Jeez - this is scarey. employment situation

[Gibbon]

In defence of Art History

On my last module with the OU. Have been surprised how much it has taught me - not just about art history as such, but analysing sources, presenting arguments, evaluating evidence etc.

Never kidded myself that it would be any use, but actually has been a hell of a lot more use and more academically rigourous than I could have imagined.

In total agreement. I'm a lot better at arguing my case at work and also listening to conflicting views and weighing them up. I think the OU is rigorous though and not just a degree give away. On my introductory course well over half baled out before the end.

[OwlHoot]

I read a piece about Guy Martin, the bike racer. He reckons the government is unhealthily obsessed with sending kids to university. I totally agree.

The Government is unhealthily obsessed with aping other EU countries, in pursuit of some EU standard. I think about 50% of German students go on to uni, so we in the UK have to follow suit. Or so Blair and co reasoned.

But I'd guess many more Germans do useful engineering and language courses, instead of some of the doss subjects already mentioned.

[Sysman]

In defence of Art History

On my last module with the OU. Have been surprised how much it has taught me - not just about art history as such, but analysing sources, presenting arguments, evaluating evidence etc.

Never kidded myself that it would be any use, but actually has been a hell of a lot more use and more academically rigourous than I could have imagined.

I thought Psychology wouldn't be much use outside its own field, but it taught me similar skills and I found them invaluable when it came to writing business reports.

[OwlHoot]

I'm probably wrong, and being very unfair, but I always get the vibe that a university course ending in 'studies' must be mickey mouse.

Whatever happened to good old fashioned university courses like Spelling and Sums?

[Old Hack]

7K debt? What planet's that on? Fees now around 8K a year on average, plus 'maintenance loan' of around 3K. Chuck in another 5K per year for accommodation, and it's easily 50K for 3 years.

Fook me, in my second degree in the 90's I came away with 18k debt.

[eek]

so far i only know what m0 and m1 are ..not sure about gold and silver but food and water will be getting 15 % (at least) more expensive each year , or more with the recent news. Africa is projected for mass starvation in 2013. What i believe is being able to provide food and water on your own will be more and more valuable skill.

If only that was the case.

The reason why the economy is flatlining around the world is actual known. We don't know how to create money nowadays and the money we are creating is not going to the places we thought it would.

and while we want inflation (to inflate debt away) 20 years of experience in Japan shows that trying to inflation is not that simple. We know how to kill inflation (destroy demand) but we don't know how to create it.

[Mich the Tester]

The Government is unhealthily obsessed with aping other EU countries, in pursuit of some EU standard. I think about 50% of German students go on to uni, so we in the UK have to follow suit. Or so Blair and co reasoned.

But I'd guess many more Germans do useful engineering and language courses, instead of some of the doss subjects already mentioned.

Germany has a distinction between University and 'Fachhochschule' or vocational higher education; it's the same idea that Britain once had with Universities and Polytechnics, except that the Germans did a good job of it and the British government screwed it up, then magically renamed all the polys 'University of Bums on Seats'. Graduates from a German polytechnic take up highly skilled jobs in engineering, IT, healthcare and so on, while university graduates are more likely to go into research jobs. What the Germans AND the British got right is the idea that about 50% of people are capable of so-called 'higher level' learning, but the Germans recognised that within that group there are many who are better off learning practical skills that are directly applicable at work, and a smaller number who are best suited to more abstract research learning. A good start to dealing with the problem would be to reintroduce polytechnics, following the example of the best polys of the past, and ensure that Universities offer rigourous academic education while polys provide top quality higher vocational education.

There'd be no place for 'meejah studies', 'golf course management' or other nonsense in this, but it would, for example, be perfectly valid to teach people some of the highly skilled technical jobs in the media as part of a wider technical poly degree.

Unfortunately in Britain, polys became a dumping ground for the university rejects; those people were badly let down as they could have been given really good vocational training that would suit them better. Instead, they were shown a mirage of having a 'university degree' and told they'd never get a good job without a degree when they probably never even wanted to do the academic stuff.

[Old Hack]

In Australia, you have to have a qualification to do anything. Literally. Gardener? Need to be trained and certified. Pool cleaner? Need to be trained and certified.

I've always admired the German model of education, to be frank.

[SueEllen]

Good to see all the scientists have been able to get jobs - as it should be.

The nursing and early childhood studies students should be able to get jobs unless they were taken on to their courses with no practical experience in that kind of work.

The decent university courses, whether the institution was originally a poly or not, do not take on people with no practical experience on to their courses in these subjects.

You can actually do carework at 17-19 years old and you don't need a car to be able to do it.

[Sysman]

A good start to dealing with the problem would be to reintroduce polytechnics, following the example of the best polys of the past, and ensure that Universities offer rigourous academic education while polys provide top quality higher vocational education.

Yep. A lass I knew at Uni did Modern Languages and then went on to a uni that had recently been promoted from Poly status because she wanted to study Russian with a practical emphasis. That place also had a damn good engineering department and business school.