Personally think it would be stupid not to take advantage of FREE higher education, get more experience, knowledge and a BACK UP in case for whatever reason one day your Class 1 can't be re-validated.
How many airlines want 19 year old pilots anyway? Not many I bet.
And conversely I have heard plenty of pilots say that degrees do help. Maybe not always, but I think that isn't the greatest advantage of having a degree anyway, the fact that you can one day fall back on it certainly is and you wont be stuck stacking the shelves at Tesco.
Also, if you have the money/ loan for an integrated course then during the course of your degree you could easily be applying to Airline Cadet Schemes like Easyjet, Aer Lingus, BA (although you don't need to be rich for that one) and so on. Having a degree or studying for one will certainly help in those schemes. I believe most people who make it through have degrees.
Good luck, I'll meet you up there some day
