Nice people thread part 5 - nicely does it

CKhalvashi

chewmylegoff wrote: »

I personally think there should be a charge for higher education- when I was there, there were so many wasters there it wasn't funny.

However, the govt should has really missed an opportunity to make the system work for the economy. If it was free to do an engineering degree, but £20k a year to read law, for instance...

That’s an interesting concept, and one that works in countries such as Russia, whereby university fees are based on course need.

I’ve got a BSc equivalent in Structural Engineering (Moscow) and an MSc equivalent in Molecular Chemistry (Tbilisi) as I didn’t have to pay for it, and I’m qualified to teach Science (Chemistry and Physics specialities, Cambridge PGCE) and have also taught Russian in my time.

I did this through the old 5-year model, which is considered virtually useless in some western EU countries.

It would work, but would need some severe implementation to be able to work in the UK.

vivatifosi

So CK's another scientist... How many is that among our ranks now? Must be over 50% surely?

silvercar

vivatifosi wrote: »

So CK's another scientist... How many is that among our ranks now? Must be over 50% surely?

Do mathematicians (statisticians to be accurate) count as scientists?

michaels

I hope that wasn't in an NP part of the county :eek:.

I went to the Supermarket and was surprised how empty the carpark was...still it meant some good short date discounts.

vivatifosi wrote: »

I must have done my weekly supermarket shop near one of those today. It's the first time I've notice people walking round the supermarket wearing shorts, vest tops and those electronic ankle bracelet things.

I am working on a nearest neighbour comparator problem and am struggling with my (dis)similarity distance metric. I am using a Gower coefficient but there is an issue with correlation between the input factors. I have looked at using PCA but the resulting orthogonal components are non-intuitive which means they are not suitable for a stakeholder weighting exercise. Any thoughts?

silvercar wrote: »

Do mathematicians (statisticians to be accurate) count as scientists?

LydiaJ

zagubov wrote: »

I used to advise my students that if they miss a grade for Nottingham they'd be wasting their time phoning to negotiate- they never give an inch.

There are always stories like that going round sixth-formers and those that teach them. They're all wild over-generalisations. Those sorts of decisions are mostly made at the departmental level, so that what's true for one subject may be quite the opposite for another. For example, when I was young the received wisdom was that Bristol wouldn't consider you if you didn't put them as first choice on your form. My dad was admissions tutor for one course at Bristol, and he never took any notice at all of the position that potential students had put him on the form.

vivatifosi wrote: »

So CK's another scientist... How many is that among our ranks now? Must be over 50% surely?

So the archetypal NP is a scientist who loves mushrooms, lives in Herts, is married to a Jew and ... what have I missed out??

zagubov

chewmylegoff wrote: »

I personally think there should be a charge for higher education- when I was there, there were so many wasters there it wasn't funny. No one is helped by a system that enables people to just have a free party for three years whilst scraping a 2.2 learning nothing useful.

However, the govt should has really missed an opportunity to make the system work for the economy. If it was free to do an engineering degree, but £20k a year to read law, for instance...

I'm amazed they needed to expand the HE sector at all (unless it was for the reasons I'd suggested in my earlier post).


I've a friend who grew up in East Germany who told me they taught everyone a trade even if they studied a degree. So her pal had a medical degree and was a trained hairdresser too!
Their attitude was there was no unemployment so they had to ensure you were employable. ( I think I've mentioned this before but hey-ho)

CKhalvashi

vivatifosi wrote: »

So CK's another scientist... How many is that among our ranks now? Must be over 50% surely?

silvercar wrote: »

Do mathematicians (statisticians to be accurate) count as scientists?

According to UK universities, I’m not a scientist.

I’m qualified in Russia as such, and in the UK as a teacher of Science, however

PasturesNew

michaels wrote: »

Any thoughts?

Square it, then square root it.
All I can offer...

PasturesNew

I think the American system that a lot of my online friends do seems to be ideal: a system of night-schools, where you go "like evening classes". People over there seem to all be working full-time, then doing nightschool.

The buildings exist.... so it isn't unreasonable.

PasturesNew

zagubov wrote: »

I'm amazed they needed to expand the HE sector at all (unless it was for the reasons I'd suggested in my earlier post).


I've a friend who grew up in East Germany who told me they taught everyone a trade even if they studied a degree. So her pal had a medical degree and was a trained hairdresser too!
Their attitude was there was no unemployment so they had to ensure you were employable. ( I think I've mentioned this before but hey-ho)

I think hairdressing is a great idea.... as I see it, it's something you can get a job at, build up your own "mobile hairdressing" business evenings/weekends, or just specialise and do "wedding hair" on Saturdays. Then there's the whole "rent a chair" system at a lot of salons.

I've never seen a hairdresser with a cheap car.... however, there's a stigma. At my school, if you couldn't read or write, you'd be bussed out to hairdressing school from 14-16, so I always associate hairdressers with thick people