"While I don't find a job, I will continue studying." This is how María Jesús Alonso, a 50-year-old woman, who is about to finish her Social Education degree at the UNED, expresses herself. "I only have one exam left in May and I'm done."
However, this woman is considering continuing her studies, given how difficult she finds it to find a job. "I see the situation as very bleak, especially with the cuts that are happening now in the social sector. I don't think it will improve for at least a couple of years," says María Jesús Alonso, who says that she has several colleagues at the UNED who are "unemployed and cannot find work."
María Jesús started studying at the UNED about six or seven years ago. "I did the access course for people over 25 and then I started studying Social Education," says this woman. At that time, María Jesús was not working, but was dedicated to raising her son, but now she has found that she cannot find a job. "Seeing that I was going to finish my degree, I signed up for unemployment a few months ago, but there is no way."
Increasingly "expensive"
Thus, for the moment, María Jesús has decided that she will sign up for the Official Language School to expand her training. "And if this continues like this, I will do a second degree," adds this woman, who is still worried about the increase in university fees announced by the central government. "It's horrible, because at this rate only the rich will be able to study. The outlook looks bad, because studying is not cheap at all. Tuition can be around 1,000 euros and at the UNED you also have to buy the books, which are very expensive, and on top of that, because you are in Lanzarote, you have to pay the shipping costs."
"We know that the situation at the national level is not good at all, but those cuts in students seem quite bad to me. I think I can still afford it, but families where there is only one person working and they have several children, they will have to decide which child can study", says David Luna, a student of Political Science at the UNED.
In this case, luckily, David does have a job and combines his job with his studies. David, who is 36 years old, had the opportunity at the time to go to Madrid to study, but he did not want to go outside. "I passed Selectividad. I had the opportunity to go to Madrid, but I didn't really want to go and I didn't feel prepared, so I decided to stay here. I found out that the UNED was here, I started and at first it didn't go very well, because you don't have a teacher. I got frustrated and quit. Two years later I resumed my studies, I became more mentally prepared and things started to work out."
David Luna acknowledges that it is "very sacrificial". "It's from Monday to Friday and you have to dedicate between four and five hours to it. It's like a job, which is not paid, but which rewards you on an internal level," concludes this young man, who is already in his fourth year of studies, about to finish his studies.
