The ideal reason for going to university is where you have carefully considered available careers and decided on one where a particular degree is needed for entry. You now intend to pursue this degree. Examples might include nursing, accounting, engineering, or law, to name a few.

Improving employment prospects in general without a particular profession in mind is another reason to go to university. This can be the case for students who can’t get into competitive so-called professional courses like medicine or law or just don’t have the interest. With a careful choice of major in a commerce or science degree, employment prospects can be enhanced, and a range of corporate and government graduate roles will become available. The key is choosing a major carefully as some majors are more valuable than others. A common misconception is that any degree is valuable in the employment market, but this isn’t the case. There is a definite oversupply of graduates. This makes improving employment prospects another good reason to go to university.

One big reason people go to university is fear of missing out (FOMO), they think that university is an awesome place to make friends and be invited to a lot of cool parties. Of course, people do make friends and go to parties at university, but university in Australia and New Zealand isn’t like what may have been seen in American movies. Due to a combination of factors like universities being predominantly commuter schools and many lectures being available online, universities may not have the sense of community and socialisation opportunities you might be expecting. In fact, one of the most common complaints from students is lack of friends and loneliness. There is no evidence that going to university leads to a better social life than following other paths like getting an apprenticeship or pursuing other job or training opportunities. This means that going to university purely for social purposes is one of the worst reasons.

A related reason is attending just "for the experience", yet the experience in some degrees is not as exciting as you might think. There are relatively few contact hours consisting mainly of boring lectures and dull tutorials. It’s not a bad idea to try university for a semester or a year, maybe you will really love it. But if your degree doesn’t have much financial value, and you don’t enjoy the university experience, it is not wrong to pause the degree or quit entirely rather than feel obligated to continue. It’s also worthwhile considering a different degree or different university.

Another common reason students give for attending a university is being passionate about a particular subject. If this aligns with a realistic career path, then it is a good reason, but many students' passion is something like philosophy or ancient history. While jobs in those areas exist, they are few and far between. It’s unrealistic to assume you will be one of the rare exceptions that can turn the subject into a career. We live in an age where information is easily available, meaning going to university isn’t the only way to learn about these subjects. This makes attending university purely based on passion for a particular subject a less than ideal reason.

For some individuals, pressure from one or both parents is a big factor in their decision to go to university. Often this involves prestigious or academically demanding fields of study like medicine, law, engineering, or chemistry. This can be a big problem as it leads to students enrolling in degrees they aren’t really interested in causing stress and a lack of motivation. Without motivation, students can become disengaged from their studies and even drop out. It’s natural for parents to want their children to do well in life, and some cultures place a very high importance on academic achievements, yet there are many ways to be successful in life. It may be that other types of training are of more interest, or alternatively it may be worth taking a gap year to get more life experience prior to embarking on university study. Pressure from one or both parents can be a part of life for many students, but if it is your sole reason for going to university, it’s worth considering your choices carefully.

Incredibly, some students attend university to fund their cost of living. They have no real career or goal in mind, they just want to get some money from the government to pay their living costs. While the rules are always changing, the reason they choose this rather than some other form of unemployment benefit is freedom from obligations to seek work. As expected, they may exhaust their study entitlement, and when they do find a career path that requires further study, they are not able to finance it. Studying purely to obtain living costs from the government is a poor reason to go to university.

If university doesn’t seem like an ideal option at this stage, what are some alternatives? One option is to pursue a trade. While trades aren’t for everyone, they are one possible alternative. How do apprenticeships weigh up compared to degrees? Traditionally, there has been a perception that degrees lead to higher earnings than trades, but this isn’t necessarily the case. Often statistics are presented at a high level disguising large differences in the financial returns of different degrees. Many analyses simply look at the average income of those with a degree compared to those working in the trades and conclude that the degree is the better option.

A 2017 report by economic consultancy BERL examined degrees versus apprenticeships in the New Zealand context. They analysed the net financial position over time for three different career paths: obtain a degree, complete an apprenticeship, and get a job without further training or education. They attempted to control for innate ability by ensuring the people in the dataset had a minimum of a level 2 secondary school qualification. Obviously, such an economic analysis involves many assumptions, but they found that at the end of their careers, degree holders and apprentices were in essentially the same financial position. The advantage of an apprenticeship is that it is possible to earn more money earlier as well as buy a house earlier [1]. Unsurprisingly, those who complete neither a degree nor an apprenticeship are in the worst financial position.

