Is the first year of a degree a waste of time?
My advice to anyone thinking of a one, two or even three year degree? Do what you think will suit you and just dive in
Oh goody! Another subject to rant on about in a pedantic and pompous tone of voice. Well, more like splitting hairs in a self-important manner really. Either way, the headline “Is the first year of a degree a waste of time?” is the sort of trashy headline calculated to get Radio Four listeners heading for the hills.
Needless to say, it has nothing whatsoever to do with missing out the first year, but re-structuring three year degree courses so that they take 24 months rather than 33. This sadly misses the point, that technical degrees worth having now last four years, but I digress.
We live in a fast age. People want to get on, to make something of themselves in the best years of their lives – maybe so they can do something before they’re told to retire and before strikes affect the industry in which they work. Easy when you think about it isn’t it? Every eighteen-year-old school leaver obviously thinks of it in just that way.
It’s more likely that they have money on their minds, but are only dimly aware of the full financial consequences of a shorter course. Someone on a two-year-long degree is still going to have to meet significant costs, and is not going to have time to do paid work as there will be four terms in a year, and no ‘summer’. They won’t to be able to shop around, or exist healthily on the cheap stuff (who can?), they won’t have time to earn money or do extra-mural or ultra-curricular activities.
Arguably, one might be willing to make this sacrifice. The short-term cost implications may be worth it as there is potential for an additional year of work rather than study. Trouble is, although HR managers and agencies like a good first class degree, in reality a 2(i) with something else to say – be it knitting or flower arranging – will get you further. Employers want something else to look at on paper, something else to talk about at interviews. Sitting at a desk and doing work is fine, but is not good enough on its own.
Conversely, things in education do change and getting left behind is at least as bad as being right too early. Under the current system, academics who teach, which is most of them, have space to research and publish. It is easy to dismiss this as an academic selfishness, and in a perverse way it is. It allows them to spend time learning from their students. That is undoubtedly a good thing, and it is the same logic as to why generally those in healthcare prefer teaching hospitals to district ones.
The time for extra activities lost by those doing two year degrees might reasonably be balanced by a year of travelling, volunteering or gambling afterwards. Or would that be missing the point? Probably…
My advice to anyone thinking of a one, two or even three year degree? Do what you think will suit you and just dive in. You will never know what it would have been like any other way, and it does not matter because you will probably have the right degree for you anyway.
Enjoy it, whatever the cost or however long it lasts. Of course there will be ups and downs, but imbibing human achievement, or even contributing to it, is one of the most rewarding things one can do.
