Degrees. Sold as a financial product.
A degree in the UK will end up costing you 50,000 pounds. The government knows which ones aren't worth the money, and the students who pay for them are the only ones not allowed to find out.
THE GIST ON DEGREES: "Learning vs Earning"
What changed?
A generation ago university was free. Now it is the single biggest financial commitment anyone makes before they are 21, and that has changed everything, for students and for universities.
Unis were built to teach you how to think, not to get a job. We used to have polytechnics for that. We turned them all into universities, told everyone the only path was a degree, and the UK went from 50 to over 160 universities.
What does the government know?
Every graduate's earnings are tracked through tax records and matched to their degree and university. They know which ones aren't delivering. But releasing that data properly would collapse the system.
And delivering on what? Earnings. Degrees fail us because they don't produce high salaries, and that was never what they were for.
So was it worth it?
If your degree wasn't worth the money, it's not on you. You were sold education as a financial product and now you're measuring it by a return it was never meant to deliver.
How you think, who you meet, who you become: none of that shows up in your salary. Maybe that's a flaw in how we measure it. Either way, the university got paid the moment you signed up, before you sat in a lecture. That was the only guaranteed return.
Should degrees be judged on salary?
Your take. One tap, then see how everyone else voted.
Quick answers
How many UK universities are there now?
Huw says the number went from 50 to over 160.
What happened to polytechnics?
They were turned into universities.
What was the only guaranteed return?
The university got paid the moment you signed up.
See you on the next one.
What should the next one be? Suggest a topic for Huw to explain
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