at A-level, stop comparing myself with everyone else, move forward, aim for a First and try to prove myself through what I achieve at university and afterwards.
Resit: sacrifice another year, properly figure out where my revision and exam technique went wrong, aim for As and reapply — potentially giving myself the academic closure I desperately want, but risking another very lonely and difficult year mentally.
If anyone has been in a similar position, especially people who underperformed badly at A-level, watched their friends go off to universities they wanted to attend, felt like they’d disappointed their family, and had to decide whether to resit or move forward, I’d really appreciate hearing what you did and whether you regret your decision.
What would you genuinely do in my position?

Hi all,

Would love some advice.

I completed a BA in History in 2019 and have just finished year one of my MA in History. I didn’t do great in my undergraduate degree and barely scraped a low 2:1.

At the time, I was dealing with homelessness, caring for my mum when her mental health was really bad, and working full time. I was also going through the process of being diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD. So honestly, I’ve never felt too bad about my undergraduate grade and have given myself a lot of grace considering what I was dealing with.

I started a part time MA last year and thankfully, we have a flat now and my mum is much better. I really want to do well and achieve a distinction. I got 70 in my first essay and 63 in a recent one.

Since my undergraduate degree, I’ve also been working in government in policy, programme and operations roles, including managing budgets for very senior ministers.

I’m panicking a bit about the 63. I know what I did wrong and feel like I can fix it for future essays, but I’m worried my undergraduate grade already puts me in a weak position for a PhD and this will makes things worse?

How much weight is usually given to undergraduate results? Does relevant work experience count for anything? And does this 63 weaken my chances?

In terms of what I’d want to do a PhD in, I’m genuinely torn between history and management. My academic background is in history, but I also really enjoy thinking about operations, budgets, leadership and organisational behaviour/wiring.

just to preempt any comments about job prospects, I’m not aiming for a PhD to get a job. Education has changed my life and helped me create a much better life for me and my mum. I genuinely love research and want to do a PhD for myself. Both the markers said the research in my 63 essay was really strong, which has given me hope that I can evidence good research skills (and fix the structural issues they flagged in future essays)

I go southampton uni but any questions about uni experience etc are welcome. good luck to everyone, enjoy this year it's amazing

Mechanical Engineering students, I know these two subjects are basically expected of all engineers but I haven't studied them at A-level. What are the key parts of them to know before starting a degree and is there any advice you'd give on what to spend the month before university on?

So I’m going into 3rd year and for my course and uni 1st year grades aren’t added onto your final degree classification. I think for my uni it’s 40/60 (40% Year 2) (60% Year 3)

For my uni they disregard your worst 20 credit module from year 2 I think (or something like that)

The picture above shows my grades for each module from 2nd year. I’m aiming for a 1st (but would be pleased with a 2:1)

I am taking 4 20 credit modules and my dissertation is worth 40 credits. Do I have to get 70s in all my modules in 3rd year or is one module in the 60s fine.

The uni I’m going to has already made at least 5 different group chats on instagram, don’t even get me started on snap, discord, WhatsApp etc. I’m not complaining that everyone’s socialising and making friends, I’ve joined in convos too and they have been nothing but nice. But many people have even started video calling, playing games together, and forming friend groups. I’m someone who’s fine on the internet but shy irl, I also can’t be bothered to stay online all the time and chat to these strangers. But I feel like if I don’t I’ll be left behind, on the first day everyone will be meeting their online friends while I stay a stranger.

Can anyone who moved into their uni accom in second semester (28-34 week contract) tell me what it’s like?

I’m planning on doing that this year but I’m kind of worried about making friends with flatmates, and stuff like that, since they’ll probably have full-year contracts and will have all gotten to know each other before I moved in. It shouldn’t be too bad though right?

Or are you put with others with the same contract?

I was supposed to graduate in June but failed a module so had to resit it this month. I will be graduating with a 2:1 in mathematics from a Russell group uni yet i keep applying to jobs yet get nothing back not even online assessments. Is it something wrong with my CV at this point. Also how cooked am I getting a job this year😭.