Definitely need to leave home and grow up and challenge yourself. Whether or not that’s through Uni.
I left home and got an entry job as a junior front end developer when I was 17, and I haven’t stopped actively working on my personal development since.
For me, 99% of that is through books: not just technical books, but also books on education, philosophy, marketing, project management, fitness, sleep, politics, science, systems thinking, etc.
I am looking for a return. I just don’t see life as a zero sum bank balance game. Your “return” can take other forms than cash or career. Anything sharing a common axis with experience, the pleasure of knowledge, a life well lived…
Same reason why I’d spend money on travelling the world. I might not realize a profit from it (though I’m often pleasantly surprised that it’s possible to make money) but I definitely get my money’s worth.
There’s also that tacit knowledge I mentioned which books can’t teach you (this applies for careers as well as wider in life).
Sure. But you could look at it like this: I could spent 30k on a few years experience at Uni or I could spend £1k on a bunch or great books and have 29 £1k trips around the world. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Yes. Luckily for me, that’s not really relevant in software.
I’ve always said, don’t look on it as a loan. Look on it as a graduate tax.
I think you missed the point. Often the benefit of that £30k degree can be higher than the quantitative valuation or any number of other experiences of the same monetary cost. That’s the premise of my argument. Money is not equatable in these formulae.
BTW, if you know where to get round-the-world trips for £1k, I’ll take 29 and any more you have going 
I dropped out before my finals so didn’t graduate. Does that mean I’m exempt from paying it back? 
Yes. And if anyone says otherwise, tell em I said so 
Are you from Scotland? Most people on a decent salary in the rest of the U.K. will never pay off their student loan. You’d need decently into the high tax payer bracket to pay off most student loans these days (unless your in Scotland).
In regards to fees. There’s no incentive not to charge 9k because no one is ever in danger of drowning in student loan debt. Because it’s proportional, because there a minimum wage limit, and because it gets written off, universities may as well charge the max. It doesn’t realistically affect the student at all.
They might never pay it off but they’ll still pay interest on it, right?
Not from Scotland, but also went to Uni before the 9K per year fees.
I think we are looking at it from different angles, and perhaps mine is skewed from my own experience and how I see it.
Having fully paid mine off, I can safely say that despite what I’d class as a decent salary, the “proportional” student loan payments really made a dent in the disposable income.
Circumstances will obviously dictate that, but I’ve never been keen on people assuming they’ll never pay it off.
In my eyes, it lacks ambition (especially when so many of the people who say it are still in their 20’s and 30’s).
Appreciate it may end up being the reality for a huge portion of the students, but if you are going into this with a mindset of never fully paying it off, then you are underselling yourself.
Nope, that’s not how it works.
Nope, that’s not how it works.
And I’ll respectfully say my experience is different to @nickh
I’m closer to concurring with the following:
Interest keeps being added to your account but you still don’t need to pay in until you earn enough
Sorry, never had a student loan. I just know that some of my friends are paying theirs each month and they’re not higher or additional rate payers.
Okay, I guess in that sense it is a bit like a tax.
I pay about £175 a month if I average it out. It will be more like £200 next year.
My issue is that in places with high property prices it’s another thing that takes away from being able to save for a house at a period of your life where every penny matters - let’s face it no-one wants to be back with their parents after Uni!
That makes me feel better about the amount I spend each month on books. 
The worst part is when you forget to declare it on your self-assessment, they don’t like that.
Fees for clubs and societies? 