Both of the top two Tories from their election seem wildly incompetent, Tom, Mel and even Cleverly seemed competent from their appearances on tv and work in previous governments.
For what it's worth, though I don't completely disagree with the concept, I think the existence of tuition fees is a significant contributor to this phenomenon. Universities wouldn't accept so many people if there wasn't money to be made from receiving all these fees I think the maintenance loan has significant issues too - it just hasn't kept up with the cost of living which leaves a significant number of students working long hours on top of studying, which I'd imagine is further detrimental to the development of professionals in key sectors.
I think fundamentally there are too many Universities and too many courses. There was a big boom in both the number of Universities and courses in the 2000s when Student Loans were relatively cheap and suddenly everybody was going to Uni just for something to do when they turn 18 and an excuse to postpone adulthood and decision making for a few years longer. Which led to too many weak institutions and weak, pointless courses which people take out loans for, don't benefit from and have to pay what is effectively an extra tax for the rest of their working lives. It benefits no-one other than the institutions themselves. Certainly not society and the public purse, and not the individuals who are saddled with Student Loan debt and an extra tax to pay for the rest of their working lives without getting the benefits of a more lucrative graduate career in return. I think we're starting to reach a tipping point now where going to University is simply too expensive if you're not actually committed to it and aren't studying a course that's likely to benefit your career and earnings on the future. I think we're going to see a decline in people going to Uni for the sake of it studying degrees that don't really go anywhere like Sociology in low quality institutions and I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing some casualties amongst the weaker Universities and a cull of many of the weaker courses. It got too big, the bubble's burst and I think we're going to see a decline soon.
Yes and no. There's always a place for technical skill teaching. There's not always a place for waffle and some courses are frankly totally waffle. Btw sociology and other such topics are important in public services so I'm not talking about those. There's a limit to the amount of archaeologists talking about aliens doing everything that we need on tv!
It's more about the number of people studying those sorts of courses and the quality of the degrees. Obviously there's a place for those sorts of courses. But there needs to be less, better quality courses with a higher entry bar. So the people who study them might actually benefit from it, and the country therefore benefit overall. And the people who are less academically able and are unlikely to gain anything meaningful from studying those sorts of courses are either put off from applying entirely or fail to meet the entry requirements if they do. Thus saving them a lot of money and wasted time. While degrees that do need large numbers of applicants and are important to the economy and the country, like nursing, need to have incentives to study like bringing back bursaries paid for by the money saved from less people studying things like social sciences, sports degrees, arts and humanities. There are millions of people with either worthless degrees or they never completed them and still took out loans who are saddled with that debt and what is effectively an extra tax for the rest of their working lives.
Guess I'll put this here since there probably won't be a Kemi Badenoch Next PM thread. She might just be the worst I've ever seen at a dispatch box. Christ.
I worked in higher education until the summer when my contract wasn't renewed due to low student numbers for this academic year. I'm now in FE which is much better funded and more practical. It's a bit more disorganised but it has nowhere near the existential challenges HE faces. The biggest threat to the worth of degrees is the rise in AI and universities not taking a consistent line in its use. Out of 20 assessments I'd say 30% were fully genuine attempts which was an absolute ballache to mark and you have to mark them as genuine because you need so much proof to accuse students of cheating as they're too scared of a drop in tuition fees. Basically the students wear the trousers. What we're seeing and what governments will promote is a push into FE. To generalise (and it is a generalisation but some truth in it) FE students are generally less able academically and there isn't much critical thinking needed in the courses offered. It gets people into jobs but the product will be lots of compliant young people which is great to spread your ideology and indoctrinate people. That's why Trump is taking a similar line. Closing universities will trigger major unemployment but there needs a lot of fundamental reform in finance and the content together with how it teaches its courses. I'm not sure the political will is there in many cases.
x.com "It was ok when we implemented it, but it's not now it's impacting people on our side" And we're supposed to take these bellends seriously
Another apparent cock-up by the government due to them simply not thinking it through. It seems wholsalers can still buy 'Zombie knives' for between £6 and £8, so they are buying them and getting £10 each from the government scrappage scheme, hence one wholesaler has 'handed in' 35,000 knives . . .
That's fraud and they should be prosecuted for it. Both for ordering the knives in the first place, and for deliberately trying to defraud the amnesty scheme.
Strange, after the Johnson/Truss/Sunak regimes it seems amazing that a member of government has done the right thing almost immediately after being caught out being a tad economical with the truth. Louise Haigh has resigned as transport secretary after pleading guilty to a criminal offence related to incorrectly telling police that a work mobile phone was stolen in 2013. In a letter to Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer, Haigh said she was “totally committed to our political project” but that it would be "best served by my supporting you from outside government”. Her resignation comes a day after she admitted that she told police she had lost her phone during a mugging on a night out but later found it had not been taken. She said it was a "genuine mistake" but had been advised by a lawyer "not to comment" during a police interview. The police then referred the case to the Crown Prosecution Service, she said. She said she pleaded guilty to making a false report to police at a magistrates' court six months before becoming an MP in the 2015 election, and received a discharge - the "lowest possible outcome". Louise Haigh quits as transport secretary over phone offence
I thought Labour were going to abolish the upper house, or at least the hereditary spongers in it, but now it seems they will just continue sending more and more failed MPs to the £350/day trough. Disappointing.
Labour are a disgrace, she should have been kicked from Parliament and removed from the Labour party for show such disrespect.
bottom of the barrel now for the right wing mouth breathers. Gonna topple the Government criticising a backbench MP for wearing a leather jacket from Zara.