Are Universities now just woke nurseries.

[rallycross]

MBBlat said:

I would guess those that think Universities have only recently become centres of left wing thoughts have either never gone to uni, or only gone recently and think this is something new.

When I went in the early 90s, well before Blair’s changes, certain facility & the student unions were extremely left wing, and routinely ignored by the majority of students. Indeed when the student union organised strikes against the introduction of loans the only lecturers that were cancelled was because the lecturer didn’t turn up.

Yes me too early 90’s and agree with your comment.

Shame uni does not make students do a real job for part of the course to shake them into reality and do some hard work and stop pissing about.

[Countdown]

rallycross said:

Yes me too early 90’s and agree with your comment.

Shame uni does not make students do a real job for part of the course to shake them into reality and do some hard work and stop pissing about.

You mean like the 4 year sandwich courses which have been around for the last 40 years, or the numerous internships during Summer, or the numerous taster courses during half term.....?

[Pothole]

Countdown said:

1. What’s the difference in demographics between 18-25 year olds who go to University and 18-25 year olds that don’t?

According to you, those WHO do are people and those THAT don't aren't.

[Jimmy No Hands]

I'm 32 and attend university full time. I have a cohort of probably eighteen 19-24 year olds. This qualifies me enough to say:

a) Some of you are bitter about never going to university, and it shows. I'm really sorry Steve, you've done well regardless.

b) How out of touch a lot of you are, with real life. Crikey, Moses.

[768]

Jimmy No Hands said:

I'm 32 and attend university full time. I have a cohort of probably eighteen 19-24 year olds. This qualifies me enough to say:

a) Some of you are bitter about never going to university, and it shows. I'm really sorry Steve, you've done well regardless.

b) How out of touch a lot of you are, with real life. Crikey, Moses.

Full marks for having the confidence to write that.

[rallycross]

Countdown said:

You mean like the 4 year sandwich courses which have been around for the last 40 years, or the numerous internships during Summer, or the numerous taster courses during half term.....?

What I mean is lazy spoiled kids pissing around for 4 years with no real preparation for a real job.

[PH User]

rallycross said:

Countdown said:

You mean like the 4 year sandwich courses which have been around for the last 40 years, or the numerous internships during Summer, or the numerous taster courses during half term.....?

What I mean is lazy spoiled kids pissing around for 4 years with no real preparation for a real job.

Does that matter if they do?

[Countdown]

rallycross said:

Countdown said:

You mean like the 4 year sandwich courses which have been around for the last 40 years, or the numerous internships during Summer, or the numerous taster courses during half term.....?

What I mean is lazy spoiled kids pissing around for 4 years with no real preparation for a real job.

Is that based on your personal experience, or just what you’ve read in the Daily Mail?

Ive got 3 kids; one is a qualified solicitor, one is graduating this year with a Science degree from Manchester University, and one who is studying at UCL. All 3 of them worked a hell of a lot harder than I did. All of them were aware of how tough the competition is for graduate jobs. My eldest has paid off her student loan and my youngest is working full time for the next 4 months to ensure she earns as much as possible to help fund her accommodation. She’s been working since she was 16.

As an Employer we pay £18k for apprentices and £23k upwards for Graduate Trainees. We had 80 applicants for two posts the last time we advertised and could have filled the roles 10 times over. All of the applicants had good records and the ones we employed were really good. The only problem we have is retaining them once they’ve qualified.

I have no doubt that there is a percentage of students who go to University to drink, skive, and do the least amount work possible, full of the knowledge that they’ll never touch the threshold where they have to repay their £60k loans. However IME their in a minority.

[biggbn]

Jimmy No Hands said:

I'm 32 and attend university full time. I have a cohort of probably eighteen 19-24 year olds. This qualifies me enough to say:

a) Some of you are bitter about never going to university, and it shows. I'm really sorry Steve, you've done well regardless.

b) How out of touch a lot of you are, with real life. Crikey, Moses.

I went in my early forties, life changing experience

[Polite M135 driver]

rallycross said:

Countdown said:

You mean like the 4 year sandwich courses which have been around for the last 40 years, or the numerous internships during Summer, or the numerous taster courses during half term.....?

What I mean is lazy spoiled kids pissing around for 4 years with no real preparation for a real job.

University isn’t about preparation for a job. It’s about education.

[Digga]

rallycross said:

MBBlat said:

I would guess those that think Universities have only recently become centres of left wing thoughts have either never gone to uni, or only gone recently and think this is something new.

When I went in the early 90s, well before Blair’s changes, certain facility & the student unions were extremely left wing, and routinely ignored by the majority of students. Indeed when the student union organised strikes against the introduction of loans the only lecturers that were cancelled was because the lecturer didn’t turn up.

Yes me too early 90’s and agree with your comment.

Shame uni does not make students do a real job for part of the course to shake them into reality and do some hard work and stop pissing about.

One of the lads on Mrs Digga’s course was from a left wing mining town and very active in Student Union and campus politics. Nice lad and very smart (you tend to have to be to study mathematics) but a tad too serious.

