I go along with BEags (who appears a close-ish contemporary), but the in-service degree also sounds a good bet, particularly as the RAF training will give contributory "credits". There are details on the
OU website, but basically professional aircrew training gets you nearly halfway to a degree. (First degree at OU is 180 points - with no time limit) Staff studies (ISS etc) also attract credits, if you can be @rsed to do them. I've managed to do OU courses while in busy flying jobs, and that's after several decades killing braincells at happy hours......
BTW, El Presidente's idea that all should go to Uni compares to 7% who went when I joined the RAF (and I turned down Uni offers and a Cranwell cadetship [sorry BEags - but I wasn't in Bedfordshire either!] to get into a cockpit asap).
We must get people onto sqns younger; if you're going to work back from an Air Marshal in his 50s (and they were all fg offs once!), you inevitably finish up with a 28 yr old sqn ldr - which you ain't going to get if he's a 26 yr old first tourist!
I'm sure I'd have sh*gg*d and drunk myself into being sent down from Uni anyway, whereas such behaviour was more acceptable (almost compulsory) in a JP - and better paid too - and overseas - and I was flying real aeroplanes!
