Degree or Not Degree? Exploring Your Path to Success

With every ‘give up’ there’s a story, with every dropout, a dream broken, and with every broken dream, a life altered. This year’s Youth Policy Summit revealed chilling accounts of teenagers facing shattered dreams. As I read the usual rhetoric from Westminster, I couldn’t help but laugh at my naivety, thinking, “What are they going to do about it?” The reality is, they won’t. Our dreams and our education are ours to shape.

It’s surprising how long it took to realize that dreams, aspirations, and desires are worth fighting for. For years, students like me believed that if we worked hard enough, a degree would propel us into adult life. But is this just a disillusion we taught ourselves to believe?

The rise in tuition fees has awakened many to the fact that university doesn’t equate to education or success. Stories abound of individuals like Sugar, Branson, Gates, and Jobs, who changed the world not through lectures but through legacies.

I walked out with a clear intention of pursuing a university education, not because society forced me, but because I want to. I love to learn; the aroma of freshly pressed notebooks and the scent of burning graphite from my scribbling pencil fuel my passion for academics.

Yet, sadness seeps through my generation, labeled as “lost” or “hopeless” by the media. But I see a loving generation, transforming the world one word, one action, and one expression at a time.

If you want a university education, go for it. I’ll be there, and do you know why? Because I won’t let anything stand in the way of my dream—not government, time, or money.

I refuse to be a statistic on a Whitehall desk. I want to be remembered as the person who, despite obstacles like rising tuition fees, never lost faith in his dream, never gave up, and had no regrets.

I can’t put a price on my dream, but now it’s your choice: Degree or not degree?

To dream or not to dream, that is the question.

Related Links:

• Degree or not Degree?
• Want an education in the “school of life”? Try volunteering
• Tuition fees and the 2015 election
• 5 results day myths that will make you feel better about your exam results
• Can the value of experience outweigh the need for qualifications?
• Generation Enterprise rising: UK youth can go its own way