I think that's fair to a point, RC, but there's also value in studying something just to learn. To increase your knowledge and improve the way you think is important in itself. But I think a lot of people in the past have done degrees neither to improve job prospects nor increase their brainpower, but as a way of putting off the real world. I do think that should be discouraged. But most people don't live the lives they expected to or follow the career paths they envisioned when they were 18, so a lot of people studying just to learn discover new interests that lead to new opportunities.
I'm worried that dedicated people who have a real interest in studying are being put off because they are thinking pragmatically about the usefulness of the degree, while the people who would sleep through their lectures are the ones still applying because they don't really care about the future debt.
Quote: Tursiops @ December 13 2012, 12:40 PM GMTThere should be some central co-ordination to ensure that the number of places on occupational degrees reflects anticipated demand, but what do about non-occupational degrees, where frankly there is no demand? Do I consider three years studying medieval history at a provincial university wasted? Pretty much if I am honest. I was too young and twatish to take full advantage of the opportunities for personal development provided by full-time education; and even if I had studied properly the career opportunities related to my degree were vanishingly small (and almost entirely taken by Oxbridge graduates), while a 2.2 did nothing much to help me in the real world (in my organisation there are contemporaries without degrees who long ago outstripped me on the career ladder, and good luck to them.) I am only thankful that I did not have to pay for any of it. (Being a peasant I qualified for a full grant and it was long before the days of tuition fees.)
We should maintain our academic institutions as centres of excellence, but they should be for the brightest and best (and by that I do no necessarily mean those whose parents could afford to send them to public school exam factories.) Where educational spending should be concentrated is at the criminally underfunded primary level, to ensure that we bring all our children up to a certain level, and on further education, to provide learning opportunities through life for those with a genuine interest in pursuing them.
I agree. It's shocking how under-educated some of the children leaving school are. I remember watching a programme where they gave A-C grade GCSE students a 50s style education for a week, and most of them couldn't identify the UK on a world map.
Mediaeval history is fab! And without that degree how else would you bore people watching historical epics by commenting on anachronisms and the inefficient use of siege engines? Just me?
