Oh the tuition riots. I'm glad this happened, it should happen in North America as well. The average North American spends over 10,000 dollars a year simply for tuition and housing to attend post secondary institutes. While I enjoy and encourage the pursuit of knowledge I feel that post secondary education is beyond the grasp of many potential students simply because of the cost. So in light of the riots, seeing as they trippled tuition in England, I ask AG what do you think are some ways the costs can become more affordable?
Oh the tuition riots. I'm glad this happened, it should happen in North America as well.
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An estimated 52,000 people, according to the National Union of Students, marched through central London to display their anger over government plans to increase tuition fees while cutting state funding for university teaching.
This is what happens when you depend on the government. The government provides something you become dependent on , and when they run out of other people's money (taxes), they have to make cuts.
Understand, schools cost money. Each and every student who is protesting can not grasp the fact that you can't have "free" government provided systems.
These students are destroying property because they want someone else to pay for their schooling. This is extortion by definition! They are causing riots until they get free education.
This is a horrible thing! This is why college education should be purely privatized and the government should not fund private education. College is not supposed to be something EVERYONE can have access to.
College is supposed to help you get higher paying jobs. If everyone has access to gaining college education, then then the standards placed on people to get basic jobs go up. Let's suppose you want to become a secretary for some company. It's not that hard to figure out secretary work. A high school education should be everything you need as well as other work experience. Because so many people have access to go to college, you pretty much need a college education to become a secretary.
Why is it so hard to get a job? You need college education to get anything that is decent. Maybe, instead of making it so everyone has college education, you focus on making it easier for those without it to get jobs! Do you know what would be awesome? Specific training programs that could train you specifically for a single job. It would be something that can teach you all you have to know to do your job, and nothing else. It's specific, fast, and to the point.
College is BS, and there's nothing good that can come from government providing college to everyone. You end up with debt and you end up with a good education that gets you nothing more than a second rate job you could have figured out on your own.
I find that college education should only be for the complex jobs. For instance, I'm getting a Biology major to go to med school. I've seen a guy who has a mechanics major. Don't get me wrong; mechanics can be pretty hard and dangerous at the same time. But this sort of thing you can just train for, like in an apprenticeship. For me (who's planning to become a surgeon. Like...a brain surgeon for now), you can't train a guy to do brain surgery, or all the perks that come with it. You need to know the terminology, the background, the mechanisms, and all the other stuff that requires hefty schooling to master. So in my point of view, college should only be for the complex jobs that training or apprenticeships cannot cover.
If you privatize the whole university system you have to award though abundant scholarships. The best students (I would say the ones with potential too, but its hard to define who has potential and who does not) have to go to university regardless of financial status.
My father was a police officer, he was a Lieutenant and he did not have any college degree. Nowadays you have to have a college degree just to become a Detective! That's simply ridiculous. I understand and I second that the Captain and all the high officers should have a degree, but demanding from a low rank police officer to have an academic degree is foolish.
Anyway, I think that too many persons have practically worthless diplomas, they have honors and they can't find a job, when at the same time in several European countries there are no plumbers and electricians. I am sorry but somebody got to do those jobs, we can't be all scientists.
Bottom line: We have to teach people that its not a disgrace having a manual job.
I feel a clash of ideologies coming on again. But before we begin to bicker over our opposing view points let me say that I understand where you're coming from and to some extent I agree with you. There is a problem with government funded education, however, the tuition trippled to roughly 15,000 pounds. In England the cost of living is quite a bit more expensive than over here, so to tripple tuition is a huge blow to these students, especially those who are already financially burdened. Now, I don't want a free ride to post secondary education, but I think we can all agree that university is hardly something that could be considered affordable. Is it wrong to ask for a system that makes it just SLIGHTLY easier to achieve post secondary education financially? Maybe this is just me, but my current situation I have no aid at all and am not eligible for loans. I find it tiresome that the academic sectors offer poultry scholarships.
If the system is mostly public there have to be very tough preliminary exams and the number of accepted students has to be very limited.
