With a healthy dose of humour, Dominic Madar extols the benefits of being a student.
In recent years the price of food, accommodation, train tickets and, most regrettably, alcohol has risen rapidly above the rate of inflation. Add in the new £9,000 a year tuition fees and university life costs a hell of a lot more than it did even a decade back, but this wouldn’t be such a problem if graduate job prospects weren’t so bleak. It does make you wonder whether it is all really worth it?
Putting aside the awkward £50,000 current first years are projected to rack up in debt and a few reasons to opt for higher education do remain. Firstly anyone slightly nocturnal and with a phobia of hard work (a lot of teenagers, by my reckoning) would fit into this cocoon of youth far better than the harsh climate of the real world – a few missed lectures every now and again and a couple of half-baked essays won’t get you fired here.
The coming together of thousands of (supposedly) intelligent adolescents really is what makes the whole thing worth doing: whether your passion is drinking yourself into oblivion, immersing yourself within societies, sharking for freshers in Arena or dressing up as Jedis, the possibilities are plentiful. Even the strangest amongst us stand a good chance of meeting like-minded weirdos within such a large group.
Rumour has it some even choose this path for the university course itself. There are those of us who apparently enjoy learning – which is rather handy if you’ve signed up for three years of it. Of course the theory is to leave with some form of hard currency in the increasingly-competitive job market. One of the biggest assets of this being that over those three years you may actually have some idea of what it is you want to pursue in later life. University is the ultimate stall for time. Admittedly with degrees becoming ever more commonplace, the emphasis is significantly shifting from merely acquiring one to where it was obtained and what subject it’s in – good luck to anyone graduating from Southampton Solent in media studies.
Exeter, fortunately, has a rather more solid reputation. Being chosen as The Times University of the year and finally joining the Russell Group should do the institution no end of good, enhancing and extending its profile across the country; although lustful acts of passion in the Ram may not be the best way to gain attention.
University essentially elevates the teenage lifestyle to greater and more independent heights without the judgemental gaze of protective parents. Many things previously unattainable can be achieved here (a personal highlight is spending the majority of my time wearing pyjamas) and superbly lengthy summers are ideal for a host of opportunities. The increased costs of further education will make people think twice –and they should – it’s not for everyone. However I would like to think that for many of us university remains undisputably the best route to take.
exeposedev 