Difficult times
No doubt things are going to get grim and the expected cuts are certainly "enthusiastic".

But a part of me thinks is this the way to weed out the recently upgraded ex polytechnics offering 3 year partys ending in a largly worthless qualification and getting some of them to revert back to vocational trade courses which were of great value in producing qualified trades people.

looking back over my 20 years in higher education I find myself today, awash with 2:2 sociologists and meeja studies graduates etc but I can't get a decent plumber or brickie for any money!
( RadG Drinking Mojitos in the sun, Fri 15 Oct 2010, 12:42, 1 reply)

I went to a 'recently upgraded ex polytechnic'
I fucked up my A-levels and was in a state. I wanted to do a science course and thankfully one of the better 'recently upgraded ex polytechnics' offered me a place on the course. I worked my tail off over the next four years and got a first class degree. I then did a PhD and I now have a job making massive drugs in the neverending fight against cancer. If there wasn't such a thing as the 'recently upgraded ex polytechnic' I would not have made it. I regard my Uni days as a big second chance which I had to take through my own fucktardiness I admit, but I am ever so grateful that my old 'recently upgraded ex polytechnic' existed. Its not all media degrees and film studies you know (although the earlier sentiment in this thread is bang on when its mentioned that Uni is also about change in scenery, outlook etc.)
(mersault, Fri 15 Oct 2010, 12:57, closed)

^This^
It so happens that your brain seems to respond to science-like critical inquiry and scholarship. Mine doesn't: science interests me, but I can't do it. (And who knows: you, for your part, might be a terrible philosopher...)

It's the inquiry and scholarship that carries the moral weight, though. That's the chassis, if you like - and it may be better or worse (since you could just as well do cutting-edge analysis of the media as pisspoor chemistry). The discipline is merely the colour of the paint-job
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 15 Oct 2010, 13:07, closed)

terrible at philosophy?
Me? Not possible, because I'm a Doctor of Philosophy. Surely that means I must be good at it?
(haberman is singing in the changes, Fri 15 Oct 2010, 13:44, closed)

I sense you take offense at the term recently upgraded etc ...
But on the other side of the coin, there are many young people walking the streets with no job or skills because in the unruly rush for govt grants many excellant polytechnics dropped their excellant vocational roots and merged with the herd to churn out what are largely worthless degrees, leaving the less academicly inclined with even fewer options.

I am truely glad you got your second chance and the system worked for you.

However I stand by my observation, based on my 20 years in higher education, that too many institutions are chasing too little money.
( RadG Drinking Mojitos in the sun, Fri 15 Oct 2010, 13:09, closed)

That's really fantastic, well done
And it should have been free for you to do that

Though in the world I was talking about above, you would, unfortunately, have had to resit those A-levels to get in... because no one had any other way of knowing that you who totally failed your a-levels would go on to get a first in a hell of a subject, and that you were therefore worth every penny spent on you by the country.
(MrOli is ugly, but in the morning you will be sober, Fri 15 Oct 2010, 13:43, closed)

It almost was free
I studied between 92 and 99. At the beginning I still got about half a grant and my parents were 'obliged' by my LEA to contribute (about a couple of hundred each term) and I got student loans for 600 quid in the year. When I left my undergrad course I had no grant, a bit of cash from the olds and about 900 quid in loans over the year. No course fees. In some ways I feel for studes these days...
(mersault, Fri 15 Oct 2010, 14:26, closed)