Do you want to discuss boring politics? (9 Viewers)

Ian1779

Well-Known Member
There seems to be a hell of a lot of Nigerian students in the UK, Coventry University in particular. Not really sure how that works, or who's paying for it.

The education system in the UK is terrible at university level anyway. I got a degree whilst working a full time job and going out about four nights a week. Seems a lot more serious in many places on the continent.
Courses charging 9K a year and only offering 6 hours face to face tuition a week…. 😡
 

wingy

Well-Known Member
And the NIC increase looks set to cost universities £370m, so I guess that answers your question @Grendel
Ist increase in 8 year.
COVID, inflation running riot, I'd say that obviously has to be accounted for but still not a fan ah well.
This is just the students at this time and beyond?
 

Earlsdon_Skyblue1

Well-Known Member
The UK university system is world class and that’s why people will pay top dollar for it. Which answers your first question: the students are paying for it. Go and look in the car park at Cov uni if you want to know if foreign students have money (they do).

World class at the top. A lot of the rest of the tail is total shite.

Still not sure who's paying for a lot of these students. You've got some very rich foreigner's no doubt, but there's some question marks. I know a lot of the Nigerian students are working full time whilst they're on students visas.
 

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
World class at the top. A lot of the rest of the tail is total shite.

Still not sure who's paying for a lot of these students. You've got some very rich foreigner's no doubt, but there's some question marks. I know a lot of the Nigerian students are working full time whilst they're on students visas.

Compared to what exactly? A mid tier uni where?
 

Earlsdon_Skyblue1

Well-Known Member
Compared to what exactly? A mid tier uni where?

All I can say is from personal experience from someone who went to a pretty mid uni that the course was a piece of piss. The last year of cheaper fees but would be a joke to say it was worth 9k now. There were genuinely a lot of other students who were extremely stupid as well.

My missus went to a mid uni in Slovakia and the work they had to put in was about 5-10x harder than what I had to do.
 

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
The UK university system is world class and that’s why people will pay top dollar for it.
The top end certainly is but you're not going to convince me that people who are doing courses where they only have to attend for 4 or 5 hours a week are getting a world class education.

Further education has become a business and like any business they had the ups where thousands of people were being convinced it was a good idea to spend thousands on courses that wouldn't increase their chances of a job at the end of it but now they're experiencing the downs.

As always someone else is expected to provide the bail out.
 

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
The top end certainly is but you're not going to convince me that people who are doing courses where they only have to attend for 4 or 5 hours a week are getting a world class education.

Further education has become a business and like any business they had the ups where thousands of people were being convinced it was a good idea to spend thousands on courses that wouldn't increase their chances of a job at the end of it but now they're experiencing the downs.

As always someone else is expected to provide the bail out.

Someone else being the students?

The idea we don’t have one of the best university systems on the planet is ludicrous. Just more “oh we’re uniquely crap” nonsense. Like the French don’t teach Media Studies or something.
 

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
All I can say is from personal experience from someone who went to a pretty mid uni that the course was a piece of piss. The last year of cheaper fees but would be a joke to say it was worth 9k now. There were genuinely a lot of other students who were extremely stupid as well.

My missus went to a mid uni in Slovakia and the work they had to put in was about 5-10x harder than what I had to do.

The best university in Slovakia ranks just below Manchester Met: https://www.usnews.com/education/be...urope&country=slovakia&country=united-kingdom

We have a wide offering including easier courses perhaps like yours. That doesn’t change that we have some of the best unis on the planet and numerous high quality courses in various unis.
 

Earlsdon_Skyblue1

Well-Known Member
The best university in Slovakia ranks just below Manchester Met: https://www.usnews.com/education/be...urope&country=slovakia&country=united-kingdom

We have a wide offering including easier courses perhaps like yours. That doesn’t change that we have some of the best unis on the planet and numerous high quality courses in various unis.

It's a completely nonsense report, as nearly all are when it comes to rankings for non-prestigous universities outside of English-speaking countries.

It might be a bit more believable if it hadn't put the highest Slovak institution below Manchester Met, but that's just laughable. It's also using many metrics which are based on reputation (which it admits) and has already been pointed out. Reputation is misleading as people like yourself have a misguided belief UK universities are better than they are. Citations also don't align, as having English as the core language of papers is a massive bias. It is another skewed metric.

My course shouldn't have been easy, it was a respectable subject that I should have worked tooth and nail for. Instead I learned nothing, turned up once a week at most, and walked away with a solid degree having done the absolute minimum. Try that in Slovakia and you'd be gone after a term. You'd be too far behind.

The rest of what you've said is basically what Dave has also answered. The top places in the UK, yes, highly valued. You then have an overwhelming majority which range from average to piss-poor.
 
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CCFCSteve

Well-Known Member
Courses charging 9K a year and only offering 6 hours face to face tuition a week…. 😡

Exactly, you’ve got to wonder where all the monies going !!! A lot of universities need to sort their shit out and stop blaming everyone else

At the moment some students get world class tuition in useful subjects after which they’ll earn a fortune. Others pay exactly the same price for a turd degree where they come out tens of thousands in debt and no better off academically.
 

