On the plus side must be ranked my best night's sleep in a while, alongside the fact that Michael Wood's 'A History of Britain' has finally reached the modern age. If you haven't been watching this series I'd recommend catching it on i-player. It's a relatively rare televisual history that concentrates on 'history from below' (i.e. of the ordinary people rather than the 'rulers') and micro-history. If anything it has quite a lot in common with the Annales school. Wood's style is a little romanticised for my tastes, but not disconcertingly so.
On the other hand we have this, a report from the THES suggesting that the Government will stop all funding for teaching the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences in Higher Education. The following graph was ripped from the report, with apologies to THES.
Oh happy days. Science, Technologies, Engineering and Mathematics will be protected, but HASS teaching will be left to fend for itself. For a start, Mr Willets, it would be nice to have a job in 2012. Wouldn't it also be nice to study the Arts still - as my housemate points out, a large amount of the British economy is still driven by the heritage industry if nothing else. Oh, and when the Government wants to bring funding back for the HASS subjects, where are you going to find all the people to teach them? They'll be in other industries, or teaching abroad.
(while we're on the subject of HE, why are Scottish universities still allowed to offer free education for Scottish students, while that is apparently impossible for English universities?).
Good to have you back!
ReplyDeleteNot only that - the British Council have been forced to close off applications from English applicants for next year, yet somehow people think there is enough money to send Scottish people overseas to teach our beloved language...
ReplyDelete1) Pop? Cheers!
ReplyDelete2) Indeedy. It's a question of taxation. If the Scottish Government is raising the necessary funds for these measures from Scottish-centralised tax, then fair enough. The devolution settlement does allow them limited scope to adjust tax in Scotland for Scottish purposes. If they're doing it from money coming back to Scotland from the Bartlett rebate, then hmmmm....Most definitely hmmm....
Regardless of the Scots and their possible unfair use of funds, I'm trust that the new university fees system alters other aspects of uni life. For example, this year I'm paying half a year's worth of tuition fees to the university, since I'm on a year abroad. I understand this is the maximum they can charge me, which still seems excessive given that they are earning over £1500 for instructing me to do a few short pieces of work and providing me with a 'tutor' over the year (what good such a tutor will do me with the Atlantic ocean inbetween, I'm not entirely sure).
ReplyDeleteHowever, I can just about stomach that. What one would hope will change is the limit that they can charge future year abroad goers. If, as this evening's BBC article suggests, the total tuition fee cap goes to £9000, then it would be a tad scandalous to allow a university to charge £4500 for doing next to nothing. Admittedly this would only affect students going outside the EU, but one would have thought, what with additional flight and insurance expenses, these would be the students least able to afford such a colossal charge.