Too many students? Too many universities?

[spooky3]

...

I went to uni as a mature student and was in classes with kids of 18-20 and half of them had no idea of the basics, and the lecturer spent loads of time going over knowledge they should have brought to the lecture theatre or labs with them.

...

 

On my uni course i'd say everyone had the capabilities, but not the life skills (I was a mature student), e.g. couldn't handle the pressure of constructive criticism, hard deadlines, heavy workload, etc...

 

 

But, a few years ago I did a NVQ or something (it was just for fun for me), but there were many who were using it as an access course to uni. The course was quite heavy on maths and electronics. A whole group started cheating on all the tests and exams, the teacher knew too. They all passed and went on to uni, many taught by the same teacher, but they had all dropped out by the end of the first (one actually got about 3 months into year two). They all left with debt and wasted time, because it was obvious that they wouldn't handle the academic side of it!

 

Me and a few others supposed at the time that they were just put in the system because of the money for the uni! Since it was the same teacher, it was in the interest of his wages to have a full course!

[spooky3]

...

How to use a Mac and PC was on a course description and there is a very obvious and significant difference between the two due to their different operating systems. Its not like saying a toshiba versus a HP. Generally macs are in a different section to PCs on online stores even though a mac is a PC. Im sure you know this though and are just being pedantic.

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No being pedantic with you, with the market and representation in life, yes.

 

PC = Personal Computer. So that includes virtually all computers.

 

It's like people not knowing that Windows is an operating system, I run Linux (another operating system) which so happens to be be of the same genus of the Mac OS X, both of which stem from Unix. See the film Pirates of Silicon Valley for a little history...

 

At the end of the day, descriptions like the one you've just referenced make me laugh because it's a cheap sell, and really makes me wonder if the course will a. be any good, b. be full of people persuaded by such statements. See this post for more...

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[spooky3]

I never claimed either required a degree, I don't think either do.

 

This I disagree with.

 

Both are very involved and technical topics which benefit from the way higher education works.

[llamatron]

No being pedantic with you, with the market and representation in life, yes.

 

PC = Personal Computer. So that includes virtually all computers.

 

It's like people not knowing that Windows is an operating system, I run Linux (another operating system) which so happens to be be of the same genus of the Mac OS X, both of which stem from Unix. See the film Pirates of Silicon Valley for a little history...

 

At the end of the day, descriptions like the one you've just referenced make me laugh because it's a cheap sell, and really makes me wonder if the course will a. be any good, b. be full of people persuaded by such statements. See this post for more...

 

Everyone knows this and knows that when people say it generally they mean a windows computer. If people are talking about a mac they say mac and linux users tend to say x computer running linux.

 

These courses are not academic and far too general and would benefit from things like polytechnic courses. I think they are both good arguments for higher fees as suddenly they seem not worth it!

 

computer programming, computer animation, journalism are all small areas of these very broad courses and if they are studied in depth maybe then they become worth 3 years of study as you leave with a very specific set of skills.

 

I couldn't disagree with you more!

[oldprune]

I always got the impression that the government encouraged more and more people to become students as it kept the unemployment figures down.

It is good for people to obtain qualifications, but if folk lack a basic level of intelligence studying for a degree of any sort might not be the answer.

[spooky3]

Everyone knows this...

 

Then why did you fall into the trap?

 

 

I couldn't disagree with you more!

 

What, are you saying that anyone can be a good journalist with integrity and all the other skills required?

 

Then, i've been studying computing since 1982, I learn new things everyday, new technologies are always evolving.

 

Personally I think you don't have a clue! Your comments are somewhat simplistic.

 

Have you ever completed a degree?

[llamatron]

Then why did you fall into the trap?

 

I didn't fall into any trap, you agreed it is the norm to use this language.

[spooky3]

I didn't fall into any trap, you agreed it is the norm to use this language.

 

Not quite!

 

EDIT:

 

The norm for the uneducated and media sheep!

[llamatron]

 

What, are you saying that anyone can be a good journalist with integrity and all the other skills required?

 

Then, i've been studying computing since 1982, I learn new things everyday, new technologies are always evolving.

 

Personally I think you don't have a clue! Your comments are somewhat simplistic.

 

Have you ever completed a degree?

 

I don't understand your first comment at all, your second comment is irrelevant, your third comment is attempting to be offensive but I think it is a simple issue. Academic subjects belong in degrees vocational subjects are better learnt on the job in training etc

 

I think you are just offended that I don't agree your subject should be a degree. What you need to understand is that Im not belittling your subject I just think it would be better to teach it in a vocational manner because its a vocational subject.

[donkey]

Anything of no use to the market has no value? The sacred market (praise be it's name) should decide everything - from what people get taught to what the price we should pay for the privelidge of being allowed to live in a house (the maximum which can possibly be screwed out of us, of course!)

 

Another view is that people should wake up and stop listening to the propaganda put out by the self interested and myopic idiots whose vaccous 'political philosophy' has just just resulted in the collapse of global economy, yet apparently they won't be satisfied until the world is populated by narrow minded morons who believe that nothing - including education - can possibly have any value unless it is driven by short term financial gain.

 

Here's some facts, concerning education, to support this view.

 

 

Without the study of physics, which has always been heavily subsidised, need I say more. should we stop training physicists because there is always more of them training than there is work for. Yeah, we don't need that research. Why not let the countries where policy isn't entirely dictated by the short sighted greedy idiots do it.

 

And what about biology and chemistry. What a shame so much money has been wasted on those subjects over the centuries. If it had been up to the market, all those fine minds could have been doing useful work, like figuring out how to market pot noodles or maximise the private profits from essential public services.

 

Without the study of subjects such as philosophy, we would probably have given the control of our societies over to the bankers and marketing men centuries ago and would subsequently now be living in some corrupt third world backwater.

 

I'm tired of coming from a society which is at the forefront of things - such as scientific development - which don't owe there existence entirely to the market. Bring on the dark ages.

 

Adam Smith, father of modern economics, said something to the effect that the worst kind of government was one run by merchants. I can't find that quote, so here's another one:

 

To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers; but extremely fit for a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers.