Perhaps not as much as you think. See:

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/jun2010/bs20100618_385280.htm

You might just be better off putting the cost of the degree in the stock market and going straight from school to work.

One thing the article does not cover. People like me who have taught at universities sometimes find this hard to believe but it seems to be true.

ON AVERAGE people who attend universities are smarter that people who don't.

I've capitalised "on average". It is an average with many exceptions. There are many bright people who never go anywhere near a university and there are many graduates who appear to have no functioning brain cells. But we are dealing here with averages and, on average, it's true.

So was it the university degree that enabled them to earn more than those who never attended a university? Or was it their native smarts?

I suspect that for most of my students their degree was a waste of time and money. Whatever they achieved they were going to achieve, or not achieve, anyway. The exceptions were those who obtained professional qualifications such as a medical or engineering degree.

I find it interesting that in terms of value for money the best performing school in America is MIT, not Harvard. It says something about America that a university specialising in science and mathematics tops the list.

Steven.. a peer of mine..same iq tests.. same training.. (until later) at tertiery level, then after a few years in the RAAF he did a degree.."data communications"....now after working as a project manager for Telstra for some years ($900/day) he now works for another large utility at over $200k/annum... (after being 'unemployed' for 6 months or more after telstra.)

the degree is what did it.

Steven,

Before entering academia, I worked in the Head Office of a bank in the areas of strategic management, marketing and information systems. The bank, especially in IS, saw a degree as a means for selecting people, who were able to "stay with" difficult tasks. The degree itself was a side bar. My sister-in-law said the same thing about short-hand in days of old regarding secretaries. Short-hand wasn't needed by employers, yet someone who would learn short-hand was.

One the other hand, in Government, I find it interesting that SES positions seem to require less formal education than for middle management positions. As if the vacancies are there for the politically adept.

I have three post-grad degrees and reached financial diminishing returns on effort a long time ago.

I can honestly say my university degree has had zero effect on my working life. I could very easily be in exactly the same or better position had I never attended university.

This could have more to do with my general laziness, apathy, spirit of working to live, hatred of suits and the word career, than it does with university perse.

But, I think university is now neither here nor there. It is no longer a house of learning and original thought, and the older posters can educate me on whether it ever really was, but it was a bitter disappointment to me. I was very apt at 'passing the test', without really learning anything. That I was able to do so little work and pass made me realise that the status given to a university education was a complete fraud.

Maybe I just don't respect any institution that accepts me as a member. University should only be for the really really smart. TAFE should be there for the rest.

Neither is it a useful training ground as evidenced by some of the graduate employees I have encountered. It definitely isn't worth the HECs debt, and I would advise any kids that were good with their hands or showed any entrepreneurial flair to skip it altogether.

In short, reduce the numbers at uni to the top 5% of the country, send the rest to TAFE where they belong, get rid of the soft subjects, make it hard to pass, and we would have a more useful and productive country.

There's SO MANY opportunities I've missed because I was more interested in drugs and alcohol as 'a kid' versus getting a degree and having that piece of paper.

It seems to me, that in order to get high end income - high end for me is around 70K+ - you either need to BUST YOUR HUMP without a degree, or bust your hump with one, but get appropriately remunerated.

I'm lining myself up to study now.

Houellebecq,

Sorry, re: your comment uni should be for the REALLY smart. My brother wasn't an over achiever at school but he is a HARD worker and started out dressing the dead at an old folks home. He worked HARD for his right to be an ambulance officer and is now a senior paramedic years later who lectures doctors on emergency treatment and has just done presentation to senoir docs on new drugs that we'd benefit from in emergencies only available in the states...etc etc.

Not trying to blow HIS trumpet - although I am MASSIVELY proud - but he's a CLASSIC example of HARD WORK paying off. He didn't get past year ten at school and did it all after. But without working and uni study at the same time he couldn't have achieved any of it.