Universities' annual funding reduced by £533m

Sapphire

phil_b wrote: »

Great idea. My first year at uni was a joke, we all may as well have just skipped to the second year. I beleive the same can be said for the majority.

If they could somehow deal with the student first-year dosser mentality and make them get their butts into gear straight away then the budget cuts could be dealt with easily and painlessly.

I know I sound like a party-pooper but uni students should get whipped into shape far more ruthlessly instead of encouraging them to go out on the p!ss every night and lay around for large portions of their 3-year dragged-out stint.

Too many people nowadays are going to college to obtain degrees that are useless in practice, with the result that degrees have been devalued in this country. No wonder they cannot get jobs. It would be far better and more useful to society in general for many of them to be taken on as apprentices and learn practical skills in various trades/jobs after they leave school.

ukcarper

Sapphire wrote: »

Too many people nowadays are going to college to obtain degrees that are useless in practice, with the result that degrees have been devalued in this country. No wonder they cannot get jobs. It would be far better and more useful to society in general for many of them to be taken on as apprentices and learn practical skills in various trades/jobs after they leave school.

Apprenticeships gave you the option not only to learn practical skills but through day release to get real qualifications up to and including degrees. I can’t see many modern companies being prepared to put that kind of investment into its employees.

ThrowingStonesAtYou

Did the tories get in while I was asleep? I thought it was 'Labour Investment, Tory Cuts'.

edgex

a 2 year degree?
:rotfl:

the uni i worked at, it was a 4 year degree, with a compulsory placement year as the 3rd year

themanbearpig

The institution is far more important than the degree in most cases.

Get a 2.1 in any degree from a top 20 uni + have over 300 points (BBB at Alevel), and you've got a shot at getting a graduate job in most fields.


I personally would regard anyone outside of this group as wasting their money, as entry requirements for every graduate place will render the degree useless. The job market has auto-filtered most degrees without the government needing to.

Even if they get a 1st from somewhere average, but got poor Alevels, it still won't help them because all employers now set minimum Alevel requirements, and in some cases GCSE grade requirements!

phil_b_2

themanbearpig wrote: »

all employers now set minimum Alevel requirements, and in some cases GCSE grade requirements!

That's crazy. By the time you've finished a uni degree your GCSE's are well and truly redundant.

Masomnia

I hadn't absolutely ruled out voting Labour, but having read this I definitely am. Ruling it out, that is, not voting for them!

We can afford two wars, hundreds of billions for banks, Child Trust Funds, useless NHS managerial staff, but can't educate our citizens properly. If anything is an investment for the future it is well educated people who can compete on the world stage. Disasterous decision.

I'll be writing to my MP to voice my displeasure.

olly300

phil_b wrote: »

That's crazy. By the time you've finished a uni degree your GCSE's are well and truly redundant.

It's a way of screening people to reduce applicants.

Unfortunately it disadvantages those, and I studied with a few, who didn't see the point of working at their qualifications until they were a bit older.

olly300

edgex wrote: »

a 2 year degree?
:rotfl:

It really depends on the course.

I know some degrees where the students average 30+ hour weeks can't be fitted into 2 years there as others where the students average 6-9 hours could be. Especially as I know people in the latter group who managed to basically work full-time hours in a cr!ppy job.

[Deleted User]

Well we spent about 32hrs a week in lectures and lab sessions.. the rest was spent in the library finding papers (a few years before the days of the electronic journals). The only way to shove that into 2 years would be to get rid of the summer break.

Get a 2.1 in any degree from a top 20 uni + have over 300 points (BBB at Alevel), and you've got a shot at getting a graduate job in most fields.

You forgot to say 'reading a sensible subject'..

I have a 2:2 from a redbrick & Russel Group uni and dodgy 3 Cs A Levels.. yet people don't look at my desmond and think i am a big stupid head because my degree was in Genetics. A subject people rarely write off as easy.

It's not exactly Golf Course management..