The SU had made up anti poll tax stickers “can’t pay, won’t pay” and of course he had one on the outside door of his dorm room. Some wag altered it to say “can pay, will pay double”.

But yes, both universities and polytechnics we ever the same IME.

[ATG]

Polite M135 driver said:

rallycross said:

Countdown said:

You mean like the 4 year sandwich courses which have been around for the last 40 years, or the numerous internships during Summer, or the numerous taster courses during half term.....?

What I mean is lazy spoiled kids pissing around for 4 years with no real preparation for a real job.

University isn’t about preparation for a job. It’s about education.

Well said. Sad that this point still has to be made, but there you go.

[Digga]

ATG said:

Polite M135 driver said:

rallycross said:

Countdown said:

You mean like the 4 year sandwich courses which have been around for the last 40 years, or the numerous internships during Summer, or the numerous taster courses during half term.....?

What I mean is lazy spoiled kids pissing around for 4 years with no real preparation for a real job.

University isn’t about preparation for a job. It’s about education.

Well said. Sad that this point still has to be made, but there you go.

Really depends on the course though, doesn't it?

I mean, you are unlikely to go through all the years required to study dentistry if you have no interest in the vocation. Similarly, many science and engineering subjects are, to varying degrees, vocational.

I by no means deride non-vocational study and by saying this and would agree education in and of itself is an end.

[Countdown]

I also don't think the benefits are purely educational. For some kids it's a change in lifestyle - living away from home, making your own food, washing your own clothes, making a new circle of friends, having to sort out your own finances and budgets, in short taking more responsibility and being more independent.


Obviously like all PHPBDs I personally was doing all of the above when i joined the Territorial SAS at the age of 9

[Digga]

Countdown said:

Obviously like all PHPBDs I personally was doing all of the above when i joined the Territorial SAS at the age of 9

Makes my Duke of Edinburgh Award expeditions sound lame.

There are other ways kids can gain a sense of the world and their independence than pissing tens of thousands up the wall on a nonsense degree. (Not all degrees are nonsense.)

[GreatGranny]

My daughter is at uni in Manchester and you'll find most students are not that politically active but will mobilise in numbers on important issues such as fighting racism and homophobia.
Not many 'piss about' for 3/4 years because it's a waste of £9250 per year and most want decent jobs at the end and in some sectors this is getting harder and harder.
Most haven't got rich parents to bail them out either.

Not sure what the OP is scared of.
If woke means wanting equality, fighting racism, homophobia etc. have independent thought, making reasoned arguments then I'm all for it.

And OP, just because a dozen Uni students voted on taking down the Queen's photo in some random room no one knew was there in the first place doesn't mean the whole student population is like that!
Just the right wing media getting into a tizz about nothing.

[FiF]

Digga said:

ATG said:

Polite M135 driver said:

rallycross said:

Countdown said:

You mean like the 4 year sandwich courses which have been around for the last 40 years, or the numerous internships during Summer, or the numerous taster courses during half term.....?

What I mean is lazy spoiled kids pissing around for 4 years with no real preparation for a real job.

University isn’t about preparation for a job. It’s about education.

Well said. Sad that this point still has to be made, but there you go.

Really depends on the course though, doesn't it?

I mean, you are unlikely to go through all the years required to study dentistry if you have no interest in the vocation. Similarly, many science and engineering subjects are, to varying degrees, vocational.

I by no means deride non-vocational study and by saying this and would agree education in and of itself is an end.

Yeah but, no but, yeah but... education is an end and worthwhile activity in and of itself, agreed.

Also agree there are vocational courses with a definite career path, and indeed an absolute requirement.

There are others which seem vocational, but actually to get into that career is difficult and students have to be realistic in where they will gain employment.

Then there are degrees which are not at all vocational, or not obvious, but again students need to be realistic and open minded.

For an example of this, geography. Careers service get students who complain that as a career they want to do geography, nothing else, and the service cannot magically produce employers in the area they want to live, apart from secondary school teaching say. Yet there are other employers who could really use geography grads and provide interesting careers using their skills, but get rejected by the students as they're big bad business. Yet again, what might on face value seem a big bad financial and business consultancy outfit, might be crying out for a politically savvy geography student to develop into international business risk analysis, or the govt security services is another one. Fairly convoluted examples I accept, but folks can get the gist of what I'm saying.

Then there's the students who do study a vocational degree, but the only chance of getting a related job is if you've spent years volunteering, internship and sadly too often in the final count only if you have family connections. Forestry and woodland management is a bugger for that.

[Countdown]

Digga said:

Countdown said:

Obviously like all PHPBDs I personally was doing all of the above when i joined the Territorial SAS at the age of 9

Makes my Duke of Edinburgh Award expeditions sound lame.

There are other ways kids can gain a sense of the world and their independence than pissing tens of thousands up the wall on a nonsense degree. (Not all degrees are nonsense.)

My point was that going to University is rarely only for X reason or Y reason or Z reason. It's the whole thing - education, independence, making new friends. It's a big change for a lot of young people and probably the first time they've moved out of the family home and not have Mum and Dad around to look after them.