University is a Sham?

With fees, poor organisation and value for money, university risks sliding into obscurity. Except for one thing. Everyone needs a degree now. Many university institutions are, quite frankly, abusing this privilege of a captive audience and failing to improve on low student satisfaction scores. These are not whiny snowflakes who just didn’t want to work. They are customers paying 9000 a year and working long hours to complete unsatisfactory courses.

Fees

Sure, we all hear the £9000 per year fee hammered into our minds. But what is worse is the interest, currently standing at 4.6%! To a student borrowing £27,000 tuition and £15,000 maintenance, this amounts to around £150 per month. This starts when you first enrol, so if you change course or restart one way or another then you’re still collecting interest. Sure, any loan has to be inflation resistant and offer a slight return, but this is a huge rate for a near compulsory undertaking.

The good thing is you pay back based only on what you earn. In a way this is quite fair as those who benefit most pay the most back. On the other hand, this is a tax on success and if you achieve something entirely independent of your shabby degree you have to pay.

Free education is hardly the answer on this scale. Before, university was more elitist. But at least that meant people really benefited from their valuable degrees and paid back the investment in taxes.

Student Life

Because the fees are so high and job prospects diminishing, student life is screwed. We love stories of hedonistic excess followed by microwave noodles, but the fact is this tradition is dying rapidly. Even the idea of three years improving yourself without having to keep a roof over your head is gone. Like every stage of education before, grades mean everything. Shrugging off that reading is no longer bravardo- you’re just a dick. Because you were lucky to get a place at that university. And that one reading could make the difference between a 2:1 or a fatal 2:2. We have bar staff with PHDs in Biomedical Superneering, so what chance do you have if you don’t get on the MA course?

 

Three years of sides round a square

Obviously, few degrees are industry-specific. But at the same time many employers and even training schemes require a 2:1 in an unspecified university degree. While experience can always be used to sway an application, it remains that not having a degree can be a heavy disadvantage for many years. This means you have to spend three years and countless finances to study a subject entirely tangential to what you want to do.

Your future capability is judged on your ability to concentrate on diluted, vague lectures in hot lecture theatres and then make flawless footnote citations. The beauty of knowledge is one thing, but the rhetoric of artsy subjects makes a very expensive creative writing course.

 

Profiteering

Universities are becoming businesses. And sure, they shouldn’t be charities. But what is the impact of study spaces becoming cafes? International students are being admitted who struggle with English, clearly exploited for their higher fees. Globalisation of education is a fine idea, but with it comes the responsibility to look after students a long way from home who have fallen for this advertising. This falls to the lecturers, left having to be equal to everyone yet attentive to the higher spenders.

Some lectures you have to wonder just where the fees go. Arts subjects hover around 8-10 contact hours per week. Of these many are spent pontificating abstract ideas around the lecturer’s latest book. Aside from the fact your PR and marketing career in mind likely deviates from this somewhat and you’re bored, the room is hot and dark. There are no windows. Does the Harvard aspiration of American TV share this bunker-style of dark slideshows rather than green fields and red brick?

Workspace is not up to date with the modern needs of the student with charging points limited. Libraries are often a place to plug in and read PDFs rather than books.

Many undergraduate courses are pitched as a mere stepping stone to a grand higher academic career. Universities need to understand that they serve a practical use. While the beauty of knowledge is all well and good, a more direct approach is necessary for value for money. Expecting students to pay to trawl through documents for fairly simple concepts is not helpful.

 

Overall it remains that British and London Universities in particular shall continue to be some of the finest in the world. However, there are worrying trends emerging that threaten to destroy both the enjoyment of university and the future of the academic field.

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