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Try fucking up an engineering degree for 3 years, then doing an Archaeology BA, then an MSc. Luckily I only came out with £18k of SLC debt (Masters was a £2k postgraduate bank loan).
Were I still an Archaeologist, I'd probably not have paid anything off, even at 36. As it stands I have a very decent job and cleared my SLC loan last year.
Had I taken the same education path today, that loan would have been many times greater.
stevo_com
It's a negative in terms of perception of what a University education is for, in that it encourages students to believe themselves customers who are investing in themselves in order to make more money than if they did not go. University should be about an education - not about a future financial transaction.
If I was looking at University now I would assume that I'd be balancing the average student debt of 50k against my chosen course being 7 years instead of 3 (Architecture), and therefore a total debt load of 100k before I started working properly. An average salary for an Architect is ~77k, which isn't bad - but that's a lot of debt to shoulder and a significant tax burden to pay it back.
Contrast that with Fine Art BA then MA - same debt load, unsure what the salary/earning potential would be.