The great british university con

[TimOopNorth]

Don’t know whether all university studies are a con - I hope not (daughter about to start at medical school) but by heck my daughter is taking a shed load more stuff than I took 37 years ago (or rather hoping to take - not sure it’s all going to fit in the car )

[Ardbeg10y]

Is Naim in there?

[TimOopNorth]

Nope. Apparently Spotify and a phone are all you need

[Don]

Daughter No 3 studied architecture. 7 years of bloody hard work. Long days and nights. An eye for fine art. Good engineering and science. Project management and people motivation. Determination. Structured self-learning and broadened horizons. Firstly at Newcastle, then at Nottingham.

But it’s paid off. Good start and now a director (along with hubby) of a small practice in Waterloo.

I don’t think that all university education is a waste of time or an easy ride. And some of it produces well balanced, useful contributions to our society.

[DerekWright]

proud parent syndrome alert

[Don]

“proud parent syndrome alert”

Not at all. Just describing a different situation to some of the others in this thread.

But for sure, i’ve got three daughters, and i’m incredibly pleased for them that they seem able to cope with the problems of life, make a meaningful contribution to society and actually enjoy themselves to boot.

But back to the point of the thread…I agree, some universities and some degrees are, IMHO, a worthless waste of time and as such, a con to both their students and the UK as a whole. But not all of them.

[Beachcomber]

You are right (I hope) that not all are a waste of time. I’m not sure that “golf course management” and similar are particularly useful.
The problems as I see it are:

1. changing the excellent and useful Polytechnic Colleges to Universities. These two did different, but very useful, things. Making them into the same type of institution was, I think, a mistake and a con.
2. The emphasis on academic studies at the expense of practical knowledge and skills. We need both. But from schools upwards the academic side of things has been pushed and pushed hard. Not all of us are academically inclined - and a good job too. We need a broad range of types of skill. This is no longer being provided to the degree it once was.