What were your reasons for attending uni – or choosing not to go as the case may be? Our latest research shows that university applicants are overwhelmingly driven by graduate employment prospects.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, improving employment prospects and the pursuit of a vocation were cited by the majority of applicants as their main reason for going to university – an impressive 63% answered this way in our latest university survey.
Just 22% said they went to learn more about their chosen subject or to stretch themselves intellectually. And just 1% said they went to uni to have their independence and move away from home with less than 1% saying they went for a good social life.
For me personally, I’d never considered any option but going to university – it was the natural progression and my favourite subject (English) also happened to be well respected by employers.
That said, I had to supplement my degree with work experience to make sure I had the more commercial skills I needed to get a job at the end of it.
Increase my chances of getting a job
I spoke to some of the Which? graduates to find out their motivations for going to university. Alex Toplis, who currently works in our editorial team, told us:
‘For me, the strongest reason for going to uni was purely to increase my chances of getting a job. However, while the subject I chose (Human Geography) was interesting to me, it wasn’t necessarily the best one to lead me to a job straight after uni.’
And Ross Denton, who is working in our legal team, told me:
‘My reasons for going to University were simple: I loved my subject (history) at school, and was told that going to University was vital to getting a good job. That and like every teenager I wanted independence from my family!’
Did you go to university to improve your employment opportunities? Did you choose a vocational route to get straight into work? And how do you think the trend in going to university will continue as students weigh up the significant financial investment they (and parents) make in their education?
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