That’s a problem across the board though. For example the numbers transfering from a degree in Civil Engineering for example into actually working in that industry is problematically low. The industry is short of engineers and a recognised issues.
A bonus side is it’s extremely easy for graduates to get work, IF they are prepared to travel.
I think it is well understand that the benefits of university go way beyond what line of work people get in to afterwards.
The benefits of improved critical thinking for one are useful in all walks of life. I think the graphic below is about as clear an indication as you can get as to why it is beneficial to have more people in education for longer.
Why is this not the case for medical doctors, dentists and vets? Around the back end of the 80s, universities chose to inflate many degrees to increase intake (and so their income) but there was no/little increase in demand for those degrees. Though there is, similar to your example, a demand for certain degrees and enough are passed, why do the graduates choose to leave their “trained for” profession? The argument of “the jobs are out there for those choosing to travel” is (seems) at odds with the perceived demographic that goes to university - i.e. they usually are willing to travel…
The simple answer is not simple but the obvious bottom line comes into play nonetheless, i.e. salary and status.
I think many civ eng. graduates were given tasters through sandwich placements. Had a 12 month look at it and went “fuck that”.
But that wouldn’t cover everyone. I think that despite that degree looking quite specialised on the surface the skills transfer to other areas quite well where they can simply earn more for less stress.
Then there’s also a large number that start a career in it, go “fuck that” and leave it asap. Pretty savage view of the industry but probably accurate. You need to be a bit of a nutter to survive certain parts of it, even though it’s far better than it used to be. The shit I’ve seen, done, been up to my neck in really isn’t great to be honest. Some highs though.
One of my Mates while I was in the RMR had a degree in Geography. I always beat him in Trivial Pursuit. Even answering more Geography questions correctly than he did. His job at that time was driving a mini bus to take old folk to a day care centre.
I don’t know many people with degrees. The only other one I can think of is a Niece of mine who has a Psychology degree. She works in a call centre.
I’ve just remembered another lad from my TA days. He had three different degrees and a box of letters after his name. He was fantastic at his job (which was something to do with Civil Engineering) but I wouldn’t trust him to tie his own shoes. 
To learn?
It’s a poor world we live in if the only point of learning anything is to monetize it, or grow the economy, after learning.
I’m reminded of Schindler’s list, when they were sifting out the academics ready to euthanize them, because they were not deemed “essential workers.”
That’s not a world I want to live in.
And you be quoted in year 2358 history textbooks for even having to choose “which” because all of my masterpieces are… Masterpieces.
I started out doing a Geomatics degree at Uni, which has a lot of crossover with an Engineering degree in terms of sharing a good number of subjects but not as demanding or as long, and with more of a focus on spherical geometry mathematics and also surveying.
I realised after the first year it wasn’t for me as I felt it was a little too focused on the surveying element of it when I wanted to get into the GIS field. This was in the very very early 2000’s so GIS still hadn’t become a common field especially in Uni curriculum design. I ended up changing over to a Computing degree with a major in Geography, focusing my studies on GIS, telegrammetry and remote sensing.
I have been happily working in this field since Uni. When I shortlist for interviews now, education is the last thing we look at and very rarely influences our choices, as experience is king. In this field, I imagine the type of university degree really only helps to land you that first job out of University. I know we have hired staff with arts, archeology and science degrees, as they had the right experience.
This is probably completely different to a proper engineering job where the What and Where you studied might be a factor still years down the line. I don’t know.
Just wanted to point out that studies in Geography isn’t useless 
.
I agree, it isn’t useless at all and that was to my surprise.
I also think there’s some truth in your point of degree being a pathway to that first job. To a certain extent that holds up in engineering too feel. Where the big difference in my area, Civil Engineering is what you do next. Chartership has given me a benefit where people immediately take note of your CV when seeking a new job, provided it’s still in that field of work. If I didn’t have that I suspect I’d have a harder time but that doesn’t mean that the doors aren’t there. Just harder to open perhaps.
One thing I feel does help, is working within one organisation for a long period of time. Provided that relationship is balanced then Ive seen people develop and progress a long way without qualifications. The experience and working relationships count. I’ll admit I’ve not been able to 100% take advantage of that
If you need to go to university to learn, it says far more about the person than the system.
You don’t need to go to university to learn. But it does help to be taught by experts, have your critical thinking and knowledge assessed, have access to library databases, have facilitated debates etc etc
Flat earth springs to mind here and perhaps a more recent medical issue that hung over the world.
Thanks to @WeeJoe for running @Klopptimist’s brazen language through the translator
If you want to learn about e.g. history, you could just read a book. Not one written by academics though, that’s pretentious bullshit.
Turnout in local elections tends to be quite low anyway so it will be difficult to gauge, exactly, how much this affects people’s right to vote. However, the polling stations are always busier in the evenings when people are returning from work. That might not cause an issue in this election but there have been several cases in recent general elections of people turned away because of backlogs in the evening.
This is obvious voter suppression for younger people but this could also affect many ordinary working people.
My Mum doesn’t have any photo id as she’s housebound, but she was able to vote postally.
Honestly, universities are pointless. In our Away End - General Chat section, you have experts of all sorts for all sorts of topics. This section should be allowed as legit sources to be quoted for research papers.
How do you know that it isn’t?
When we beat Barcelona 4:0 in 2019 I was contacted by a Spanish academic asking if he could use a comment that I made on Facebook prior to the match for an article he was writing on football fans.
All my posts are copied, filed, and stored in a vast secret underground vault in the Arctic circle.
They will be used as the basis for a new religion in the 22nd century.
