The Word Cloud

I would just like to say thank you to all the people that commented on my blog "It's a hard descision" I am grateful for all the advice given throughout an I have taken it all on board. I agree with all of you that maybe, unless my writing is succesful enough, that I should have a second job or at least something to fall back on. I have decided also to look for jobs in areas that I would be best suited in, journalism, literery agent, publisher ect. Thank you all again for your great advice, I hope that my descisions will have a good impact on my future. Thanks!

I was prompted to write the following by another (obscure) blog and I thought I'd post it here in its own right, so to speak, to see what counter arguments others may have.

Perhaps controversially, I think the biggest problem with tertiary education today is its availability to so many!
Back in the day (late sixties) we were told, doing A levels at Grammar school, how priviledged we were to be in the top 5%, educationally, and able to go on to university. Not everybody appreciated "being in the top 5%" and were only too anxious to stop learning and start earning - and many of them have done very well thank you - but most of us took the opportunity to gain all the advantages of studdying for a degree - not just accademic, but social, growing self-awareness and self confidence, broadening of horizons, and learning how to learn. Other friends, who went to Secondary Moderns and neither expected, wanted, nor could have benefited from a university course, learned well at a different level and were well set-up for their chosen careers in so-called blue collar jobs.

Now the government is determined with it's "equal opportunities" policies that, what ist it, 40%, 60%? of us should have a university-type education. What have been the inevitable results of this policy?

1) Very soon more university places were needed - the answer? Technical colleges and polytechnics that used to do an excellent job for those slightly less accademically gifted, changed their names to 'universities', changed their corricula - but probably not their lecturers - and changed the title at the top of their qualification certificates from Diploma to Degree. Their old 'diploma' students lost out and I seriously question whether their new students receieve anything like the input they would get at a traditional uni.

2) As that 'top 5%' was gradually extended, inevitably, the average capability of students began to fall - it couldn't possibly have been otherwise. In order to feed the newly available places more A level passes were needed - and, incredibly, we suddenly find that more and more pupils each year are achieving the 'required standard', but at what price to the school curriculum and the methods of measuring accademic ability, I can't help but wonder? And at the new 'universities' and, perforce at the old established ones, too, what has happened? Their courses must cater for all their students and with lower average levels of achievability, they all suffer.

3) Due to the vast increase in student numbers, the cost of providing tertiary education has grown enormously, with the result that tuition fees have had to be raised, student grants turned into student loans, overseas students forced to pay huge amounts. It seems to be now reaching the stage where the 'success' of the government's exercise to make university places available to all, is likely, through the increased costs, to start to limit places again to only the better off. Back to the situation in our grandfathers' day.

4) With degrees becomming two a penny (perhaps an unfortunate description in the light of tuition fees!) employers are finding it much harder to select the right people to fill their vacncies. They can no longer expect just any graduate to be of the calibre they require.

5) The huge increase in the number of graduates has not been matched (how could it have been?) in the number of suitable job vacancies. So we have an increasingly growing number of frustrated 'graduates' in unfulfilling jobs, or no jobs at all.

So the main achievement of the government's education policy, as I see it, has been to lower the average accademic level in the universities. On the other hand, I suppose, the average accademic level in the dole queues has been raised.

I will freely admit that within all this chaos I do believe there is still much excellent and highly accademic work going on at many universities (and even at some of the jumped-up polytechnics!). The 'old school standards' still persevere, but sadly I fear, they are becoming the exceptions.