I hated Uni.

I really did.

I dropped out, went back a few years later and still hated it.

Managed to pass (badly) without doing much work - I just couldn’t make myself do it.

For years this has worried me - what was so wrong with me?

Recently I figured out - I just wasn’t into it.

I studied physics - because I was good at it in school and it was my favourite subject.

But it wasn’t like I’d every do it for fun - in fact I never studied during holidays - even when I was set work.

I thought I was lazy - but looking back now and from a distance of time - I think I just wasn’t that interested.

At school I could get away with the half hearted approach and still get good grades - but University level study was miserable without the enthusiasm required to keep up with the pace.

I mean I could have caught a break - if one of the lecture series had been inspiring, or I’d met the right friend, maybe a helpful tutorial session …

But really I think to spend 3 years learning something you maybe need to be properly interested in learning about it.

I wish I’d just got a trainee job and learned as I went.

I have never used the Physics knowledge that I did pick up.

I don’t put my degree on mv CV

It stopped being relevant after I had a bit of real world experience.

I love learning - just when it is stuff that is useful and/or interesting.

Funnily I went back to try and do a MSc in computer science after I’d started on an IT career - but I found the course so outdated and out of touch that I soon dropped it - I’d kept up but decided I could learn what I wanted better without a university telling me what to do.

What matters is can you do what you need to do - and a qualification is neither necessary nor sufficient for this.

I have no special ambition for my son (when he’s older) to go to university - unless he has a passion for learning for for a career that genuinely requires it.

In my view too many people go to university simply because it is seen as a gateway to a good middle class job.