With the maximum university tuition fees increasing from £9250 to £9535 in 2025, with universities seeming to struggle to afford home students with the cost of inflation.

Around 24% of university students in 2021-2022 were from EU or non-EU countries meaning they can pay as much as £38,000, or even more for medical degrees.

As a result, more students are considering whether to attend university, particularly for non-vocational degrees, that are perhaps not vital for jobs in their chosen sector, including but not limited to: the arts, humanities, and degrees which can be learnt through cheaper ulterior methods.

This includes apprenticeships, vocational colleges and jobs.

UK Parliament declares in 2023, the university entrance rate was 35.8% of 18-year-olds, whilst this seems perhaps a minority, in the 2022/2023 academic year, there were 2.94 million students at higher education institutions.

 Whilst in August to April 2024 there were 118,770 achievements in apprenticeships, up by 12.5% since 2022/2023.

Although there’s the common belief apprenticeships are only for trade jobs: carpentry, building or plumbing.

They can in fact be as far and extensive as finance, engineering and the emergency services.

Many of these apprenticeships also offer some form of formal qualification, ranging from qualifications equivalent to an HNC to master’s degrees.

For many torn over the prestigiousness of a university degree and the dooming costs of student loans as soon as the diploma is placed in your hands, degree apprenticeships can be an esteemed mix of both.

However, being accepted into these apprenticeships can often be as hard, or even harder than making it into top universities.

When asked the reasons for going to university, one prospective student stated how, ‘it’s a good opportunity to socialise and make connections with those with similar interests,’ as well as there being, ‘loads to learn’.

Another student indicated how they would feel to be a ‘failure’ if they didn’t attend university, perhaps this indicates how the stigma surrounding those not attending university needs to change, instead of university fees themselves?

Additionally, when asked if increasing university fees would put off them attending university, the prospective student said ‘yes, because [university] is already so expensive’.

And whether a degree apprenticeship would be considered instead of a university degree, ‘it would depend on the course,’ displaying the lack of knowledge perhaps available to students over the vast array of industries available to students not simply in university but in apprenticeships also.

So perhaps the question we should be asking is not if university is the ‘smart’ choice for students, but if it seems to be the ‘only’ choice for students, as there is not enough knowledge about what else is out there.