Degree apprenticeships are becoming increasingly popular in the United Kingdom, and there is progress being made towards them being available in New Zealand too. If they are available by the time you are reading this book, they are something that is worth considering. Essentially, they combine an apprenticeship in a particular industry with part-time university study over a duration of three to six years. In the end, students are awarded a degree and also become qualified in a particular trade.

In Australia, degree apprenticeships are also in their early stages. One example that is available at the time of writing is a degree apprenticeship in Mechanical Engineering through the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).

University marketing materials will often extol the virtues of their degrees. Unfortunately, there are many low quality degrees on offer. Take care to fully research any degree you are considering, and don’t just rely on the university website which will claim every degree is "exceptional quality", the lecturers "world-renowned", and the graduates "highly sort after".

In a cautionary tale from the United Kingdom, International Business Strategy graduate Pok Wong was forced to take legal action against Anglia Ruskin University after receiving a poor quality education. As she explained to Hong Kong newspaper the Standard, "Some of the lecturers are really lazy. They turn up for the class late. They sometimes send students to library to self-study because they have nothing to teach." [2]. She elaborated further in another article in the Guardian, "The university is focused on its own commercial interests rather than those of the students. Their focus is on how to recruit as many students as possible regardless of their resources". Pok Wong, also known as Fiona, maintained that not only was there a shortage of instructors, but that the lectures were poor quality and did a bad job at explaining key concepts. Eventually the university’s insurers decided to settle the case for £61,000. [3]

It isn’t uncommon for universities to behave deceptively when it comes to their degrees. Try and check each piece of information, especially regarding accreditation with the appropriate regulatory body. Former students at James Cook University (JCU) in Australia resorted to legal action after finding that their degree in Financial Advising was in fact not accredited which left them unable to work in the industry. This was despite the degree being heavily marketed and promoted as accredited. As Samuel Boon, the lead plaintiff explained, "We felt betrayed, we lost hope, some of us lost job opportunities and all of us experienced enormous stress and worry," "It was a snowball effect. My career has been set back three years and I could’ve been earning double the salary I have been on." [4]

A number of nonfinancial benefits of attending university have been suggested, although most of the evidence in support of these has been conducted outside the Australian and New Zealand context. These potential nonfinancial benefits include:

Broadly speaking, over time the proportion of young people attending tertiary education has increased, yet it seems that the supply of persons with degrees has outstripped the demand from employers resulting in a declining premium attached to higher education.

One Australian study found a declining premium for having a degree between 2011 and 2021. The premium over those who left high school and didn’t complete any further education declined from 57.2% to 53.1% [6]. To get an income benefit from a degree depends on finding a suitable job that matches that degree, yet there are now too many graduates fighting over too few suitable jobs. The decline in premium is largely due to the decline in the proportion of graduates in professional occupations.

The study points to the issue of credentialism where higher and higher qualifications are required to get a particular job, despite not being really needed to perform the job successfully and not being linked to higher productivity. This means those with master’s degrees crowd out those with bachelor’s degrees from the better paying occupations that in the past only required a bachelor’s degree. Similarly, those with bachelor’s degrees crowd out those with only a high school education. This creates an annoying situation where qualifications are required to get a job but not really needed to perform the job and also not rewarded with pay commensurate with the qualification.

There exist students who everyone thought would succeed at university, but then for a variety of reasons, ended up not completing their studies. On the other hand, there are those who everyone thought would fail, but managed to excel at university. Nevertheless, if you have experienced issues before with academic failure, think about what changes you will need to make in order to succeed at university. A big mistake students make is not taking action to overcome these issues. Instead, they just continue as before, which leads to repeated failure.

These days, universities have a very strong financial focus and are run as businesses. The business model is all about increasing enrolments. As a potential student, you shouldn’t accept university marketing materials at face value as they are often exaggerated or outright misleading. Their websites might be full of fashionable smiling students enjoying every moment of their degree, but the reality for a lot of students is quite different. Classes are dull, stressful, not really useful, and a huge contrast from their initial expectations.

In addition, while the marketing team loves to portray multicultural groups of students socialising and enjoying a variety of campus activities, many students struggle to make friends and loneliness is a common complaint. Students can also be overwhelmed by the time commitment for study and part-time work, leaving little time for socialising.

Another aspect is that while university marketing emphasises employment rates, they usually don’t specify where that employment is. Many graduates can only find semi-skilled or dead-end jobs unrelated to their studies.

While not necessarily the fault of university marketing, some future students have the hilariously misguided view that university campuses are the centre of a vibrant nightlife scene. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most university campuses are deserted in the evenings.

