The Price Tag Of Your Degree
By Alasdair Firth
Monday 28th September 2009
Monday 28th September 2009
In the snap crackle chew climate of the credit crunch, is your degree worth the money you’re paying for it?
Degrees are 'dumbing down', or at least they are according to last month’s parliamentary inquiry into them. This report said that since the number of first-class university degrees in England had dramatically increased (from 7% in 1996-1997 to 13.3% last year), the standards at universities must have dropped. Cue a massive row between universities and ministers. For me what is interesting about this inquiry is the response it got from Wes Streeting of the National Union of Students. According to Streeting, the report raises the issue of how much value for money students are getting: "We find it astonishing that universities continue to demand ever higher fees without showing how they make a difference to the people who pay for them." Although he is referring to English universities, I must admit that he got me thinking about the amount I have been paying for my degree, and what I have been getting in return for it. There have been times when I have questioned why I have had to pay so much money for my St Andrews education. It has clearly not been for the amount of teaching I have received, for as an English honours student my class hours have been limited. My third year consisted academically of only four hours of class a week, in fact I spent more time sat on my sofa reading the two books a week for the modules than actually being taught by staff. Based on the £1,775 tuition fees of the 2008-2009 academic year, I was paying £21.14 for each tutorial or lecture, a figure that does not take into account the additional costs of rent, bills and daily expenses. Admittedly the teaching I received was of a very high standard, yet it still feels like a disproportionate sum for the amount of actual teaching I received. During my reading week in 2008, I visited a fellow St Andrews student who was on a year abroad at the University of Richmond in the United States. Students there pay $40,010 (roughly £24,000) per year on tuition fees alone. In return for paying such a large amount, Richmond students have greater expectations of what their university should provide. They expect a tangible return for their investment: first class facilities (just visit their stadium to see what I mean, yes I did say ‘stadium’), a heavy workload, and more time with their professors. But should a degree be valued solely as a financial investment with an academic return? Probably not. Also how do you attach a price tag to everything non-academic that a university has to offer? There are so many opportunities available to St Andrews students, from the multitude of societies and sports teams, to Star radio, RAG Week and the fashion shows. This does not take into account the other St Andrews University experiences - the traditions, the friendships, the relationships, the awkward encounters in Tesco, the nights out - and of course the gravitas of saying you go to such a respected institution. Obviously the way you attach value to something is highly subjective and, as hopefully everyone is already aware, a university degree is about more than what you learn in your classes and what job it can get you. So if a degree is ultimately worth what you make of it, then upon thinking about all that I have gained from being at St Andrews, I have to wonder what I was moaning about in the first place. OK so maybe my degree has been a bit light on the class hours in relation to the tuition fees (to be honest I have needed the free
Degrees are 'dumbing down', or at least they are according to last month’s parliamentary inquiry into them. This report said that since the number of first-class university degrees in England had dramatically increased (from 7% in 1996-1997 to 13.3% last year), the standards at universities must have dropped. Cue a massive row between universities and ministers. For me what is interesting about this inquiry is the response it got from Wes Streeting of the National Union of Students. According to Streeting, the report raises the issue of how much value for money students are getting: "We find it astonishing that universities continue to demand ever higher fees without showing how they make a difference to the people who pay for them." Although he is referring to English universities, I must admit that he got me thinking about the amount I have been paying for my degree, and what I have been getting in return for it. There have been times when I have questioned why I have had to pay so much money for my St Andrews education. It has clearly not been for the amount of teaching I have received, for as an English honours student my class hours have been limited. My third year consisted academically of only four hours of class a week, in fact I spent more time sat on my sofa reading the two books a week for the modules than actually being taught by staff. Based on the £1,775 tuition fees of the 2008-2009 academic year, I was paying £21.14 for each tutorial or lecture, a figure that does not take into account the additional costs of rent, bills and daily expenses. Admittedly the teaching I received was of a very high standard, yet it still feels like a disproportionate sum for the amount of actual teaching I received. During my reading week in 2008, I visited a fellow St Andrews student who was on a year abroad at the University of Richmond in the United States. Students there pay $40,010 (roughly £24,000) per year on tuition fees alone. In return for paying such a large amount, Richmond students have greater expectations of what their university should provide. They expect a tangible return for their investment: first class facilities (just visit their stadium to see what I mean, yes I did say ‘stadium’), a heavy workload, and more time with their professors. But should a degree be valued solely as a financial investment with an academic return? Probably not. Also how do you attach a price tag to everything non-academic that a university has to offer? There are so many opportunities available to St Andrews students, from the multitude of societies and sports teams, to Star radio, RAG Week and the fashion shows. This does not take into account the other St Andrews University experiences - the traditions, the friendships, the relationships, the awkward encounters in Tesco, the nights out - and of course the gravitas of saying you go to such a respected institution. Obviously the way you attach value to something is highly subjective and, as hopefully everyone is already aware, a university degree is about more than what you learn in your classes and what job it can get you. So if a degree is ultimately worth what you make of it, then upon thinking about all that I have gained from being at St Andrews, I have to wonder what I was moaning about in the first place. OK so maybe my degree has been a bit light on the class hours in relation to the tuition fees (to be honest I have needed the free
