Re all the moaning about student fees.
Why not do 2 year courses instead of 3? The fees would be cut by a third automatically. It would mean that students would have to work a bit harder of course, and maybe get up in the morning.
Anyway, I thought that the idea of higher education was deferred gratification? Work your tits off for a few years, be skint and then get a well paid job as a theatre studies lecturer or something equally useful.
And anyway, it might be a gross generalisation, but most students I've met never seem to be skint, many have cars, and spend a great deal on crap quality coke.
Rant over...
(Bear Pookie The Frankly Challenged. Halloween is coming to town., Sat 13 Nov 2010, 12:32, 24 replies, latest was 15 years ago)

The problems the fees make is that
it's the rich kids who go, rather than the clever kids. The 2 year rather than 3 year thing means that less could be taught in that time, or you'd have to pack in more lectures, meaning more teaching and overheads costs for the universities making fees go up.

If anything there is an argument for less uni places, higher entry standards and decent options for students who don't get in.
( Citizen Cavy Admires your passion for conformity, Sat 13 Nov 2010, 12:35, Reply)

my idea wins
Grades over a certain level - paid for. Under it - pay for yourself.

Sorted!
( rachelswipe with a fork, Sat 13 Nov 2010, 12:44, Reply)

Good in principle.
You'd have to make A levels more difficult though, as many students seem to get a zillion Grade A passes.
(Bear Pookie The Frankly Challenged. Halloween is coming to town., Sat 13 Nov 2010, 12:47, Reply)

it only seems that way
because of the whole AS/A level thing. If they are crap at AS, the college doesn't put them through to A2. Also, the way colleges get judged (until this year) it makes more sense for lecturers to not enter students at all than risk them failing.

Also, us lecturers are awesomer these days. Specially with the gramma and spelin
( Citizen Cavy Admires your passion for conformity, Sat 13 Nov 2010, 12:50, Reply)

I didn't realise that. When I was at school, there were only bog standard A levels.

(Bear Pookie The Frankly Challenged. Halloween is coming to town., Sat 13 Nov 2010, 12:55, Reply)

it's way more complicated now
there are national diplomas and first diplomas, too, which is another place to put weaker students or those with learning problems. I currently teach 9 different courses/levels.
( Citizen Cavy Admires your passion for conformity, Sat 13 Nov 2010, 12:57, Reply)

Shirley students with "learning difficulties" won't go to uni?

(Bear Pookie The Frankly Challenged. Halloween is coming to town., Sat 13 Nov 2010, 13:00, Reply)

no, but that's not what FE is for necessarily these days
although we do get some who struggled at school, because of some learning difficulty or unidentified need (like dyslexia) who start on first diploma and (especially in our department which is quite practical) progress through to the diploma and sometimes even the foundation degree.
( Citizen Cavy Admires your passion for conformity, Sat 13 Nov 2010, 13:02, Reply)

Mrs Boris did badly at school,
But on her BTEC and subsequent uni career did a stellar job. Shame I saddled the poor thing with a couple of kids...
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Sat 13 Nov 2010, 13:04, Reply)

But surely that would go very much in favour of private education?

(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Sat 13 Nov 2010, 12:49, Reply)

How so?
If you want to learn, I'd assume you learn, whether you wear a silly uniform or not.
(Bear Pookie The Frankly Challenged. Halloween is coming to town., Sat 13 Nov 2010, 13:01, Reply)

this is mostly true
but I think they definitely get more access to better facilities, which might give them a help
( Citizen Cavy Admires your passion for conformity, Sat 13 Nov 2010, 13:03, Reply)

Private schools consistently have better results than state schools, and thus the top universities in the Uk
Have a large proportion of their intake from private schools. It's not just a question of better facilities either, it's a whole different set of attitudes and expectations as well as better facilities etc.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Sat 13 Nov 2010, 13:06, Reply)

I understand the bit about different expectations.
Maybe that's why so many students talk with marbles in their mouths.
(Bear Pookie The Frankly Challenged. Halloween is coming to town., Sat 13 Nov 2010, 13:14, Reply)

it is a lot harder to learn if you also have to work full time to pay for it,
rather than having a nice flat bought for you and all your money problems non-existant.
( Sir Sand GOBLIN ^popular page dis, Sat 13 Nov 2010, 17:45, Reply)

Not to mention the folk whose parents pay for private tuition and extra coaching if they don't do so well.

( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Sat 13 Nov 2010, 13:31, Reply)

Hopefully we can give our kids as much tuition as they need.
Between us, we cover a fair few subjects to GCSE level and those two mop up information. Save a lot of money doing that. The going rate for tuition here is $65-80/hour. Might start that up soon to earn a few beer tokens or buy a lens for the camera.
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Sat 13 Nov 2010, 13:34, Reply)

Ha.
Chemistry BSc was 30 hours a week practicals and lectures, 10 hours tutorials and coursework. Swatting up for exams would be anything up to 18-20 hours a day.
We have no car, not a lot of money and the work I do is paid less than industry, but I love my job and wouldn't change it unless times were very bad.
I've supervised five BSc students in their research projects, two masters and an honours student and I like to think that (with the exception of one lazy bastard), I've really helped them to get the degree they were aiming for. One of the buggers even has four papers from his projects he did with me with more on the way.
Not only that, the only coke I've done was brown and fizzy and comes in a red can (none of that diet shite). Saying that, each year they would teach us three out of the five steps to synthesise cocaine from scratch, but each year's paper would have different steps missing...
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Sat 13 Nov 2010, 13:03, Reply)

I was generalising.
I'm sure there are many hard grafting students, doing difficult degrees, I just seem to have met the ones doing media studies...
(Bear Pookie The Frankly Challenged. Halloween is coming to town., Sat 13 Nov 2010, 13:09, Reply)

Fair enough.
I feel bad for Mrs Boris. She's a performing artist and people go on about that, but if we weren't living over here, she'd be with her friends from the course in a wildly successful puppet theatre company now. I still feel like a bit of a shit for her not being in that group...
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Sat 13 Nov 2010, 13:18, Reply)

don't dis media studies...it's a little too close to my subject :/

( Citizen Cavy Admires your passion for conformity, Sat 13 Nov 2010, 15:18, Reply)

It works in theory
But a lot of my degree is work placement so I need the three years.
( SteveFrench Cardio is for homo's. do you even lift bro?, Sat 13 Nov 2010, 14:27, Reply)

Because lecturing is only a part of my job.
I need time to do research, write grants to get funding for research, write up the research and get it published, write new courses and lecture slides, provide near-constant levels of pastoral care for inept students, do a fuckload of useless overly bureaucratic admin, and sit on my arse drinking coffee and moaning about how it was better in the good old days yadda yadda.

That's at least three years' worth right there.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Sat 13 Nov 2010, 18:27, Reply)

Just the career I'm aiming for.
Lost out on four lectureships and hoping to get the next one in Dublin.
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Sat 13 Nov 2010, 23:46, Reply)