Hang on a wee minute...
£500 pw is over 30,000 a year????
500 * 52 = 26000,
Secondly jobs for £500 pounds are week are certainly not that prolific. Not where I live anyway. London perhaps, but factor living costs etc, and you are left pretty much where you started.
As a graduate myself I do agree with many of the posts here about the worth of a degree. I personally enjoyed doing my degree and the experience it gave me I wouldnt change for the world, however It must be said that many graduates leave expecting the world to be their oyster and sadly this is no longer the case (it may have been 30 years ago). There are many disgruntled graduates who feel that the world owes them a living, (for a time I felt like this), however many 'graduate jobs' are little more than a title. One friend worked as a 'graduate sales consultant'. In truth he was a telesalesman, the only reason they wanted graduates was because they knew that a desire to earn big money (by former skint graduates) could promote the ruthlessness which they required on the telephone to make the sales, which is sad.
This said it is very hard for students, upon graduation, to point to a career and say 'i want to do that', those that do, find that they have to start at the bottom of a very unappealing ladder, which after working your arse off for 3 - 5 years is rather dissapointing.
It isnt easy finding a well paid job out there, some may have been lucky, or be slightly misguided in their views. Factor in the fact that paying for flying cant be achieved without large sums of money and it is easy to see why some could become despondant.
TS