exactly short post-doc contracts mean i would be scared to get into a morgage. as for starting a pension.. i cant see having a great amount each month to spare for a long time. i do think the government needs to review things like uni fees which mean debt for the rest of your life.

I get 12K a year and its fine. I run a car, go horse riding three times a week and go out every weekend. I dont have enough money to start saving but its more than enough to live off if your careful.

They need to cut all the nonsense courses (including, but certainly not only, media studies), and also the non-universities. This would free up money to allow anyone who is good enough to go to uni regardless of their cash. Money for research could be more concentrated at the better universities, and better pay given to academics. Unless I'm very much mistaken, academics, and postdocs too, get far better wages in the US/Canada/Australia/Europe than they do here, where you'd be better flipping burgers for a living (almost).

The way I see it at the moment is once I finish my PhD, I'll have to continue renting a place to live, and continue living like a student, in order to hopefully have scraped enough money together in a few more years for a deposit on a house, by which time I will probably be 30 when I take out a morgage

my boyfriend keeps saying he didnt go to uni etc but his earning potential is sky high whereas mine is pretty fixed.. ironic considering its cost me 15k plus to get this far but will spend most of life paying that off..

Matthew82, what you say about flipping burgers etc probably isn't too far off the truth. If you look at it from this point of view:

Instead of going to uni you just go out and get a job after A-Levels you would be starting a job with a salary probably ~12-15k and in the 6-8 years it's taken for someone to do a degree and phd with inflation and pay rises etc that would have gone up to 13-16.5k there's also a decent chance of getting a promotion due to your experience etc. That person is probably better off than someone who has done a degree and Phd and starting off as a postdoc

lots of post doc jobs state at least 2 years experience.. where are we meant to get that after the PhD.. its like never ending hurdles.

Well I really feel sorry for you all. I have a 20K stipend and own a couple of houses which are rented and this supplements me monthly. So I'm happy, can't complain.

The thing is, postdocs seem to work really hard and, if these things are to be believed, you have to be somewhat intelligent to do research.

Therefore, you have intelligence, you work hard, and (in my field at least) you try to find cures for diseases. What do you get? A social standing equal to that of Dwayne (4 stars on his badge) who doesn't wash his hands between cleaning the toilets and spitting in every 10th burger.

Marvellous.

Matthew82, surely a media studies degree is useful for some people, particularly if they want a career in this area? Yeah, I agree that a lot of people will take it because it seems like an easy choice but seeing as these people are now paying for their degrees then surely that's their loss and not the university's?

Also what do you mean by non-universities?

to H
nice for some...

My education has been so expensive that I am so relived to have my PhD fees paid for....nontheless living costs and loan repayments aren't always that easy to meet. Still education has to be paid for somehow. I guess it is a bit much sometimes to expect the tax payer to meet all educational costs.... I can't see how my humanities BA and MA (in very specific areas) benefit a lot of people. Even still - they'll never 'pay their own way' so to speak. So I may as well enjoy em'....

What's wrong with flipping burgers? At least you get job security, free food and a star if you do something good.

Gizmo...

Media studies - I disagree. While I'm sure some media studies graduates find their wayinto such areas, I would bet that the vast majority of people who get into this field, especially those who do well, have degrees in areas such as English, history, politics and such like.

As for non-universities. Well, while I'm sure some poor universities have certain groups or departments which excel, there are universities who are consistenly found by turning the league table upside down and looking near the top. Not going to name names.

Why are British people (being very generalistic here-apologies) so obsessed with getting on the "property" ladder???

In other countries it's perfectly accepted to rent a flat (even if you are a doctor and have a family and earn a lot).

Apart from that I feel that house prices in UK are a bad joke (apart from the "houses" themselves which all look the same, have no privacy, have tiny little rooms and so on).

One day, the property market in UK will implode as it's completely ridiculuous. NatWEst & Co are secretly laughing about the public and their obsession with mortgages. In my home country I can buy a villa-style house with a huge garden for £150K. But that's probably country-specific and comparisons are not always possible.