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[qrypt]

Article here.  Beyond the "students as consumers" crap, we're told that there needs to be greater commercialization of teaching & research, etc.  Nothing new, really -- it's just startling to see it all condensed into a single article/interview. 

Can we take consolation from the fact that he won't be around long enough to implement most of this?  Or is it likely that the Tories will go even further in this direction? 

[expatinuk]

I get the feeling that the Tories want to roll the clock back and make it harder to get into university and to close many of them.

[scotia]

I suppose it is  too much to hope that more picky and demanding students will demand that the government provide more money to increase faculty numbers to enable time to be put aside for an improved 'whole experience'? Most of the people I meet are fighting against the odds to give the students a good experience despite the cutbacks and general limitations that funding reductions/freezes impose.

[science_expat]

I think we've got tough times ahead regardless of the government....

[frenchdoctor]

Who would be silly enough to think UK universities are among the best in the world ? Actually, they're crap. That's why you need a big change : turn education into a consumer-centered market and universities into entertainment resorts.

For example, Cambridge is blatantly inefficient. Has Cambridge ever produced anything useful and creative ? Never. Has Cambridge ever trained a successful intellectual, scientist or businessman ? Of course not. Cambridge is a complete failure.

On the other hand, the University of Phoenix is the real McCoy. It's the model of success and excellence that we, Europeans, must follow. Let's compare the research output of the University of Phoenix with the research output of Cambridge. Obviously, Cambridge can't stand the comparison. And the success of the University of Phoenix graduates also speaks for itself : many brilliant minds studied here, who are now key members of the community, like ... well ... they are paying customers, and that's all that really matters.

Now, can anyone wake me out of these two nightmares we call "learning economy" and "Lisbon strategy" ?

I've the nagging feeling that this "strategy" is as brilliant as the French army strategy in 1939. 

[observer3]

LMAO at the above. So true.

And for more fun, see this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/oct/22/league-table-plan-for-universities

A pretty simple interpretation is that we are to become training centers for large corporations. Or am I becoming too cynical?

[wegie]

LMAO at the above. So true.

And for more fun, see this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/oct/22/league-table-plan-for-universities

A pretty simple interpretation is that we are to become training centers for large corporations. Or am I becoming too cynical?

I rather suspect that, like the new "no money to small research groups" stuff in the REF, this is yet another attempt to stuff the genie called "New Universities" back into the bottle labelled "Polytechnics and Colleges of HE/FE". The "relevant to the needs of local employers" bit is a direct harking back to the days when local businessmen used to be on the governing boards of the old Polys -- thus came Cov Poly's huge range of automotive engineering courses, for instance.

Your institution, though it may not look like that from the coal face, will be pretty well insulated from the sharp end of all this: your drop out rate is pretty much non-existant, your pass rate is up in the high 90s percent, your students go on to good jobs. If, on the other hand, I was a history lecturer at, oh, let's say UEL or LMU, I would be a very scared bunny.

I don't suppose I need to drone on about the innately functional and philistine nature of the units of assessment our political lords and masters plan to use? No, I thought not. Somebody remind me to register for all the classics courses possible at the OU before classics finally becomes a little public school ghetto at the last five universities in the country to teach it :-(

[frenchdoctor]

And for more fun, see this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/oct/22/league-table-plan-for-universities

A pretty simple interpretation is that we are to become training centers for large corporations. Or am I becoming too cynical?

[frenchdoctor]

oops. wanted to say something, that was stupid anyway, so I didn't put it, but I pushed the wrong button. Since the "modify" feature requires mongoose-like reflexes, I screwed everything up. Sorry for the two useless posts. 

[concordancia]

"If there is a degree of passivity, then I hope that without enjoining our student population to take to the barricades, I hope they will be more picky, demanding and choosy as [active, taking an interest in the actual product and not just its packaging, as] consumers of the higher education experience."

[cranefly]

And here I was hoping Europe might be the beacon of enlightenment in all this darkness.
Is it time to give up hope yet?

