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Are student loans too expensive? Is it now better to skip university and go straight into work?

ended 20. May 2026

Student debt is becoming an increasing financial burden for young people, with many graduates now leaving university owing tens of thousands of pounds and paying high interest on top.

With inflation still elevated and the cost of living continuing to bite, is the traditional university route starting to look less attractive financially?

Unemployment is currently at 5% in the UK with an increasing number of young people struggling to find work despite having degrees.

  • Are student loans now so expensive that many young people would be financially better off going straight into work instead of university? With apprenticeships and employer training schemes available, is earning while upskilling becoming the smarter option for a growing number of school leavers?
  • Does a university degree still provide enough long-term earning power and career security to justify the debt burden? Or are graduates increasingly finding that high repayments, rising living costs and a weakening job market are making higher education a waste of time?
  • Could the struggling jobs market accelerate a wider shift away from degrees altogether? Are employers placing more value on practical skills and experience than formal qualifications, and could this reshape higher education over the next decade?

Responses by the end of Wednesday.

8 responses from the Newspage community

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Michelle Lawson
Director at Lawson Financial
Burdening the next generation with debt before they have started in life is not a good example of how life works. They are the future and their education should be seen as a public benefit and not a commodity. Many careers/professions require degrees and certain qualifications e.g. medical, law, teaching. The education is needed before the practical element. With the rising cost of minimum wage now, employing staff that don't cover their own pay via output is becoming a huge greater problem. The model should be reviewed and lessons learned from the Scandinavians who offer free education and then monthly living grants so that the students aren't burdened with debt and resulting to work alongside their studies to make ends meet which adds further pressure.
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Katrina Young
Futurist | Chief Technology Officer CTO/CDO Ethical AI & Digital Transformation Strategist at KYC Digital
The debate is being framed as a debt-versus-earnings calculation. That is too simplistic.

What is actually shifting is the value and lifespan of the skills universities teach. AI is shortening the half-life of technical knowledge faster than many three-year degrees can adapt, while some entry-level roles graduates traditionally moved into are already being automated or restructured.

That does not make university irrelevant. Degrees still signal discipline, critical thinking, and the ability to learn within structured environments. But employers are increasingly reweighting what matters alongside them: applied capability, adaptability, commercial awareness, and continuous learning.

Apprenticeships and employer-led training may close some of that gap, but early specialisation also carries risk in a volatile labour market. The bigger issue is that the UK still treats education as a one-off phase completed at 21 rather than a lifelong workforce model built around continual reskilling.
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Rob Mansfield
Independent Financial Advisor at Rootes Wealth Management
If you're going into a career that genuinely requires a degree then the loans may be a 'tax' for picking that career path but if you're choosing university for the experience then it could be one of the most expensive decisions you ever make. It's a shame because as a society we should be encouraging people to learn and improve their skills but if I had my time again, I wouldn't choose the university route.
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Paul Denley
CEO at Oakham Wealth Management
University still makes sense for many careers, but the economic equation is shifting. Young people take on substantial debt before earning their first salary, entering a jobs market where degrees no longer guarantee well paid work.

Student debt functions more like a graduate tax than a conventional loan: repayments only begin above a salary threshold, do not affect credit scores, and balances are eventually written off. But frozen thresholds and high interest rates mean many repay far more than they borrowed.

The graduate earnings premium remains real, with IFS research suggesting graduates earn roughly £100k more over a lifetime, though outcomes vary enormously by subject and institution.

Apprenticeships and employer-funded training are increasingly a considered first choice, combining income, skills & experience from day one.

The question is not simply whether a degree is worth having, but whether it is worth having from this particular institution, in this subject, at this cost.
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Nouran Moustafa
Practice Principal & IFA at Roxton Wealth
University is not a waste of time, but the automatic “degree equals success” mindset is outdated. Young people are now being asked to take on huge debt before they have even tested what kind of career or life they want. That is a serious financial decision, not a rite of passage.
For medicine, law, engineering or specialist careers, university still makes sense. But for many other routes, apprenticeships, employer training and earning while learning can be smarter. A young person who builds skills, income and experience from 18 may be financially ahead of someone who leaves university with debt, no clear direction and a difficult job market.
The problem is not education; it is blindly selling one version of education as the only respectable route. Employers increasingly care about adaptability, communication, digital skills and real-world experience. Degrees will still matter, but they will need to prove value. The future is not university versus work. It is personalised career plan
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Antonia Medlicott
Founder & MD at Investing Insiders
With the cost of student loans, it’s important to look at all of the options before attending university. Courses like medicine, dentistry, and economics have huge lifetime earnings, but an arts degree could leave you struggling to even cover the interest on the debt. Alternatives such as apprenticeships and degree apprenticeships will leave you without any debt from a student loan, and still get you towards your career goals.

A graduate with a loan debt of £70,000 and earning £45,000 will pay back £1,800 annually, which is more than £400 a year short of the interest accrued at 3.2 per cent. Over 40 years a graduate repaying £1,800 a year would pay back £72,000 and they would still not clear the balance before it was written off.

Automation and AI can perform many junior tasks faster and cheaper than a graduate. Those with degrees that train them to execute a brief rather than originate one, will struggle, but those who think will remain employable, as thinking is not automated.
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Mitali Deypurkaystha
AI Governance Strategist & CMO at AISensa
Graduate wage premium fell from 35% to 24% between 2007 and 2024, according to a National Institute of Economic and Social Research study. That shrinking return comes at the exact moment students are being asked to take on record levels of debt. The real problem is not simply that university is expensive, but that young people are being encouraged to make huge financial commitments during one of the most volatile technological shifts in modern history. Even AI experts cannot confidently say which careers will still look secure by the time today’s students graduate. Inside businesses, I'm seeing AI struggle with certain tasks that still require human judgement and oversight. It's a shrewd move for young people to seek apprenticeships and employer-led training to upskill them in those tasks. These would no longer be “alternative” routes for weaker students, but the smarter and financially safer choice for the brightest.
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Colette Mason
AI Ethics Consultant at Clever Clogs AI
The soft skills that come with leaving home, finding your way in the world and critical thinking are still valuable. The return on investment for attending university, significantly less so.

The government already holds a centralised database showing what graduates actually earn after university. The Longitudinal Education Outcomes data, or LEO, links earnings to university, course and graduation year using tax records. In plain English, it tells students what happened to people who made the same choice before them.

That is exactly the kind of information someone needs before taking on £50,000 of debt. Yet most of it remains locked away, available only to a small group of approved researchers.

Unfortunately, with AI disrupting the global labour market, even supposedly sensible degrees now have a faint “Mickey Mouse” flavour to their usefulness. This is particularly unfair for students already driving into the abyss saddled with debt to acquire skills companies simply don't need.