Estimate return on a degree.
The real cost of a degree is tuition plus the earnings given up while studying, and for a full-time course the second is usually the larger of the two. Dividing that total by the annual salary uplift gives a payback period in years. Over a full career the uplift compounds well beyond the investment for most subjects, but the payback figure is what determines whether the decision is comfortable in the near term.
Degree payback
Total investment = tuition + forgone salary x years; payback years = total investment / annual uplift; twenty-year net = uplift x 20 - total investment
Simplified projection that ignores student loan interest, tax, inflation and the possibility that the uplift does not materialise. Not financial advice.
Because they are the largest cost of full-time study. Three years out of a 24,000 job is 72,000 of lost income against 36,000 of tuition — twice as much, and the figure that changes the answer most.
Compare median earnings for graduates of the specific subject and institution against the non-graduate median in your region, rather than using an average across all degrees. The variation between subjects is enormous.
Fundamentally. Studying while working reduces forgone earnings to near zero, which typically cuts the payback period by two thirds even though the course takes longer.