Now you spend at least four years of your life and lots of money (regardless if its "ublic" or not, in the vast majority of countries with publicly founded universities you have to buy the books, you have to rent a house, you have to pay your food etc.) and what do you gain? A goose egg, nada. The best scenario usually is you will become a clerk or whatever, the worst is "hello" unemployment. I think that the academic degrees should have some value, they should really help you find a "good" job and the only way to do so is making them harder to obtain. Because I really don't see any point in wasting so many resources for a worthless piece of paper. Yes, sure you will put your diploma in a frame and you will admire it every day, but is it enough?
Now you spend at least four years of your life and lots of money (regardless if its "ublic" or not, in the vast majority of countries with publicly founded universities you have to buy the books, you have to rent a house, you have to pay your food etc.) and what do you gain? A goose egg, nada. The best scenario usually is you will become a clerk or whatever, the worst is "hello" unemployment.
I whole heartedly agree. I just wish I had expressed it this way XD I think that the academic degrees should have some value, they should really help you find a "good" job and the only way to do so is making them harder to obtain. Because I really don't see any point in wasting so many resources for a worthless piece of paper. Yes, sure you will put your diploma in a frame and you will admire it every day, but is it enough?
Now you spend at least four years of your life and lots of money (regardless if its "ublic" or not, in the vast majority of countries with publicly founded universities you have to buy the books, you have to rent a house, you have to pay your food etc.) and what do you gain? A goose egg, nada. The best scenario usually is you will become a clerk or whatever, the worst is "hello" unemployment. I think that the academic degrees should have some value, they should really help you find a "good" job and the only way to do so is making them harder to obtain. Because I really don't see any point in wasting so many resources for a worthless piece of paper. Yes, sure you will put your diploma in a frame and you will admire it every day, but is it enough?
I whole heartedly agree. I just wish I had expressed it this way XD
GAH! There that;s what I meant to write. Stupid laptop and lack of an edit button. Sorry for the double post
I think it's an absolute shame how much colleges charge just to make a buck. Good, healthy food is too expensive on my college campus so you end up ordering gross, nasty, less healthy foods. They charge 3 dollars a day for parking and now they are going up to possibly 5 dollars.They charge an arm and a leg just to live in dorms.
The sad truth is, most people who go to college really don't need to. Thousands of dollars are spent learning from people who have spent years studying for themselves - and for what? Some psychology degree that isn't worth the paper it's printed on? How will that BA help you in life - really. I agree with the earlier poster who said that most people don't do anything with their degree. My dad graduated from college with a BA in Mathematics, and now he's working part time in an accounting job that I could do at 17.
The belief "you need to go to college, it's the only way you'll make it in life" is pretty much gone.
I'd like to point out that whether or not a college degree has implicit practical uses the point of college is to teach one to think critically and function as a learned adult.
For instance the majors I've begun to narrow myself down to are political science, psychology, and philosophy; I love to think and I love human nature so I've found myself drawn to these three topics. Will they translate directly to a job, probably not, but the point is I will have learned valuable skills that will help me throughout my life.
As for the riots I understand why they're occurring and while I like the idea of government funded tuition it hurts college competitiveness. I think that government scholarships should be given on a need basis with academic stipulations to help the poor but promising students. Also I've been finding out that, generally, academics and college based financial aid are enough to get the cost of most colleges down under $5000.
Critically thinking should be taught in school -not in college, you go to school for 12 years and -as far as I remember- to teach one to think critically is one of the main goals. Plus, is way easier teaching something to a 15 year old than a 20 year old.
Sure knowledge is great, blah blah, but there are practical aspects. A family invests $20,000 to $150,000 for a four-year education, plus at least other 20,000 $ for school. When you pay all these money you should get something back, college now is a lottery ticket, you might hit the jackpot (good job), but probably you won't earn anything except "enlightenment". Hundreds of families are indebted, and for what? For education? This is not education, this is a joke.
And something else, at my university we have several 40-45 year old cops, who can't get a promotion until they have a college degree, I am asking you, will they become better cops if they have a degree or are we just torturing them?
