I was a 16-going-on-17 year-old with absolutely no idea of where I wanted to go when I finished my ‘A’ Levels. My choice of subjects didn’t help: English Language, Physics, Biology and the compulsory General Studies. I suppose I could have written for New Scientist – if I’d actually been any good at sciences. So when our head of year asked us to consider university, a mild panic set in. I was at that age when all I thought about was football and girls. And I wasn’t having much success with either.

Unlike most of my school friends, I decided that I didn’t want to go to university. I didn’t fancy another three years of study and lots of debt by the time I finished the course, especially now with tuition fees. I didn’t tell my mum and dad about the plan until four months later: I was thinking of just going straight in to a job, perhaps in the pub industry – I was working at my local at the time, and I loved every minute of it. My mother, however, had other ideas for me, saying that I would be missing out on the experience of a lifetime – though she hadn’t been to university herself. My father agreed with her, arguing that it was the essential grounding for whichever industry I would end up working in.

After a lot of arguments, they persuaded me to apply, albeit with about two weeks left to the UCAS deadline. After some talks with careers advisors and tutors, I decided to apply to four universities to study journalism and media. I received two conditional acceptances, one from the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside at their almost new Lincoln Campus. After visiting the university and the town on one of their open days, I decided to accept their offer.

I enrolled in September 1998 and begun on this new venture. Since that time I have learned a lot about the news industry, the methods used by journalists, and journalistic ethics – the work of the Press Complaints Commission was the subject of my dissertation. The course has looked at areas such as interviewing and the style and content of different types of publication. It has been hard work, but – and I hate to say that my parents were right – it has been the most fun I ever had in my life, and I have made many new friends. At no time have I had any doubts or regrets about coming to university. I am now a student DJ, though I had never touched a mixer in my life before coming here. I am now preparing to hit the airwaves on the university’s student radio station, and hoping to become a presenter on commercial radio when I graduate.

University isn’t for everybody. I have friends at home already in 11-grand-a-year-plus jobs and loving it. But I know now that I shouldn’t have let the thought of more study and debt put me off university. Even if you did take a full loan you wouldn’t have to pay it back until you started a well-paid job, and as for the work, it is by far outweighed by the amount of fun you’ll have once you are here.

Grahame Taylor is a 3rd-year journalism and media student at the University of Lincolnshire & Humberside