Three years and £12k is not something to spend lightly. Unless you do intend to use a specific degree then I really wouldn't bother.
I'd rather see a child of mine go off for three years traveling and working abroad. Hell, a couple of years in India or China learning a bit of the language and the culture would probably be the best preparation for life in the 21st Century.
Go and work as crew on some private yacht. Get a job on the oil fields of Kazakhstan. Get free board and lodgings as a stableboy to a racehourse owner. Do something, anything, that doesn't end up in a 2:1 from Durham in Management Studies/Geography/Maths for which there are no jobs no demand and a lot of sitting in boring lecture theatres persuading yourself that another night in the Union bar followed by a hilarious traffic cone and keebab incident is living life large you crazy cool dude.
You are a long time dead.
You are food for worms.
Its a big World.
School doesn't matter.
etc. etc.
WWW