Follow the Money: Is a university degree worth the investment?
episodePreviously titled “Follow the money: Is a university degree worth the investment?” — renamed by the publisher on Sep 15, 2026
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Graduation, it's a big day, a celebration after lots of hard work, a key to opening up job opportunities and potentially the start of a career. At least that's what graduates hope for, and that's why we've seen student numbers rising. In fact, they've more than doubled in the last 20 years. Two hundred and sixty-nine million students around the world are enrolled in higher education. If those students were a country It would be the fifth most populous in the world. But are attitudes changing towards going to university? I'm Hannah Mulane and today on Follow the Money on Business Daily, we're going to be looking at higher education around the world and asking, is it worth it? Today we'll be in the UK, the US and India speaking to graduates about their university experience and whether they feel it was worth it, as well as looking at the numbers to find out whether going to university is still a good financial decision.
Here at Business Daily, we thought the best way to find out whether university was really worth it was to speak to some graduates that have been through it. So today we head to three different continents to ask just that. Was it all worth it?
Hello, my name's Anisha and I'm based in India. I graduated in 2019. I finished with a Bachelors of Science in International Relations. Hey, my name is Eisenu. I'm based in New York. I studied film and television at NYU and I just graduated last year. Hi, I'm Laura Maynardella in Manchester and I read law at university and graduated in twenty sixteen.
And I started by asking everyone whether it was a given that they were going to go to university in the first place. Did it feel like the only real choice for them?
Yes, it was because I was pursuing golf as a viable career option. One of the things that I think is different in India from the US in that sense is that you don't really have the opportunity to put in the time or the effort to do things in parallel with your study.
And it does feel like university is that place where you can do a bit of figuring stuff out. Is that how you felt, Laura May, when you were going? Was it always a given that you would go to university?
Yeah, I think for me at the time, based on sort of what I wanted to do as a career, when I was making choices at school, I had decided that I wanted to be a lawyer, that I wanted to study law, so there wasn't really an alternative, like a viable option. That was really all that there was and that was what we were encouraged to do at school as well.
And I don't know if you feel this as Sain you 'cause y your experience is quite recent in comparison to Laura May, but I certainly felt it. It it did feel a bit like it was one of the only options going to university and and I certainly didn't know what I wanted to do before I went to uni. I just went because I thought it would open some doors. Is that how you felt, or did you have a bit more of a tunnel vision approach, knowing what you wanted to do?
To be honest, I entered university not a hundred percent sure on like where life would take me, but I kind of agree with uh Laura May and Anisha in that it was definitely like that following step after high school. Like it felt like I didn't really have a choice just for like a natural progression, um, to pursue higher education.
And a big question for all of you now, did any of you think about the cost of it when you made that decision to go?
Yeah, absolutely.
How fast has global university enrollment grown and why does it matter?
Um a hundred percent, you know, coming from India of course, which is a weak weaker currency, Grinnell where I went was the school that offered me the most scholarship.
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