Some universities heavily emphasise ranking in their marketing materials. This can lead students to believe that a high ranking is very important in the job market. The reality is that there is little evidence of any advantage from attending a high-ranked university. Also, rankings are calculated based on variables that aren’t necessarily related to the student experience. Employing academics that publish a lot of papers will boost the university ranking but doesn’t necessarily mean a student receives a better quality education.

You’ve probably heard people say many times that "money can’t buy happiness", some students interpret this to mean that financial considerations shouldn’t be a part of choosing what degree to study. But what if the truth was somewhat different?

A study by Matthew Killingsworth found a strong association between money and happiness with more money improving happiness seemingly without limit. This was evident both in terms of the day-to-day moments in the participants lives (experienced well-being) and their overall life satisfaction (evaluative well-being) [7]. This doesn’t mean that the participants loved money for its own sake. Instead, the association is more likely due to having more control over their lives as well as avoiding some unpleasant situations such as poor housing and being unable to pay bills. Having money also allows participation in additional enjoyable experiences like overseas travel.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that you should ignore every other factor in the relentless pursuit of being rich, simply that financial considerations are worth thinking about. Obviously, many variables contribute to happiness and not just money. For example the Harvard Study of Adult Development revealed the importance of friendships at work and experiences over material things [8].

University finance degrees are full of people thinking they are going to make a fortune as a financial trader or even more improbably from starting their own hedge fund or investment bank. Yet the chance of becoming a successful trader might be less than one chance in a hundred, and of starting your own hedge fund or investment bank less than one chance in ten thousand. This means that when considering the earning potential of their degree, students also need to consider the likelihood of achieving success in their intended career. Students might be better to consider careers that have lower potential earnings but a higher chance of success.

Sometimes a person loses their job due to economic conditions or other factors and assumes that now is a good time to go to university. But is that true?

If the goal is simply to find a job, there might be shorter training courses or other ways to gain practical work experience that are more suitable. Similarly, by just focusing on job searching even if it takes six months to a year, they might be able to find another job in their existing field. A university degree will take three to four years, which is a huge commitment of time and money. For older students, less of their working life remains to earn back this investment. It may mean that pursuing a degree is never going to be financially worthwhile even if everything goes according to plan with the student graduating on time and finding a job in their chosen field.

A factor worth considering is that simply having a degree is not a guarantee of finding a job in a related field, especially in difficult economic conditions. Furthermore, ageism can be an issue with companies reluctant to hire older workers for graduate roles. Mature graduates typically start on the same low entry level salary as everyone else which may be inadequate to pay their expenses.

University is one option for reskilling, but many mature students decide to study degrees that don’t have strong pathways to careers. For mature students, it’s doubly important to choose carefully as they have less time to correct poor decisions.

There are a variety of reasons to go to university, some of them good, some of them not so good. It’s important that potential students consider their choices carefully and choose the best degree for their goals. Rushing into a particular course of study is often a mistake. For those who decide a degree isn’t the best option, there are other alternatives such as apprenticeships or nondegree training. University marketing needs to be treated with scepticism as universities are eager to attract students to their courses regardless of their quality and career outcomes.

[1] K. Hurren, M. Cox, and G. Nana, Modelling costs v benefits of apprenticeship v degree. BERL, 2017.

[2] P. Ng, “Grad sues over ’Mickey Mouse’ degree,” The Standard, Mar. 2018, Accessed: Mar. 12, 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.thestandard.com.hk/section-news/section/4/193647/Grad-sues-over-%27Mickey-Mouse%27-degree.

[3] M. Busby, “Graduate receives £61,000 over ’Mickey Mouse degree’ claim,” The Guardian, Jun. 2019, Accessed: Jun. 02, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jun/02/graduate-who-sued-university-says-payout-barely-covers-her-costs.

[4] C. Cassidy, “Students launch class action against James Cook University over unaccredited financial advice major,” The Guardian, May 2023, Accessed: May 03, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/may/03/students-launch-class-action-against-james-cook-university-over-unaccredited-financial-advice-major.

[5] J. Savage and A. Norton, “Non-financial benefits of higher education,” Grattan Institute, 2012.

[6] T. Karmel, J. Stanwick, and J. Moore, “The return to education: an occupational perspective.” Mackenzie Research Institute, 2023.

[7] M. A. Killingsworth, “Experienced well-being rises with income, even above $75,000 per year,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 118, no. 4, p. e2016976118, 2021.

[8] R. Waldinger and M. Schulz, The good life: Lessons from the world’s longest scientific study of happiness. Simon and Schuster, 2023.