To hell with the debt, education is worth it

When I was asked whether my degree was worth the debt it got me into, I replied “Yes...I’d never change my university experience; it was the best years of my life”.

Living away from home for three years in a then-unfamiliar city has enabled me to build skills that far exceed being able to use a washing machine or spread your student loan on nights out, books and tins of beans. In fact, the further education system appeals so much to me that I am about to start my Masters of Arts degree this October.
 
To some of you I may seem insane or even like I'm trying to escape the ‘real’ world. Why would I even think to rack up a further £15,000 worth of debt in addition to the £21,000 odd debt waiting for me with snarling teeth? It's an unwelcome shadow over any job I could get in the future. It isn’t as though I or my family are millionaires.

Battlefront Campaigner Myles opted out of paying another £9,000 to study a PGCE (Postgraduate Certificate in Education) for a year because ’22 grand worth of debt is too much...it is much more than many people earn in a year’. This may well be the case, but surely the opportunity to learn from peers in your field and further your development is priceless.

My MA specialising in English Literary Studies will not fast track me to a job, unless it involves getting paid to talk about poems. But if like me you are studying something you adore and you believe that you can be the best in your field, it helps lessen the £36,000 financial blow a little.
 
Freedom as a student definitely comes at a price, but this is a price I am prepared to pay. If you're studying something that you are really passionate about and committed to, then that should be reward enough.
 
So, what about you? Are you prepared to put your passion and love for a subject first, over and beyond the stress of a massive debt?

Clare Dyckhoff is the holder of a 2.1 English degree from The University of Liverpool. When she isn't writing or travelling she is performing one of her musical instruments or tweeting at @cdyckhoff