And the wheels on the bus go round and round......
Im 1968 the 'traditional' Cranwell course stopped being the preferred entry method (there was also some secondary modern place in Bedfordshire) and we were urged to become 'aerocrats' (yuk!). This meant going to university as an APO, paid about twice a standard student allowance, automatic membership of the UAS and then preferential 'Green Shield' promotion whilst going through the Cranwell Graduate Entry course. This was quite gentlemanly; some basic foot drill (no rifles, just standards and swords) basic Officer Training, a bit of PT (no running about in cabbage kit like a brain dead grunt), 3 training exercises and then basic flying training to wings standard. The whole Cranwell phase took about a year.
It was a very good deal for the average person - and the pay was very good at university. The promotion aspect occasionally led to some strange quirks - such as the student who went straight from Plt Off to Flt Lt thanks to seniority gained from previous apprentoid time and a year as a Flt Cdt. Another chap who'd done a 4 year course actually outranked his ex-DE blunty Flt Cdr......
But it was expensive. Now there are some who would like young pilots to join without the benefit of 3 years sponsored alcoholism and applied fornication at University (and they've done there best to discourage this by binning the 'real' cadetship scheme for pilots, making UAS life far more difficult and cutting the pay down to virtually nothing - even for 'bursers') - because they allege that TypHoon needs younger, more agile minds than mellow, cynical graduates. Or perhaps it's just that they can get away with paying people rather less if they arrive straight from school.....
So unless you want 3 years of hard sums, the stress of UAS assessment and the same Cranwell regime as the schoolkids, there ain't much point in getting a degree just to win any significant advantages towards your time in the RAF (as we all did!). However, it's an invaluable insurance policy to fall back upon if you are unsuccessful during RAF training and subsequently choose to go elsewhere. Then, if you only intend to stay in for sufficient time to win the 2000hrs-to-ATPL concessions after 10 years or so of excellent flying, you will be highly likely to need a degree on your CV to further your chances of airline employment.
If I were you? Go to University, but choose a pleasant part of the country and do a degree like Geography (it's in English, lots of babes, lots of field trips....). Cetainly not something like Aero Eng at Impossible College in expensive Larndin! Do NOT join the UAS in your 1st or 2nd year, join the OTC or URNU. Then, in your final year, apply to join the RAF. Time it so that you go to DORIS after a post-finals freedom break. Tell them that the reason you didn't join earlier was that you needed to devote as much time as possible to your academic work - and didn't feel that that would leave you sufficient time to do as well at the UAS as you needed to.....a shame, but that's down to the current policies.
You will then go to Cranwell, do the running around and saluting course, then probably go to a UAS 'DE' flight to do nothing but learn to fly and enjoy life! So you'll have a much better chance of making it to FJ training.... It seems that the UASs are going down to the 'Regional EFTS' status which I first suggested in 1990 - looks like I was right again.
It's a tragedy that you'll never enjoy the terrific deal we all had in the 70s - and I really regret that I can no longer recommend that you join the RAF whilst at university. But they've brought that on themselves through thoughtless bean-counting policies, I'm afraid.