University vs Job UK: The Real Money Maths

A UK degree now costs roughly £100,000 once you add fees, maintenance and three years of lost earnings. Most graduates never repay it in full because Plan 5 acts more like a 9% graduate tax than a normal debt.

The graduate earnings premium is real but wildly uneven. Medicine, dentistry, engineering and computer science pay back the cost easily. Creative arts and many humanities degrees from non-selective universities often do not.

Apprenticeships and skilled trades start earning earlier, accumulate compound interest sooner, and avoid the loan entirely. A 21-year-old plumber on £35,000 with three years of pension contributions is often ahead of a 21-year-old graduate at career-day-one.

The right answer is subject and route specific, not yes-or-no. The honest test is whether the career on the other side of the degree pays enough above the graduate threshold to clear the loan and recover three years of compounding.