A few passing thoughts:
- Many years ago, apart from the usual 5 A levels, I'd got very good grades in English at O and AO level (roughly equivalent to the modern AS) and was already paying for my expensive hobbies as a part time writer (which I still do). And, I got pulled apart limb from limb by the "old school" engineers charged with educating me for the poor standards of my written English; unfortunately the people teaching English in schools now are the people I went to school with so the standards there have got poorer - however the people teaching engineering in university are greybeards like myself and India-Mike have become.
- In the Times world university rankings, Imperial College is currently the 9th highest rated university in the world (sandwiched between Berkely and Yale). It is hardly surprising that their graduates attract above average starting salaries.
- However, I think that Dis.I.Like is a little closer to reality on mean graduate salaries than some others here - the UK mean is about £24k.
(reference); of course that's for the proportion who get graduate jobs - a fair number don't in the current market so the reality of salary for graduates is probably nearer £18-£20k.
- On the other hand, graduates now are graduating with around £30k of debt, so living comfortably whilst paying that back on £22-£26k graduate salary won't leave much for flight training of around another £35k to CPL/IR/Multi/MCC that you'll need if you want an airline job.
- Aviation, as a profession, runs on criticism. Despite working at opposite ends of the UK, India-Mike and I know each other fairly well and I'd count him a friend, but at various times we've each been in the position of formally assessing the other's professional work and we've both been quite vicious. Neither of us have ever taken it personally, and we continue to get on fine. This is an attitude that is absolutely essential to survival in this industry - whether as an engineer, pilot, or academic. It is part of what we call CRM.
G