The Cost of Being Educated (especially if you studied something stupid.)

Yay, I've arrived! Now, let's get down to business...

We commence my blogging initiation with a subject I'm all too familiar with: education. The latest news in education claims that thousands of University students are, in true rock-star fashion, dropping out of education after being pushed into what The Telegraph can only describe as ‘Mickey Mouse’ courses.  Instead, our ‘X-factor’ generation now leans towards courses in arts and humanities, with 15.6% of graduates holding a degree in those fields as opposed to Asia’s and Europe’s graduate art and humanities percentage of 10.2% and 12.4% respectively.  Nowadays, it seems Britain is producing substantially fewer graduates in the more exalted fields of law, science and mathematics. 

Yes, this is indeed a humiliating piece of newsflash that we absolutely should be ashamed of… right?

I urge you, my good folk, not to be disillusioned by meaningless comparison statistics and veer your focus towards what’s really important.  Forget Mickey, contemplate this: more students are graduating, horah!  I’m astounded that The Telegraph has effectively averted our attention away from this fact.  Thanks to their cleverly perverted and obscure media distortion, what would originally be deemed a truly remarkable achievement is being tainted with a sour dissatisfaction if the degree one ploughed through is rendered impractical for ‘real life’.

By no means am I attacking the government’s plans to push for more degree qualified individuals.  Our degree holders will boost the economy as they will already possess the necessary aptitude and businesses won’t have to invest in training to educate them.

However, as a democratic regime trying to encourage and stimulate the educational system, they are in fact undermining the very people they are trying to reach out to.  If the government is beginning to place precedence on certain degrees more than others, this may potentially deter individuals from attending university rather than encourage.  Suddenly, a student wanting to do a Drama degree will think twice about applying at all.  ‘You can be anything you want to be … as long as you do a sensible degree’: is this not the ultimate subverted implication here?

As an English graduate myself (my bitter fervour for this subject has suddenly become clear to you, hasn’t it?) my degree has left me with anything but mental incompetence and a temptation to remain complacent.  Actually, the opposite: my treasured oodles of creative fluids ensnared within me fuels my need to become an entrepreneur of my numerous artistic ambitions.  Don’t get me wrong, there certainly is a shortage of decent Bankers, Accountants, Auditors etc. – the championed financial services profession filled by those who will lead our economic battle front line.  My actual issue here is the emphasis placed upon the importance of supposedly ‘better’ degrees.  Stuffing a pirouette-spinning-tutu-wearing ballet dancer into a £200 Zara pinstripe suit expecting them to diversify your portfolio would not only make little sense, but it’ll be a complete waste of money.  It’s an empowering fact that we dexterous graduates can contribute to the economy regardless of whatever course we decide to do, and I’m sure anyone external to this social predicament can respect that.  Maybe with the exception of The Telegraph.

Despite the various funding schemes the government have recently been implementing, I still can’t help but wonder where exactly their priorities lie.  Not short of those nauseating ‘ICS-you-can’ television commercials and newspaper adverts, it comes as no shock to discover how education has evolved somewhat from a learning experience and into a business product.  Pumping more money into the education system is great.  Wanting to accelerate and rebuild our economy is even better.  But at the expense of undermining young people’s freedom and educational autonomy?  I thought we Brits were a tad more progressive than that…

 

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Comments

[Gina]

Wow! What a coincidence. I was recently having an in depth converstaion about this with a close friend. I have recently graduated as a teacher and have landed myself a wonderful job as a Reception class teacher. However, having a boyfriend who has just graduated in Law, my teaching degree is classified as one of those so-called 'Mickey Mouse' courses where I was taught to 'colour in' - funny that as I am about to conquer one of the biggest jobs in a child's life, by providing them with a rich learning experince to become social academic beings to potentially take on one of those 'great degrees...thought provoking indeed!

[Melinda Jacobs]

I graduated a few years ago with an Economics degree, but I've got to tell you I don't think I would've succeeded without half of my English undergrad companions helping me with my coursework! I totally agree with our new blogger. Our youth receive plenty of negative media coverage these days, so it's certainly refreshing to encounter a young person with their head screwed on, determined to achieve and make something out of themselves. Just how much money is the government wasting on crime prevention programmes for example? Maybe if they focused on educating our youth and showing they actually valued their contribution to our society they would have a better chance of going places.
Fanastic blog; very thought provoking