They probably did, with benefit of experience.
I was at Exeter University from 1970 - 1973. Initial audio setup was a Garrard A70 turntable (Goldring G800 cartridge of course), Sinclair Project 60 kit amplifier I had built the summer before and a pair of Wharfedale kit speakers in cabinets built by my granddad. My parents weren’t well off but it didn’t matter - I got a grant! And I didn’t have to pay it back.
The 70s were, unarguably, the best decade for rock music and the uni circuit was most bands’ bread and butter. I saw Jethro Tull, Mott the Hoople, Focus, Wishbone Ash, Slade… the list goes on. And, after graduating you could virtually pick the job you wanted. Some of the best years of my life. The friends I made there are still my closest friends.
My kids also enjoyed uni in the 2000s; student loans, not grants. Would I advise my grandkids to go (not for another 10-15 years)? I’m not so sure - I don’t think the advantages are so obvious these days.
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Gee whiz, I guess I should have thought of that!
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Every time I see an English fireplace, Sherlock Holmes comes to mind—forgive the digression.
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I’m a strange guy in that I don’t automatically accept what I’m told about what’s best for me. I’m one of those awkward types who prefers to think for themselves.
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These books, like the music, are among my most vivid childhood memories—take me back there.
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Yes…we know that…
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I’m not so sure about that. We were told that we were expected not to undertake paid work during our time at university, and that time outside of termtime was not to be regarded as holiday, but as time for further study. For us that included fieldwork over the summer and Easter breaks, and you wouldn’t pass the degree course if you didn’t complete it. Termtime work was pretty much full time lectures and practical studies from 9-5. (On the other hand, my mate studying philosophy seemed to have about 2 hours of lectures a week and a few books to read, but he still got a degree out of it.)
Work still did not, of course, stop us from partying, drinking, listening to music (live and recoded) etc. and we still had a great time. Still, it makes me wonder about the quality of some degree courses these days if the students have to hold down jobs, often for several days a week, in order to fund themselves.
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If I didn’t know this was an English forum, I would have thought of my youth in Russia, because we did the exact same thing—helping with the harvest as students.
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When I first went to Liverpool University in 1983 I decided to just take my Toshiba tape player and headphones. When I realised just how many people had full hi-fi systems up and running I arranged for the rest of the system to follow.
That consisted of a Sansui SR222 turntable, Marantz receiver and probably Wharfedale speakers. All bought second hand from the buy and sell ads in the Crewe Chronicle.
Listening to music with friends was a huge social activity and I heard a range of equipment both good and bad in halls of residence. Plus music from artists I was unfamiliar with so it really was a melting pot of ideas.
The folk who had decent systems also seemed to offer proper coffee so that’s a strong memory from those times.
The earliest photo I have is from c.1986 when the turntable had been upgraded for an AR EB101.
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@ChrisSU your course sounds much more intense than my Commerce course which basically involved 20 hours of lectures and tutorials a week and I regularly missed my only lecture on Fridays (politics) owing to seeing the girlfriend at home or her coming down. Two hours of politics held little appeal when I was leaving a 21 year old Olivia Newton John lookalike behind! 
It’s very clear that the Universities nowadays recognise the funding issues for students and in fact my wife who works for a Uni tells me that they try to consolidate lectures into a minimum number of days so that they can go and get jobs around the course. If you ask me it makes me sad that is the way the world has gone now, the world is difficult enough when they graduate and need to try and buy/rent a place to live without saddling them with huge debts. We were so lucky to have grants and fees all paid.
@Richard_S I used to drool over AR gear… Really nice.
JonathanG
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The friend who had the best coffee had an AR Legend turntable into a Quad 33/303 and Morduant Short Carnival speakers. It was amazing but way beyond my pocket. The EB101 offered some of the performance for a lot less Dosh.
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This is a big problem with the funding model, and I doubt my son will ever be in a position to repay his student loan. Surely this has to change and funding return to a grant system, (which could be means tested).
And, is it not well known that engineering courses were, and are, much more demanding of lecture time and practicals, and with likely many residential study courses to complete, compared to the arts and social sciences.
The sandwich course was a very good way to utilise time with study and work experience, and might well be a way to restructure university education.
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I don’t know how I managed it, but back in the 70s I somehow lugged my first ‘Hi-Fi’ system in 3 boxes by bus, train and taxi from the North of Scotland to my Hall of Residence room at Glasgow University.
It was an extremely modest system (BSR McDonald MP60 turntable with Shure M55E cartridge, Trio KA2000A amp and Lasky Criterion Mk X speakers) but at the time I thought it was great. It certainly served me well for the couple of years I spent in the Hall of Residence. I think I must have transported it at the beginning of my 3rd term, because from memory, the very first LP I played on the system there was Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ which I purchased a week or two after its release.
The only other person in the Hall with a Hi-Fi system happened to be my next door neighbour who played nothing but Rod Stewart and Maggie Bell (Stone the Crows) day after day and week after week. So, for a while it was a constant (fairly amicable) battle of his Rod Stewart and Maggie Bell versus my Pink Floyd and Yes!
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Pretty sure I had the same model Sony (or something very similar). But that came a little later.
After a crappy all-in-one during my first two years, I took a year off and worked in a discount department store. For those who lived on the East Coast of the US during that time (the 70s) it was E.J. Korvettes. The pay wasn’t so good, but I was living at home. And Korvettes actually had both a decent record department and an audio department. And an employee discount. By the end of the year off, I had a Pioneer PL 10 turntable and SA-8100 integrated amp along with a pair of large Advents. That system got me through my last two years of college and three years of law school. Then upgrade-itis hit.
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Yes, as you journey through life there are many people who will profess to know what’s best for you, in all kinds of circumstances and situations. Some of them genuinely sincere and well meaning, some of them with ulterior or questionable motives. In almost all cases none of these people actually know you anything like well enough to have any idea at all of what is in fact best for you personally. They speak from their own personal experience, beliefs and in terms of generalities. So listen, absorb, evaluate. Then disregard it all and do what you believe to be best for yourself. Don’t follow somebody else’s blueprint for a happy and successful life. Make your own happiness, according to what you want. Here endeth today’s lesson.
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I had a BSR McDonald MP60 with an ADC K8 cartridge, but several years before university. I also had a Shure M55E in it at one point. Yes a very modest turntable but I got a lot of pleasure from it. I only had an Amstrad amp then (don’t laugh!) and a pair of Sony bookshelf speakers that came from a music centre. That little system gave me a lot of joy and was my first separates system. I upgraded the BSR to a Connoisseur BD1 with an SME3009/Shure M95ED. Then the amp to a JVC JAS22 and speakers to Keesonic Kubs. And so it went on. I was lucky enough to have an LP12 when I started university. But only because I blew part of my grant on it! I just had to have it. In truth a Rega would have probably been a lot more sensible at that point.
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My student digs:
empty wine bottles holding candles
a large second-hand dining table serving as a desk
An (GDR-era) Erika typewriter
Stacks upon stacks of course handouts (paper) everywhere, marked up with highlighters
It would still be raining indoors even after a week of dry weather.
Water bottles frozen solid after a cold night
A slatted bed base resting on bricks
A Pioneer SA-508 amplifier with a Harman Kardon HD200 CD player… because my Kenwood had been stolen.
A set of Akai cube speakers.
But oh, the musical journeys I took—lights off, lying down… and not always without the help of various stimulants… 
I survived it, and I’m doing well for it.
This is one of the points I was making. Yes, it’s reasonable, but not necessarily appropriate for everybody.
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