Are UK Universities a drag on our economy?

dopester

Not bad jennikitten. Not bad at all. Really.

jennikitten

borntobefree wrote: »

Oh really. When I googled English Literature research I can up with lots like this

http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/encap/research/englishliterature/index.html

The main periods of research in the English Literature Group are:

• Medieval Literature
• Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature
• Eighteenth-Century Literature
• Romanticism
• Late Nineteenth-Century Literature
• Early Twentieth-Century Literature

The main fields of research include:

• Austen and Book History
• Chaucer
• Crime Fiction
• Gothic and Gender
• Illustration Studies
• Literature and the Law
• Modern Medievalism
• Modernism
• Modern Drama
• Old Norse
• Postcolonial Studies
• Robin Hood Studies
• Shakespeare and Theory
• Wales-Ireland
• War and Literature
• Women's Writing

That's postgrad though.

borntobefree

jennikitten wrote: »

That's postgrad though.

Well no - Robin Hood Studies is the research area of

Professor Helen Phillips - BA Hons (Oxford), MA (Warwick), MPhil (Oxford), PhD (Nottingham)



Research areas - Political and cultural implications of late-medieval writings and their afterlife. Chaucer, Robin Hood studies, dream poetry, romances, ninenteenth-century medievalism.

http://cardiff.ac.uk/encap/contactsandpeople/profiles/phillips-helen.html

I'm sure it's very interesting but how much of this stuff do we need?

vivalagloria

The fees issue only really applies to undergraduate, because graduate studies are not easily funded.

And I don't think the answer is to cut ANYTHING from the education budget. As far as I'm concerned, education is up there with medicine as things that are most essential. It's easy to say "but the money isn't there, we need to make cuts" but actually I think we don't. There is PLENTY of money. It's just in the wrong hands, in the wrong places. And this I think isn't something that just applies to the UK, it's worldwide. Everywhere is in debt... rich nations are becoming more and more in debt, but inflation continues to go up, all anybody cares about is making more money. And the poor have no way out. There's billions of pounds in the world being used to pay footballers and make awful Pirates of the Caribbean sequels, and yet people are still living in poverty, dying of starvation. There's money in the budget to spend two million pounds on a 'happiness survey' and send thousands of British citizens to fight a war we (debatably) should have kept out of, but not enough money to fund universities. Yeah right. It's not really about education, it's just politicians being politicians... power hungry and too blinkered in getting themselves to the top to see the bigger picture.

olly300

borntobefree - the professor's studies cover 5 subject areas. Though I would expect her to be at the University of Nottingham or around there for Robin Hood Studies.

borntobefree

Dirk_Rambo wrote: »

my aunties cousins best freind went to universeity. right waist of time that was. shes bean on the rock and roll ever since

lol - did u even go 2 skool ?

borntobefree

olly300 wrote: »

borntobefree - the professor's studies cover 5 subject areas. Though I would expect her to be at the University of Nottingham or around there for Robin Hood Studies.

She's at Cardiff but must have had links with Nottingham. I think Robin Hood studies must be fascinating but we do need a national debate as to whether we want to fund this stuff.

borntobefree

vivalagloria wrote: »

And I don't think the answer is to cut ANYTHING from the education budget.

We can't just write a blank cheque for everything Universities want - we don't have any money! NONE, ZILCH, nil, zero, nothing - It's only the smooth talking of the coalition that has stopped us being the next Greece and Iceland and there is still no guarantee that that won't happen......

Education may be important but some of it is more important than other bits.

ekkygirl

University is an expensive jolly. Most of the courses could be done in 18 months with fewer holidays. Some Psycology students were only in 8 hours a week chemistry were in 30+ yet they paid the same.
Dont know what the answer is but what happens now isn't it.

borntobefree

vivalagloria wrote: »

awful Pirates of the Caribbean sequels,

I love the Pirates Movies and, moreover, they make a lot of money - and that money is taxed and pays for (you guessed it) "Robin Hood Studies" and services for the elderly and disabled.