What is Britain Good At?

ruggedtoast

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

I work at one of the UK's top universities- no shortage of overseas applicants here. I think we have 10 candidates for every place on our undergraduate course.

We have been awarded several research grants recently and are really struggling with recruitment. The dearth of top drawer UK graduates gets worse every year.

Edit to add: UK horseracing and bloodstock is still amongst the best in the world. Attendance for race meetings is holding up well in the downturn, especially at the premier events.

On behalf of the 120 other universities that don't come in the top 20 that have worked very hard to create a market over the last decade that has now been wiped out overnight thanks to David Cameron, I am very happy for you.

As you watch all the redundancies and courses closing in universities beneath you it must be of great comfort to know that you have a nice surfeit of applicants.

Generali

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

As a follow on to Generali's excellent thread about job creation, this article discussing what Britain is good at may be worth a look.





http://www.fool.co.uk/news/investing/2012/02/07/what-is-britain-good-at.aspx

Interesting post and it says a lot about the human condition that the reflexive response is, "Yes, but really everything is !!!!!!".

The response would be the same on the French Expert_Epargner_de_l'Argent.com.fr or MoneySavingMate.com.au if you listed the things France or Australia was good at doing.

dunstonh

What is Britain Good At?

Going OT....

Claiming benefits
blaming someone else
taking no personal responsibility
No sense of pride or respect
no ambition
taking the easy way out

I think that is what we are good at.

Generali

Generali wrote: »

Interesting post and it says a lot about the human condition that the reflexive response is, "Yes, but really everything is !!!!!!".

dunstonh wrote: »

Going OT....

Claiming benefits
blaming someone else
taking no personal responsibility
No sense of pride or respect
no ambition
taking the easy way out

I think that is what we are good at.

See what I mean?

ruggedtoast

Generali wrote: »

Interesting post and it says a lot about the human condition that the reflexive response is, "Yes, but really everything is !!!!!!".

The response would be the same on the French Expert_Epargner_de_l'Argent.com.fr or MoneySavingMate.com.au if you listed the things France or Australia was good at doing.

I don't think everything is !!!!, but the neo-liberal free market assumption that we outsource jobs to them, and they buy back knowledge services from us, isn't working, if it were unemployment wouldn't be so high.

Currently we've got millions of people who are unemployed, many of whom are trained for a global knowledge economy that doesn't want them.

chewmylegoff

dunstonh wrote: »

Going OT....

Claiming benefits
blaming someone else
taking no personal responsibility
No sense of pride or respect
no ambition
taking the easy way out

I think that is what we are good at.

Interesting to see that providing financial advice doesn't feature in your top 6....

chewmylegoff

ruggedtoast wrote: »

I don't think everything is !!!!, but the neo-liberal free market assumption that we outsource jobs to them, and they buy back knowledge services from us, isn't working, if it were unemployment wouldn't be so high.

Currently we've got millions of people who are unemployed, many of whom are trained for a global knowledge economy that doesn't want them.

so what's your solution? sell more lower tier university courses which clearly don't help anyone into work to overseas students and then allow then to stay afterwards so they can work in a UK call centre instead of an indian one?

ruggedtoast

chewmylegoff wrote: »

so what's your solution? sell more lower tier university courses which clearly don't help anyone into work to overseas students and then allow then to stay afterwards so they can work in a UK call centre instead of an indian one?

You are making a massive, and mostly completely inaccurate, generalisation about overseas students and the university courses that many of them do.

The fastest growing area for HE, was, Masters students in Tourism and Hospitality, which is up there in Hamish's top right quadrant.

The fact that MA grads who have already sunk about £25k on average into the UK economy on average in their one year of study, can't even work for one year in an industry where there are not willing or suitable UK applicants, has killed off an important market.

Incidentally the wages they earn in their work period also contribute to our GDP, are taxed, and much of them are spent here.

But thats fine, just read the Daily Mail, a multi billion pound industry has been wiped out in one year, but there are fewer, degree educated, brown faces around on temporary visas for little England to get upset about so all is well.

Meanwhile the uncontrolled march of pregnant Eastern Europeans, bogus asylum seekers, muslim fanatics, and anyone else from the eurozone who would get more benefits here than where they come from, continues unabated.

Jennifer_Jane

ruggedtoast wrote: »

And you may as well take HE out of there now as our government is doing everything it can to stop cash rich international students coming here, and spectacularly succeeding. We've lost about £400 million from India alone this year.

Legal services, there is a demand for those in bric countries but even commonwealth countries now have different legal systems to us so it isn't one we are well placed to cater to.

Aerospace, hasn't helped us just now against Rafale.

Financial services, yeah, envy of the world.

Tourism, again, within those countries. Our ability to supply tourism came from HE courses, which the coalition has killed of overnight.

Pharmaceuticals, yes.

Fashion? I think gok wan plays on some hotel channels in Malaysia.

Amongst pharmaceuticals with health benefits, we also export pharmaceuticals to, for example, the US, for lethal injections! Unsure how ethical that is....

chewmylegoff

Christ, yesterday I needed to stop reading the BBC and Guardian, today i'm a daily mail fascist. I can't do anything right.

Anyway, are there any reliable stats to show what the fall numbers is, and specifically the fall in the number of people applying to universities and for what courses.

I am rather sceptical that the weight of the changes is falling on MEng students waving £25k around. I would have thought that it would be more targeted at people who can't speak a word of English claiming to be studying at tower hamlets college of illegal immigration, although obviously now I think about it, it would be too much to ask for the govt to implement any policy competently.