Jayne Dowle: It's time for a lesson in reality... there are alternatives to a university degree

That was before tuition fees were introduced, before student loans became a hard fact of life and before I actually had my son and daughter, who are now eight and five.

Now I am wiser. And I am bringing up my children in a world in which we face fees of up to 9,000 a year to study at an English university. That's 9,000 a year. Before you even take into account living costs, books, and all the rest.

With government funding scaled back and universities forced into a financial corner, by the time my two get round to their A-levels it is anybody's guess how much a degree will cost. And sitting in the kitchen with my husband the other day having a heated debate about this issue, I had to ask him: "Is it worth it?"

Although his own university career – a degree in geology he scraped through, with a totally unrelated career in sound-engineering to show for it – was hardly illustrious, he assumes that our children will follow the accepted middle-class route he took. But for me, the idea of going to university never really entered my head until my English teacher pushed me into it.

Back in the 1980s, working-class kids like me rarely stayed on for A-levels, never mind took a degree. Most of my A-level classmates also ended up benefiting from free tuition, student grants and if I

remember, even housing benefit, and got those precious letters after their name, but certainly not all.

Some went on to work in the public sector or big companies, some took up the mantle in family businesses, and some ended up working for

themselves. And some, it must be said, returned to formal study in later years, when they had established themselves in their chosen field and needed specific qualifications to help them climb the ladder. So my point to my husband was this; there is an alternative to university at 18, and when it comes to our two children, I am assuming nothing.

I do actually teach at a university, so I am relatively well-qualified to comment. And over the years, I have realised that some students are only there because it is what they are expected to do. Peer pressure, parental ambition, no idea what they want to do really, so might as

well go to uni….

Sadly, and I do find it sad, some of these kids have hardly stopped to consider whether they are cut out for three or four years of hard academic slog. And you do wonder, time after time, as they struggle with assignments and pour their money – and their parents' money – into

an ever-deepening financial black hole whether it is actually worth it. Especially when there is no guarantee of a job at the end.

Graduate unemployment is at its highest in nearly two decades, according to figures released this week by the Higher Education Careers Service Unit, with almost one in 10 graduates failing to secure a "proper" job six months after graduating.

The massive expansion of higher education under New Labour set about with the sole aim of encouraging every teenager to think that

university was the only course open to them.

For many young people, however, it just isn't the right choice. Even at their tender ages, my own two children illustrate this perfectly. At eight, Jack endures rather enjoys schoolwork.

However, he can add up faster than me, has a fantastically cheerful personality and is fascinated by all aspects of business. His latest ambition is to open a bar. His father, needless to say, is not impressed.

But unless things change dramatically on the academic front, I can't see the point in pushing him to go to university. The bit of money

we squirrel away each month for "his future" would be better invested in a business plan. And doesn't our region desperately need more entrepreneurs? What would be the point of a lad like Jack struggling to obtain a degree, when by the age of 21 he could be running his own mini-empire and giving other people a job too?

His sister, on the other hand, loves the whole school thing. At just five, she even demands extra homework. And she has mastered the

internet faster than her mother.

If she carries on like this, then university would open doors to anything she wanted. But as I said, I assume nothing. What I do know is that all of us parents have got to take a long, hard look at our expectations for our children. There are alternatives to a degree. And it is never too early to start thinking about them.