If you have concerns about the direction that Britain’s higher education sector is going then you will probably be interested in a recent article over on The Critic magazine’s website. When you read this article you will probably find your concerns validated as the authors of the piece, the Critic editorial team, have listed much that is wrong which needs to change.
Problems like grade inflation and the dominance of intellectual dogma are massive ones for British universities. These institutions, which were once admired across the world, are now ones where dogma, bureaucracy and falling standards are the norm. We should not be in a situation where academics find that they can have more freedom to think and speak outside of the academy than inside it.
The Critic said:
The beating heart of any healthy university environment must be freedom of enquiry. But the current government has failed to conserve such an atmosphere. Such academics as have meaningfully conservative views habitually self-censor their politics. Meanwhile the jaded public notices ever more astringently how brave academics who hold heterodox views actually have to leave higher education to find their full voice. The bad are driving out the good.
That we do not have freedom of enquiry for academics in our university system is an absolute scandal and one that will bite Britain hard on the arse in future years. It will certainly damage the image of British higher education among the public at large.
Read the rest of this excellent Critic article via the link below. Read it and weep for what Britain’s once great and respected university system has become.
https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/february-2023/death-by-degrees/
Not just Unis, who really believes, Doctors, scientists and politicians any more.
this is what happens when the weak and incompetent are giving positions beyond their merit for touchy feely reasons. They make bad decisions and with the certain knowledge they are doing what is right push them through no matter what the impact.
It’s from the Uni’s that this belief among professionals that this situation where ideology is placed above reality has come from. I can’t remember who said it but it seemed apt. The phrase in question was ‘You might be worried with good reason about strong men but being led by weak men is infinitely worse’. Weak people who put ideology and unquestioning belief in the correctness of said ideology, which can of course be anything, might do a whole lot more damage than those who might reasonably be said to be ‘strong’.
The simple truth is that there are too many universities and too many students wasting their money on worthless degrees. I blame Blair’s 50% target.
Solution? For starters close the bottom 25% of uni’s (use the sites for technical/further ed colleges), close another 25% of departments and courses (as a rough rule any course with ‘studies’ in the title), give bursaries for STEM degrees but charge for humanities- drop these fees back down to £3k and write off the higher fees charged since 2012 to graduates to make this sellable.
You are correct in saying that Blair’s 50% target is primarily to blame for this. What we should do is go back to the old system where only the best of the best of A level or its equivalent holders get to go to university but also make it fully funded again. That way we weed out the piss poor courses and only fund those that are worth having and I include important cultural course such as history and classics in that category. The underperforming and lower level universities should go back to being Polytechnics with an emphasis on vocation oriented qualifications including vocational degrees.