"The Great University Con"

Dusty

Tone deaf
I basically paid for a MA degree in 2010 from an otherwise well respected UK university I shall not name. Very little work was required, it was a fancy new remote learning course... 1 year of occasional essays and £3k (I won a scholarship to reduce the cost).

An absolute farce, but it now sits on my CV and no one can tell it apart from a 'proper' MA.

I'm now in a lead role, and barely glance at the qualification section of the CVs. Job experience is all that matters.

For a junior role, I'd be willing to accept anyone straight out of their A levels if they seem to have an ounce of common sense about them, and train them on the job.
 

version

Well-known member
My guess would be that this is to incentivise apprenticeships for future cohorts. Keep the unwashed out of the arts, that sort of thing. Aside from being a money grabbing exercise of course. Lots of student loans are never repaid iirc.
Yeah. There's this from a few months back too,
 

jenks

thread death
My own experience is seeing more and more kids picking undergrad apprenticeships and accelerated degrees, take up for non stem degrees dramatically decreasing and at A level, fewer kids taking things like English I feel that there may come a time when to study Lit at A level will be as rare as studying Latin or Ancient Greek.
 

version

Well-known member
The people my age I know who did English at uni ended up working in PR and marketing and don't strike me as particularly "literary".
 

linebaugh

Well-known member
One thing I've always found strange is how many people do English without any feel for English and once the degree is done barely pick up another book
I was an english major and and its no exaggeration when I say 90% of my classmates had no interest in english what so ever. Its the default major for those who 'arent math people'
 

linebaugh

Well-known member
its nothing personal jenks I went to a very bad school for very dumb people. Im sure you get better luck where you are
 

luka

Well-known member
I’m teaching people who want to do English degrees. It’s just a bit annoying to see them and their interests being dismissed.
No one is doing that. We're just saying a)it attracts a lot of people who have no interest in the subject and b) that is because it is so easy
 
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