£27,000 for a design degree-what will happen to the future of design?

[Rider]

Now that a degree is going to cost £27,000
is that going to have an impact in the future of graphic design?
would you still go into graphic design if this happened when you started out?
what would you say to hopeful new students?

My name is Benjamin Rider and i am a student gathering research for a publication i am making into the future of graphic design. your input would be greatly appreciated.

[richimgd]

"Graphic deisgners of the future will be more skint"
Richard Welch, 2010
(you can put that quote in the publication if you want)

[bigdave]

I think you are doing what alot of people have done and have misunderstood what's happening. The government are allowing unis to set their own fees, it doesn't mean that all fees will increase to the top limit. The likelyhood is that the elitist universities such as Oxford and Cambridge will bump their fees to that limit whilst the rest of the further education establishments will increase theirs by a couple of grand a year over the next couple of years.

I personally see the fees increase as a good thing. If a degree returns to being a big decision in life rather than just something to do after college, people will think about their future careers again! As it is this 'everyone should have a degree' culture is nonsense! It's done nothing but create a generation of over qualified mcdonalds staff.

As for direct impact on the design industry, again it's a good thing as higher fees may weed out the ones who think is easy and go on to produce tat under the guise of design. One of my course leaders gave us some good advice in our first year and I think it's rather appropriate here:

"if you want this enough, you'll sacrifice everything. It's up to you to decide how much you want it!"

Incase you were wondering I graduated in 2007

[Katedesign]

If a degree returns to being a big decision in life rather than just something to do after college, people will think about their future careers again! As it is this 'everyone should have a degree' culture is nonsense! It's done nothing but create a generation of over qualified mcdonalds staff.

I feel sorry for today' students. I come from the era where we got grants to help us study. But then only 10% of people went to University, another small % went to technical colleges/art colleges/polytechnics and you had a very good chance of getting a job. The problem is that the UK has little or no manufacturing companies which provided all sorts of jobs for all sorts of people at all sorts of levels.

I don't want to decry the many good students out there - but there has to have been some dumbing down of some degrees....first class degrees used to be rarer than hens teeth but I read the other day that first class degrees have doubled %-wise in a decade! Everyone has more GCSEs than we were able to study for (8 subjects was the maximum).

To get back to the subject...as workers don't start paying back their student loans until they earn £15K (which is going up, I believe) and graphic designers are not paid that well it may not affect anything! But as Big Dave says perhaps people will start thinking about what they really want to do - or the industry may be swamped with loads of self-taught so-called graphic designers.

[richimgd]

Its difficult since for a lot of people Uni was a big life decision even when fee's were 'only' £1000. I went to uni 2005 and if I had gone the year after I would have been paying about £3000. Now that fee's are upto £9000 this is a huge increase so its hard to imagine what I would have done - I doubt I would have been able to go to uni. I don't think designers earn enough to pay those kind of fees! Fair enough if your going into Law or Medicine! I came out with a first class honors yet if I was planning on going to uni now I would probably have to think of alternative forms of education. I was watching the news at the time, and someone representing higher education said the amounts cuts they're facing, Universities have got to charge close to the full £9k in yearly fee's in order to make the same money they were making before - so I think Uni's charging £6k per year would be making a big loss if that news report was true.

I know everyone says you don't pay off your loan until you earn 15k (i think its getting upped to 20k now) but the interest still mounts up all the time your not paying. I am earning well over 15k yet the amount I pay off isn't much more than what the interest is. It will probably take me about 20 years to pay off my loan (at the default rate) but with the new fee's it will probably take a lifetime for a lot of people to pay off.

I think the comments saying it will make people put more thought into their future and higher education are right. I think the is / was an attitude of having to go to uni and then dropping out as soon as they realised it was too difficult.

[bigdave]

One reason designers get paid so poorly is because the market is flooded with graduates willing to work for peanuts. Higher fees will add some value back into having a degree and reduce the numbers of graduates, eventually pushing demad (and salaries) back up again.

[SparkCreative]

One reason designers get paid so poorly is because the market is flooded with graduates willing to work for peanuts. Higher fees will add some value back into having a degree and reduce the numbers of graduates, eventually pushing demad (and salaries) back up again.

This. It'll hopefully mean less 'designers' and more people with actual skills rather that a few photoshop filters. If Blair and his cronies hadn't insisted on 50% of people going to University to get more and more worthless degrees, there would have been no need to do this. It's commonplace in America and students there are wondering what the hell all the fuss is about.

[VLAHAKISA]

I'd tell students not to fret - they don't need a degree to learn graphic design.

They don't teach you even half of what you need to learn to work in the industry anyway. I honestly hope this paves the way for more apprentice-type studying, because I think it will suit the graphic design industry, and also suit many other industry types.

I'm self taught of course.

I like the thought that it may possibly thin out the industry to those that are more talented, or at least more committed (same difference really in my eyes)?? Not sure if it will do that though in practice.

x

[rach27]

First of all.... you don't have to have a degree. I don't have one and I've done fine through my 10 years as a designer. Okay so I have an Advanced Diploma in Art and Design but that didn't involve 3 years of study and it was more practical work. I've learnt most of my skills through working and being self taught.

A degree doesn't necessarily make you anymore creative or a better designer than someone without one.

You may be interested in reading my blog post Graphic Design: Degree Or No Degree? | 27 Graphics

I'd also welcome any comments and opinions from other graphic designers.

[SparkCreative]

First of all.... you don't have to have a degree. I don't have one and I've done fine through my 10 years as a designer. Okay so I have an Advanced Diploma in Art and Design but that didn't involve 3 years of study and it was more practical work. I've learnt most of my skills through working and being self taught.

A degree doesn't necessarily make you anymore creative or a better designer than someone without one.

You may be interested in reading my blog post Graphic Design: Degree Or No Degree? | 27 Graphics

I'd also welcome any comments and opinions from other graphic designers.

I personally didn't learn how to use software and technical stuff during my degree. In fact it was all about how to be more creative, how to think creatively, become more visually literate, understand type, design history and a wealth of other stuff that, unless you're really motivated, you don't have time to do once you're into the grind of industry. The technical stuff came afterwards once I actually started working. So yes, I think what I learned on my degree makes me a better designer.