department closures

A place to socialise and share opinions with other members of the BGAFD Community.
Locked
colin
Posts: 1283
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:40 am

department closures

Post by colin »

i see with concern that Exeter University is the latest to close one of it's departments, this time the music department. the reason is "cost effectiveness". am i being overly idealistic to believe that the education of our future generations should not be controlled by it's cost effectiveness, especially when there is millions of pounds of lottery funds sitting in bank accounts accruing interest for the government because it hasn't been allocated.
the secret to laying the foundation of democracy is knowing where to place the machine gun!(Foggy Dewhurst)
Pervert
Posts: 10396
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:40 am

Re: department closures

Post by Pervert »

Chemistry courses in some universities up here are going the same way. The trouble is they are not thrusting and sexy and "now" enough. They need buzz names like aural enhancement synergy suite or life sciences research facility.

Corporate brand names have turned everything into an advertising consultant's dream---and my nightmare---meaningless wank.

Why waste time on important ground work, like how science works, when you can do a thesis on games design?
Pervert
The Worlds Biggest Collector Of Ben Dover DVD`s
Koppite Till I Die
Remember - You`ll Never Walk Alone
Crimpo
Posts: 29
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:40 am

Re: department closures

Post by Crimpo »

Its nothing new - in the long gone days of my youth the classics departments were being axed. However, all students enrolled were allowed to complete their courses first...apparently the authorities no longer feel bound by such 'long-term' commitments
The Last Word
Posts: 1644
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:40 am

Re: department closures

Post by The Last Word »

The first of many symptoms, I imagine. Here lies the cause:

"The government wants 50% of people under the age of 30 to enter higher education in England by 2010." (BBC News)

Firstly, how can they be certain 50% under the age of thirty will want to? This is much the same as the unworkable 'uni for all' twaddle they were spouting a while back.

What they mean is to have university available for 50%, which is different, and will probably mean the introduction of many more newer, cheaper courses at the expense of others more costly and specialist, but still very essential, as we see here. These new courses will be made to look attractive to those without a clear career path (let alone interest in a subject) but have been made to believe that a degree, any degree, is an absolute necessity for any form of career/life progress. I've not long been looking at the list of some of these proposed newer courses and yes, depressingly, the m-word (meeja) features highly.

Not only that, which 50% will it be considering the escalating cost of attendance and subsequent debt? No prizes for guessing.

Call me old-fashioned but I like Universities to be a place of higher learning, where a degree equates with genuine academic acheivement for those most capable. Not an expensive stop-gap for middle-class offspring to listlessly drift through for the seemingly required 'status' of having a degree.

"Let's do it..."
Peter
Posts: 2692
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:40 am

Re: department closures

Post by Peter »

Its because kids are opting for easy option media studies, business studies, sports management, etc, whereby very little effort is needed to obtain a qualification in a pointless subject.

Real courses such as the sciences, which require intellegence and hard work, get pushed aside.
We have need of you again, great king.
nachovx
Posts: 1152
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:40 am

Re: department closures

Post by nachovx »

That's because we're supposedly a 'Service Economy' where we all sell each other stuff and make nothing. Great while the Chinese will work for ?100 euro a month to subsidise our consumption built on rocky foundations. Art, culture and education are what create a society - but in the UK we lack most of them, but we have the yob culture and chavs to compensate - now where's me shell suit, aye !!!
Deuce Bigolo
Posts: 9910
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:40 am

Re: department closures

Post by Deuce Bigolo »

The warning signs have been Flashing for a very long time since the economic rationalists gained control

Their very good at balancing the cheque book but haven't a clue about social policy and henceforth place no value on courses that don't generate Dollars for the economy

I agree their are far too many courses that are a joke but the end result won't be when the baby boomer generation start retiring.The skill shortages will be horrendous if their not already

Already skilled workers are being exported around the world to fill the skill shortages which are present.Every trade you could name has skill shortages

The sooner these economic rationalists realise that treating Universities as a business that must pay its own way is foolhardy

I wonder how many out there have the intelligience to go on but not the funding to do it

Forget terrorism the real threat is Skill shortages
Without skilled workers Economies don't exist

cheers
B....OZ
Locked