Tuition Fees
The CBI has called for university tuition fees to be raised, financial support for students to be reduced and interest rates on student loans to go up. Funding should instead come from businesses in the form of scholarships and bursaries.
What they are recommending is nothing less than an education system totally at the mercy of business interests. The university would be reduced to the status of a factory, producing engineers, scientists and mathematicians for the sole purpose of generating economic growth.
These students would graduate with less of a debt to the state, it’s true, but owing a huge debt of gratitude to the company which sponsored them. Learning is reduced to a functional thing, a commodity, and education focused on “economically valuable” subjects, listed by the BBC as “science, technology [sic], engineering, maths and languages.”
As a languages graduate I am flattered that they consider my passion to be of economic value. Personally, I don’t think it is – everyone in the world of business worth his or her salt speaks enough English to do basic things like order room-service, buy a Ferrari or talk about their holiday in the Maldives – and, crucially, that’s not why I chose to study the subject.
Study, produce, consume – that’s the life cycle of a graduate as “business leaders” see us, and it’s hardly surprising (that’s why they do what they do). But there are plenty of good reasons to study sciences and engineering: Excellent employment prospects, high rates of pay, the opportunity to improve people’s lives through progress in your field, and of course intellectual curiosity. Corporate sponsorship does not need to be one of them.
Fortunately there is only one credible political party in this country that would take these barbaric suggestions seriously. Sadly they have every chance of winning the next election.
BBC News: "Charge students more, say bosses"
What they are recommending is nothing less than an education system totally at the mercy of business interests. The university would be reduced to the status of a factory, producing engineers, scientists and mathematicians for the sole purpose of generating economic growth.
These students would graduate with less of a debt to the state, it’s true, but owing a huge debt of gratitude to the company which sponsored them. Learning is reduced to a functional thing, a commodity, and education focused on “economically valuable” subjects, listed by the BBC as “science, technology [sic], engineering, maths and languages.”
As a languages graduate I am flattered that they consider my passion to be of economic value. Personally, I don’t think it is – everyone in the world of business worth his or her salt speaks enough English to do basic things like order room-service, buy a Ferrari or talk about their holiday in the Maldives – and, crucially, that’s not why I chose to study the subject.
Study, produce, consume – that’s the life cycle of a graduate as “business leaders” see us, and it’s hardly surprising (that’s why they do what they do). But there are plenty of good reasons to study sciences and engineering: Excellent employment prospects, high rates of pay, the opportunity to improve people’s lives through progress in your field, and of course intellectual curiosity. Corporate sponsorship does not need to be one of them.
Fortunately there is only one credible political party in this country that would take these barbaric suggestions seriously. Sadly they have every chance of winning the next election.
BBC News: "Charge students more, say bosses"
Comments
Post a Comment