I'm not going to drop out or anything, but I've been thinking - I do Maths and Philosophy at uni. Both subjects have little direct, vocational use (particularly Philosophy), and I doubt many people will use the skills and knowledge they acquire from the degree in any tangible way. They are almost purely academic disciplines.

Now I know that I'm never, ever going to be good enough at either Maths or Philosophy to go into research, so I wonder, what is the point of doing a degree in them? Surely the point of any degree is to take it to the next level, but I cannot do that. The same goes for plenty of other people doing plenty of other degrees, with obvious exceptions like Law and Medicine.

It seems, rather, that I am in the midst of a three year test; one with the simple purpose of assessing my work ethic and dedication. Do I really need three years to prove myself in that regard? Does anybody? Surely there are many tens times the number of people at university than the number who actually *need* to be there.

This isn't a new thing for me, but I guess going back to uni next week and reconsidering my exam results from the year just gone has brought it to the forefront of my mind again. Am I right to be disillusioned or am I looking at university in entirely the wrong way?

Obviously it has other purposes, like offering the chance of meeting like-minded people and take part in extra-curricular activities, but the primary role of a university to offer education, yet with an increasing number of people being encouraged to go to university, that idea seems to have been sacrificed in the process of turning institutions - even the top ones - into degree factories.