Thursday, December 09, 2010

Student Fees Protest

Best quotes I've heard so far:

"The Government got in debt, so they are putting the people in debt to get out of it!"

"£9000 per year! How are we going to afford twenty one grand over three years!"

"The police stole my wallet!"

"Everyone has the human right to be educated to their fullest extent!"

"What do we want? A Future!!! When do we want it? Now!!!"

And from one well dressed young man: "We have come from the slums of London!"

I didn't hear anybody chanting "Charge the Thickos!" and I still can't understand anything Ed Milliband says.

15 comments:

Unknown said...

Too many students, too many Mickey Mouse courses.

The sensible course is to cut back student numbers, end the ridiculous courses such as 'leisure studies' and sociology and just teach real academic courses to students with serious ability.

Making a university education the preserve of the intellectual elite would be the humane and sensible solution to this funding crisis.

TonyF said...

I agree with Kit. "Making a university education the preserve of the intellectual elite would be the humane and sensible solution to this funding crisis." Absolutely, so long as it is the intellectual elite, and not the moneyed elite.

RuthnJasper said...

I don't have a TV, but have just returned home from a friend's house where I was watching the news coverage. It was disgusting. I disagree with a lot of the government's decisions - but the way to protest against them is NOT by vandalising statues, buildings and shops, assaulting policemen and beating the face of a police-horse with a stick (quite apart from kicking-in the Prince of Wales' car). It was shaming. I actually felt sorry for some of the students who were trying to make a legitimate, peaceful protest - they were stitched-up by the oiks as much as anyone else. I wonder if the rabble-rousers gave a thought to the amount of taxpayers' money that will now have to go to pay the police salaries, for the medical treatment of the injured officers, or for the cleaning and repairs to the mess that the 'protesters' left behind them...? Probably not.

Anonymous said...

Of course not! It's somebody else's money.

Best thing I heard tonight - a group of half-baked yoofs shouting "We want our money back!"
Errr... sorry - whose money?

Dack said...

Camilla was doing a good 'Home Alone' face in that photo though.

Rachel said...

Putting aside the student protests, it is still terrible to make having a degree depend on money and not ability.

Loads of bright people will avoid university. With students paying such huge amounts of money many universities will not want to fail or throw out terrible students.
It is just more dumbing down.

Doesn't the government realise that in perhaps 20 years time people in other countries will regard British universities as low standard places where any dumb person can study for money, as is the situation now in some third world countries.
The long term repercussions of this are terrible.

Anonymous said...

How about this.
If you get a first then your fees are written off.

Gordo said...

End useless courses; I'll bet there were no engineering students there, they would be too busy studying. Everyone should have a free USEFUL education.

Coldwater said...

Modification to Anonymous 12:45's idea:

If you get a first in a subject the name of which does not end with the word 'studies' or the word 'management' then your fees are written off.

Kimpatsu said...

@Anonymous:
How about a 2:1 in an exotic language? Does that count?
---
And how about people stop posting anonymously? You'd think they had something to hide!

Anonymous said...

You and your colleagues would be great riot cops Frank......

You could chase them all into a stationary cupboard, beating them with a hole punch shouting "Die, die die"

Wasn't that a tactic that worked for a colleague of yours??

Anonymous said...

How does the new price of a degree compare with the price of a car. Or do people in the UK get free cars these days.

Dack said...

Gadget - I didn't go into teaching to wallop the public over the head with anything.

Even as someone who was thrown though a window by a copper in the 70s as he called me a 'wog-lover' (there was a skinhead v black confrontation going on - my boyfriend was black) I've always been sympathetic to the police. But some of the views expressed on your blog (wrong + wrong = right) disgust me.

From some of them your comment @ 20.00 would not have been intended as a joke.

Anonymous Rob said...

Nope, nothing to hide, just no account to login with. :)
Bloody 4chan are giving us Anonymous chaps a bad name.

I don't actually object to the, um, softer skills degrees.
There is a place in the world for academic research of Star Treck, Random Media or other generic studies.
I rank them much like stuidies of Classics or Latin.
Useless for most people, interesting for academics and all knowledge adds to the collective good.

Perhaps every course could have 10% free places, 20% as £3k places, 20% 5k places and 50% £7k places.
This means that a few people can have free Latin degrees, but they are subsidised by the other students on the course.
(no, I haven't checked those number balance back to evens)

despair said...

higher education has become a business, it's all about bums on seats and raking in the fees, not the pursuit of knowledge. The students are only there to get a piece of paper that allows them to apply for better jobs and the colleges and universities don't give a damn about academic standards them as long as they get the fees. They'll let any old thicko in to uni now. Pity the poor lecturers who try to actually teach these pig ignorant idiots who call themselves students