Why go to university?

If you are anything like me, you never thought of a future without a university degree. Nowadays, a university education seems to be a requirement for entering the world of work and is thus often the first step to helping you to secure your dream job. That being said, there are also more and more opportunities for students straight out of sixth form or college, with firms offering apprenticeship schemes or on-the-job training.

If you are lucky enough to already know what you want to do for the rest of your life (or at least the next few years), it is definitely worth considering what your options are once you leave school. If education isn’t for you, and you can get the job you want without a degree, then why not try one of the other routes? However, I think I speak for most people when I say that it is more than likely that you don’t have a specific career in mind – in which case, a university education isn’t a bad choice.

When studying at university, you not only learn the subject but also the skills required to excel. These skills – both technical and interpersonal – are not only useful when completing your university assignments, but also in the world of work. This is the main reason why employers like to see a degree on your CV. It not only shows that you have direct knowledge about your degree subject, but more notably, that you have gained the skills that can be applied to your new role. This is why everyone tells you to pick a course that you enjoy and to not worry too much about your career. For a lot of domains, the course your degree is in is not important. It’s the fact that you have a degree in the first place.

University is also a lot of fun in some regards, and therefore, even if your career doesn’t require a degree, you still might want to get one anyways! Besides the inevitable career reason, university can offer its students a lot of benefits. The first of these is obviously that you get to make a lot of new friends and enjoy spending time with them. Consequently, university offers you an adventure to try new experiences and to interact with people from all over the world, let alone just the UK. Many students admit that university is the first opportunity they have had to meet people from different cultures, and therefore it truly is an experience to broaden your horizons.

Moreover, university gives you the chance to learn more about yourself. This is the first time for most students to live alone and to adapt to a more independent way of learning. You are on your own schedule, budgeting your money, cooking your meals and keeping your room clean, all on top of completing university assignments. The experience definitely enhances your time management and is the first step to being a true adult. By the end of the three or four years at university, you will feel more mature and ready for the real world, living independent from your parents.

In conclusion, I think that, in a lot of ways, the university experience speaks for itself. Both academically and socially, university offers students the opportunity to learn, adapt and enjoy.