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
Exactly, you’ve got to wonder where all the monies going !!! A lot of universities need to sort their shit out and stop blaming everyone else

At the moment some students get world class tuition in useful subjects after which they’ll earn a fortune. Some pay exactly the same price for a turd degree where they come out tens of thousands in debt and no better off academically.

We went over this before. If you don’t over charge for Phoebe’s History course you can’t undercharge for Ramesh’s Engineering degree.

Ultimately if the product isn’t worth it people won’t do it, but essentially Humanities degrees are a method of taxing the stupid to subsidise STEM students. Not smart enough for Pure Maths? You can still read Classics. And enough stupid people want a degree for status the system works. Whether that’s Boris Johnson at Oxbridge or a kid doing Media Studies at Northampton.

There’s a reason this anti education backlash is against the sort of unis working class people go to and not PPE at Oxford and it’s not about educational quality. When the rich stop sending their kids to Uni to read History, then I’ll have some sympathy.
 

MalcSB

Well-Known Member
We went over this before. If you don’t over charge for Phoebe’s History course you can’t undercharge for Ramesh’s Engineering degree.

Ultimately if the product isn’t worth it people won’t do it, but essentially Humanities degrees are a method of taxing the stupid to subsidise STEM students. Not smart enough for Pure Maths? You can still read Classics. And enough stupid people want a degree for status the system works. Whether that’s Boris Johnson at Oxbridge or a kid doing Media Studies at Northampton.

There’s a reason this anti education backlash is against the sort of unis working class people go to and not PPE at Oxford and it’s not about educational quality. When the rich stop sending their kids to Uni to read History, then I’ll have some sympathy.
Do you think Phoebe realises that is what is happening?
 

Sky Blue Pete

Well-Known Member
We went over this before. If you don’t over charge for Phoebe’s History course you can’t undercharge for Ramesh’s Engineering degree.

Ultimately if the product isn’t worth it people won’t do it, but essentially Humanities degrees are a method of taxing the stupid to subsidise STEM students. Not smart enough for Pure Maths? You can still read Classics. And enough stupid people want a degree for status the system works. Whether that’s Boris Johnson at Oxbridge or a kid doing Media Studies at Northampton.

There’s a reason this anti education backlash is against the sort of unis working class people go to and not PPE at Oxford and it’s not about educational quality. When the rich stop sending their kids to Uni to read History, then I’ll have some sympathy.
Harsh one of the most intelligent people I know studied classics and writes books
 

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
There are some shit degrees
There's also entire industries that now count a large percentage of their workforce as unpaid interns.

Saw it when I worked in the music industry. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people a year graduating with music management, event management, media studies etc degrees when there's only a handful of roles that come up every year.

Didn't take long before companies realise they could lay off staff and have a never ending supply of people happy to take on 6 or 12 month internships on the promise of a job opportunity that would never materialise.
 

Ian1779

Well-Known Member
It’s totally unrealistic for all degrees. Medicine and nursing should be fee free though, but with a contract to work in the NHS for a defined period.
Any shortage area or career that requires a degree should be free or heavily subsidised.
Education is another area on top of healthcare.
 

fernandopartridge

Well-Known Member
It’s totally unrealistic for all degrees. Medicine and nursing should be fee free though, but with a contract to work in the NHS for a defined period.

It is not totally unrealistic at all, it was realistic for many many years only changing in 2003. The idea that learning must be viewed purely through the lens of notional economic value will be to this country's long term detriment.
 

MalcSB

Well-Known Member
It is not totally unrealistic at all, it was realistic for many many years only changing in 2003. The idea that learning must be viewed purely through the lens of notional economic value will be to this country's long term detriment.
So where does the £30 billion come from? In reality.

It is free in Scotland but look at the shit state that country is in under the SNP.

I could totally support free or heavily discounted tuition for essential subjects, mainly STEM and education. That would be about it.
 

CCFCSteve

Well-Known Member
It is not totally unrealistic at all, it was realistic for many many years only changing in 2003. The idea that learning must be viewed purely through the lens of notional economic value will be to this country's long term detriment.

Making kids feel that getting a substandard degree is better than going down apprenticeship/vocational training route has already been to this country’s long term detriment.
 

fernandopartridge

Well-Known Member
So where does the £30 billion come from? In reality.

It is free in Scotland but look at the shit state that country is in under the SNP.

I could totally support free or heavily discounted tuition for essential subjects, mainly STEM and education. That would be about it.
It comes from the same place as every other £ spent,

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fernandopartridge

Well-Known Member
Making kids feel that getting a substandard degree is better than going down apprenticeship/vocational training route has already been to this country’s long term detriment.
Hardly, government funds £27k for some degree level apprenticeship standards which are not repayable. It funds nothing for a degree.

Weirdly it doesn't fully fund any healthcare related standards, unsure why that is.


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Ian1779

Well-Known Member
Judging by the attitudes people seem to have it is "they will be on 80k, they can afford it".

Like you say, it's spite.
The spite coming from the current group of elected representatives of which most benefited from free university tuition.
 

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