University Challenged

A wet, wind blown Wednesday of this week saw our 2nd gathering when we hosted Prof. Chris Rhodes. 

Chris's theme was 'How to Ruin the Best University System in the World.'  He started with a summary of how the UK's university system developed from the 'Ancients' - Oxford & Cambridge - through the Mediaevals in Scotland & Ireland, the 'Redbricks' & the London colleges around 1900.  Up to 1960, the proportion of school leavers who went on to university did not exceed 5%.  But then came the explosion with the 'Plateglass' campuses of the '60's, followed by the homogenisation of the tertiary (post school) sector which finished in 1992, by which time all tertiary colleges had been rebranded as universities, what whatever their origins - Colleges of Advanced Technology (CATs), polytechnics or teacher training colleges. In 1997 Tony Blair announced his aspiration that 50% of school leavers would go to university.

Chris's contention was that the re-badging of all tertiary institutions as 'universities' and all their qualifications as 'degrees', and the cascade of appointments to 'Professor' of people without a publication to their name, devalued the currency and undermined the prestige of the sector.  As part of an earlier government's austerity drive, universities were ranked (and funded) according to the quality of their research.  Thus, the unspoken rank order, that roughly corresponded to the age of the institutions, was reinforced - with the polytechnics sitting firmly at the bottom.  They had gained little from the rebadging, and lost much, including to a great extent their links with local industry.

The proportion of people attending university has now reached 47%, but to what benefit?  The vast preponderance of new degree course places has been in vocational subjects, and may thus be better regarding as training than education.  But, sadly, this has coincided with a slump in graduate recruitment, with a result that 35% of recent graduates who are in employment are in lower-skilled occupations.  In addition, as a result of the failure to match intake with funding, the average graduate will emerge with debts of up to £50,000. Are they being sold a pup?

Chris gave the example of Reading College, which became a new university and which has now reverted to its former identity as a college.  He praised it for doing so.  Why get a degree with the associated debt and be unemployed?  When instead you could go to college, learn a trade, and earn more from a position of little debt?

Chris also has an interest in Climate Change and energy use and he linked this to the university situation. He said that 'peak oil', the point at which cheap oil becomes a thing of the past, will be a game changer.  We have arguably already passed this point, and all the talk of 'fracking' is the start of spending more and more effort getting less and less energy, as supplies deplete. What will happen, as energy becomes more expensive, is that it will not be economic to make use of low-wage economies overseas; we'll have to bring manufacturing back here.  Having nearly 50% of the population with degrees will not be any use.  What we will need is technicians and craftspeople, the very people our polytechnics and colleges of higher education used to turn out.

Clearly something has got seriously out of shape, and the discussion that followed was most an attempt to define exactly what, where it was all heading, and what to do about it.  Is it elitist to value traditional academic subjects over vocational ones - astrophysics over golf course management?  Is a degree course better regarded as education or training?  Is a target of 50% university attendance simply too high?  Should we revert to a more traditional distinction between degrees, diplomas and certificates?  What will be the effect on the world standing of higher education in the UK that makes it so attractive to foreign students?  Can we afford do without them? Is the German or Swiss technical education really so much better than the UK's, or is this a myth?

More questions than answers, but I don't think anybody came away unstimulated by a lively presentation and discussion.  As always, feel free to add any comments below.

Chris's book 'University Shambles' is available from his website.

We take a break in December. But are back on Thursday 17th January at our new venue, The White Horse, 84 Newham Avenue, Bedford, MK41 9PX.  Kevin McConway of  The Open University will be talking about the use of statistics in the media.  Full details HERE.

Lift Off For Bedford Skeptics In The Pub!

After goodness knows how much discussion over the past year, and goodness knows how many pints consumed over those discussions, it has happened. And you know what?  There does seem to be an appetite for skeptical discussion in Bedford. The advertising was extensive.  We were uncertain how many we'd reach with posters here, there and everywhere, advertising on The Pod Delusion podcast, getting on the radio, press releases to newspapers, and our Twitter account (over 150,000 retweets!) and, of course, this humble blog.  But we were fairly confident that someone would turn up.

Mind you, driving to the pub on the night, the traffic was appalling.  Were all of this cars bringing 150,000 Twitterati to our meeting? Well...er...not quite.  In the end we got about 40 people.  Which is entirely creditable for a first meeting.

Our speaker Alom Shaha, arrived on time.  He proved an entertaining and able speaker, a must for any other Skeptic groups seeking a guest.  He talked about how he'd come to write the book, and about the difficulty with self-censorship among publishers in thinking they'd be firebombed or worse for publishing it.  In the event the worst that happened was a letter regretting his book and hoping that he'd return to the path of Allah.  He dealt with his education at school and at the mosque, and how he'd become a rational person and gone into teaching, and into teaching science.  Then there was more abstract discussion, with questions from the audience triggering new avenues of exploration.  Any worries that this meeting might just be a group of people smugly agreeing with each other about the validity of their opinions were soon dismissed.  Some people didn't agree with Alom's non-confrontational approach to those of faith. Indeed, one gentleman felt that he couldn't stay as he felt he wasn't getting the answers he wanted regarding Alom's concept of 'god'.  This was a shame but certainly showed that opinions were diverse.  There were also people of religious faith in the audience which was gratifying to see.

Alom said that he identifies as an atheist for practical purposes, but actually he is a humanist, and a fully paid up member of the British Humanist Association.  He did Humanism proud in praising it as the way to be, atheism with a conscience.  He said that humanists need to be more vocal and to do more charitable work in the context of humanism.  He deplored the low memberships of the secular and humanists organisations in the UK, and there was some more discussion as to why this might be.

We had a break to recharge our glasses. The Golden Hen had already run dry, so we were forced to move on to other ales.  The publican was delighted.  The bar in the meeting room was open, but some went downstairs to spread the load.  Besides consuming beer in unanticipated quantities, we were making the bar look busy and so casual custom was dropping in just because of that.  All that makes it sound very macho and boozy.  But almost half the attendees were female, and other beverages were not only on offer but were being consumed.  All ages were present, although largely white and I would guess well educated and mostly middle class.

Alom left at 9pm to return to the station. He is a working teacher and needed to be fresh for the next day as he was starting a two day recording session in Bath creating the audiobook version of his 'Young Atheist's Handbook'.  Most people were impressed and thought it well worth coming.

Attendees were happy.  We were happy.  The publican was happy and made it clear that he wanted us back.  And we made more than it cost to put on, so this profit will feed into organising the next event 'University Shambles' on Thursday 21st November at The Fox & Hounds - 7 for 7:30pm.

So what was your take on the event?  Feel free to add a comment below.

Join Us For Our Launch Event

Bedford Skeptics In The Pub will have its first meeting on 17th October at 7pm.

Please join us in the function room at the Fox & Hounds, 178 Goldington Road, Bedford, MK40 3EB.

Alom Shaha will be speaking about 'Science vs Religion In The Classroom'.

In the meantime more details on this and future events can be found at our website.

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