Right, last night I said I had things I wanted to say but was too tired, so I had better get on with it tonight. Unfortunately have kind of lost my thread a bit, but here goes.
Student loans have raised their head again. At a time when households are having problems with money it was revealed that a student can expect to leave university with £23000 debt. There is some argument that this isn't true debt, in the way that credit cards are debt. It gets paid off through the pay packet and can get wiped out if not paid over time. However it does cause students stress, and does hang over people. Personally I am incredibly grateful for the fact that student loans didn't exxist when I went through university, and I realise that I was incredibly lucky.
But I believe the real problem is that we are now at a stage where everyone thinks that they have a right to go to university. This all started a long time ago, with polytechs striving to be rebranded, and Labour saying that they wanted everyone to go to further education. Now, I do beleive that it is incredibly important that everyone goes to school and has a proper education, that they learn to read and write properly (and not just emoticons) but that is not what university is for. University should be about learning particular skills for a job (OK, you might call it a vocation but it is still how you earn your living). And not every job requires people to go to university. We have done our youth a disservice by placing the ideal of university above things like apprenticeships. Rather than sending everyone off to do Film and Theatre Studies we should be giving them other options such as learning to become a plumber or an electrician - both as essential to our lives as a veterinary surgeon.
What we shouldfocus on is making sure eveyone has a future and can make a living for themselves and theeir family. We do not all have to be equal, in that we must all go to university etc. We have a right that we will be supported by our society but that support can be different for different people. We should not try to force round pegs into square holes simply becasue we think that everyone should be square.
7 comments:
I don't think university is about learning the skills to do a job. It's for learning to think about things, developing critical opinions, advancing theories. Some courses are vocational , but others produce thinkers and researchers - research is a job but university is about more than just developing skills for a job.
Surely being a professional "thinker" is a job, being a researcher is a job. And they are important ones. Thinking is a skill that needs to be learnt. But there is no point learning to be a thinker so that you can be on the dole philosophising about how bad the world is. If what you like doing is going down the pub and discussing how good it is that Burnley beat Man U then you don't NEED to be a philosopher.
Now, if you are trying to pull out the "university is about learning about life" argument, then I would challenge that. In fact, I suspect part of my social ineptness is not only from public school (yes, you can store that ammo away for next time I extol the virtues of public school) but from university which continues to shield me from the real world for too long. Getting on with living teaches you about the real world, university actually allows you to avoid doing that, university gives you a chance to remain a kid for longer.
Being a professional thinker or researcher is a job, but I think that seeing university as just something to get people into a job, whether that's critically analysing marxism or defending criminals, denies the value of education, of being able to think and reason, for its own sake. I developed a lot of skills at uni which have been very useful for getting jobs, but I think there is a benefit to being able to think about things and form opinions and assess evidence and arguments for its own sake, as part of being human.
I do think there is a real benefit to the social experience of university. However, I think people would benefit from it much more if they worked for a few years before going - people would have the discipline to get up and study and go to lectures (I never had a week in my first year where I went to all my lectures, whereas now that would just seem ridiculous), and would also go because they really want to learn about something, rather than go because that's what you do when you finish A-levels.
Did you go to boarding school or live at home? I think for a lot of people university is also a very safe introduction into living away from home for the first time, with support available and some protection from the mistakes you make. If you've already lived away from home you might not appreciate it as much. Also, the joys of living in a shared student house are almost incomparable. Much as I love having my own house and living with my husband, I do still miss that experience of shared living, with people who are still some of my closest friends.
While I don't necessarily disagree with your points, I also don't see them as an argument that everyone should go to uni. And yes, I might be slightly jaundiced by the fact that as vet students we not only went to every lecture but also had lectures all day every day, so it was somewhat sickening to see those students who only got up twice a week and then only at lunch time.
So you're just bitter because I had more fun than you? I originally wanted to go to uni to do midwifery and I'm glad I didn't - one of my housemates was a midwifery student and I wouldn't have lasted the course.
I don't think everyone should go to uni. I think people should go who will benefit from it, without getting into huge debt, and I think people should have more options which will lead to satisfying work.
So basically, after all that, we agree. And I think what that proves is that uni teaches you how to debate even when debate isn't necessary. Thank you, I rest my case.
I think we agree on some things but not everything. We have the same conclusions but different reasons and ideological approaches.
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