[frenchdoctor]

And here I was hoping Europe might be the beacon of enlightenment in all this darkness.
Is it time to give up hope yet?

If you want to witness how bureaucrats can waste what once was a splendid idea, the European Union is a premium place of study. For example, when you hear the words "european culture", you're probably thinking about Proust, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Bach, Kafka and alii ? How wrong. The EU commission on culture issues reports like that (yes, that's an actual quote, I'm not making it up) :


"In
accordance
with
Declaration
No
5
annexed
to
the
Final
Act
of
the
Intergovernmental

Conference,
the
European
Council
gives
its
political
agreement
on
the
draft
Decision

establishing
the
composition
of
the
European
Parliament
which
the
European
Parliament

politically
approved
on
11
October
2007,
as
revised
in
accordance
with
Declaration
No
4

annexed
to
the
Final
Act.
Accordingly,
the
wording
of
whereas
clauses
Nos
2
and
3
of
the

draft
Decision
will
be
adapted
to
reflect
the
wording
in
Article
9
A(2)
of
the
EU
Treaty
as

amended
by
the
Lisbon
Treaty
and,
in
the
table
contained
in
Article
2,
the
figure
relating
to

Italy
will
be
"73".
This
Decision
will
be
adopted
as
soon
as
possible
after
the
entry
into
force

of
the
Lisbon
Treaty,
in
accordance
with
the
procedure
laid
down
in
the
second
subparagraph
of
Article
9
A(2)
of
the
EU
Treaty
as
amended
by
the
Lisbon
Treaty."

[alleyoxenfree]

Students already are picky and demanding - hasn't he met any lately?  What they aren't, particularly, is studious, mature, and persevering.  I shudder to think how my former professors would have responded to variety of whines and complaints, and lack of preparation that I put up with on a daily basis.  It's not like we can open the trapdoor of their skull and shovel it in.  Even customers in stores actually deign to take action, like trying items on or checking the size.  These students are tv-viewing lumps, incensed that they can't get an education with the click of a remote.  Read something?  ouch, ooh, oh, don't make me!

[wegie]

Hmm. Announcement at 3pm today. However, reading the articles in the Guardian and on the Beeb has already sent my blood pressure through the roof. I did not enter the university sector to be labelled as a "teacher". My idea of hell on earth is to be a teacher. I am a scholar and a researcher (OK, not a particularly brilliant one), never a teacher.

I see league tables of contact hours in our future :-(

[frenchdoctor]

Has Mandelson some secret affair with Valérie Pecresse ? They sure would go well together.

I feel some Schadenfreude. At last, your university administrators are now as incompetent as ours. You thought you had good universities but, ha ! ha ! Mr. Mandelson -- I mean lord Mandelson -- will put a good order in all of this mess. No more silly elitism ! You know, all the useless persons wearing tweed jackets who blatter about Renaissance, Ruskin or how Bach uses counterpoint... Britain doesn't need stoopid cult-shure ! Lord Mandy knows better. Customer pressure, that's the right thing. That's what we already do in France. No culture, no elitism, no selection, no ivory tower ! Power to the students ! Blame the scholars first !

Of course, as alleyoxenfree said above, given how many students are, "customer pressure" actually means flying buckets of excrement and the occasional psycho who tries to burn your 11 yo kid. Who cares ? The customer is always right.

A small example of customer pressure in France : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHjoZyZnrO4

It was in 2006 and I was there. The president, an amiable man of outstanding culture, was besieged by a babbling, aggressive, immature crowd of students customers who made senseless demands. So, when I hear politicians who want to put an end to the "ivory tower", I have a mental picture that looks something like that : http://www.dinosoria.com/tragedie/chine_07.jpg (That's the maoist version. To have the libertarian variant, use a Ronald McDonald's outfit instead).

Before, you needed a totalitarian regime, either fascist or maoist, to humiliate the intellectuals. Today, thanks to customer pressure, you can reach the same purpose without even paying the Red Guards. What a saving it is.