i interviewed a 6th form student a few months ago. it was quite a long interview, he said he wanted to be a computer games programmer.Sput wrote:I also think the idea that academia has somehow brainwashed the nation is absurd. "Academia" (insofar as university admissions tutors) don't much care where their students come from so long as the numbers add up. Yes, there's a sort of default expectation that you do the 6th form -> uni -> job, but it's mostly been social engineering from the top. I don't think there's anything wrong with encouraging people from all backgrounds to go to University, and I think the government rightly realised there's a need to have more highly trained technical people to maintain international competitiveness. It's debatable whether subjects like English go far to address that, but as with any subject if you're not sure why you're doing it then perhaps you shouldn't be there.
i asked him -
what games he programmed in your spare time? none
what programming languages do you know? none
why haven't you learned any? i couldn't see any logical justification for not doing so, or at least trying - there are so many resources out there for FREE? Well... he just thought university would teach him it all.
anyway. the point i was making about brainwashing is that there is this assumption university is this meal ticket to a wonderful career. many students (by no means all) have this attitude they can just coast along, do a course at university and they'll magically be the most desirable employee going because they've got a degree - a view re-enforced by many teachers.
i don't disagree with your point that governments and schools should encourage more kids to go to university, our society and economy would benefit from more educated people, however, the way the labour government went about it in the 2000s to set an arbitrary target meant that random courses were made up to fit the people going through the system. this huge increase in numbers meant that the current framework of funding was unworkable and that students had to start paying fees.
do i think students should pay to go to university? no. but going to university should really be about whether a student is truly academically able, if you change the goal posts, make easier courses, you devalue the whole system and consequently get the sort of idiot i was interviewing going to university, wasting a shit load of resources and then probably dropping out in the second year because it's too hard (or changing to business studies). I don’t think access to university should be restricted to well off middle class families, wealth shouldn't come into it at all - any student which shows they have the skills and potential to go through should be supported and subsidised.
The truth is going to university is actually quite easy. You can get through playing the ucas points system doing soft courses doing the bare minimum (obviously, it will be another soft course at uni).
in the end though, the (big big) problem isn't really with the university system as such. it's with state primary and secondary schools. that's where the problem lies.
i can tell you, there is in 2012 Britain, many kids who come out of the state system lacking basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills. it isn't as rare as you think, and it isn't restricted to arse end of no where rural areas or run down great big council estate catchment areas.
Even in “good” schools, there are often less than 50% of the kids leaving year 11 with 5 good GCSE (a*-c in English, Maths, Science). given how much money gets spent, it's an absolute disgrace.
primary and secondary is where there needs to be reform. many teachers just aren't up to the job and despite us living in a different world from the 1980s when the national curriculum was introduced, it's remained largely unchanged in many schools and many kids are just not engaged by it and teachers are not delivering exciting and engaging lessons.