Alex,
i'm not going to argue with you regarding students at bristol, a school i know little about. what i can comment on are the integrated students at oxford, and to a lesser extent, jerez. less than 1% of the people i met were there because they kind of thought flying might be a bit of a laugh. the other 99%+ were by far the most dedicated, hardworking bunch of people i've ever known. without exception. my point - in my experience integrated/modular has no bearing on determination.
MasterD,
well done! busting your ass for 8 years has PROVEN without any doubt that you are as dedicated as they come. You've saved up and made the decision to go integrated - best of luck with that! Incedently, had you been born to oil baron parents and had everything handed to you on a silver platter your entire life would you be any less dedicated. i'm sure not. the fact that you haven't had to save hard for training doesn't mean your not as dedicated as the next guy. This is the crux of point.
Getting back to the debate, i went integrated and it worked out for me. why? primarily luck. I got straight into the airline i wanted to spend my career in and didn't have to pay for a typerating. i knew starting out that the chances of this were small but luckily it worked out. i could not have done this had i gone modular.
However, the majority of oxford grads did have to pay for typeratings - £20k ontop of an already serious debt.
Some points to consider though -
Although in debt to the tune of £60k, most people had little trouble extending their loan to fund a typerating, as long as they have a letter of intent from an employer.
With modular you could potentially save the cost of a typerating.
This is absolutley true. However, that type rating MUST be conducted with an airline and after selection with that airline. NEVER pay for a 'white-tail' typerating. This is worse than useless. I've heard it straight from the mouths of a number of recruitment managers that under no circumstances will they take someone who comes to them with a typerating they've done off their own bat. paying for hours on type is worse again.
So basically you could have an int guy and a mod guy sitting beside each other in ryanair type rating course. the mod guy could have potentially saved £30k (?). in this case obviously things have worked out for the mod guy.
What it comes down to is whether int training is more likely to get you onto that type course and if so is it worth the extra cash?. I don't know the answer to that and i'm pretty certain NO ONE does. all u can do is make an educated guess and hope for the best.