Katie Hopkins' views on universities

Did anyone watch Question Time yesterday (Thurs 10th June)? I thought Katie's views on universities were on the whole were correct and I'm saying this as someone who can't stand the woman!!! :biggrin:

I'm not sure about her veiws on privitising universities but I totally agree with her about closing down the lower-ranking universities. I've argued on here many times and have received verbal abuse from other users, warning e-mails from admin and neg reps on this point but these universities dish out degrees as left, right and centre to the point where a degree is becoming increasingly worthless. Plus the degrees they offer are a complete joke e.g. Surf Science and Technology at Plymouth University. I think all universities ranked below Goldsmiths, University of London (but not including Goldsmiths) should be closed down. Then the money ploughed into the lower-ranking universities could be used to improve the better universities such as Imperial, Durham, Edinburgh, Leeds, Birmngham, Queen Mary etc, etc.

What do you all think? Do you think the veiws expressed by Katie Hopkins were right?

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

Mechie

I agree. Uni's definitely shouldn't be privatised but there are definitely too many poor universities offering poor degrees.

Right on, bro!

Reply 2

ByronicHero

The principle of closing down universities is one I agree with. Doing based on position in an arbitrary, useless ranking table however I don't agree with. It seems inherently fatuous to randomly a pick a university on the table and say any/all below should be closed.

Reply 3

CharlotteCoster

paddy__power

good call. especially as tables differ hugely, its so subjective. and there are actually many good universities that are below the universities of london. if u research them properly.

Reply 4

ByronicHero

CharlotteCoster

good call. especially as tables differ hugely, its so subjective. and there are actually many good universities that are below the universities of london. if u research them properly.

Indeed, and bad ones above.

Reply 5

welshmun

How about we look at this list: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/table/2010/jun/04/university-league-table

and the close down the universities below 50/100.

That would be more sensible.

Reply 6

T. Hereford

welshmun

How about we look at this list: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/table/2010/jun/04/university-league-table

and the close down the universities below 50/100.

That would be more sensible.

No, look at the Tiems or The Sunday Times. The Guardian league tbale is a complete joke especiall this years edition

Lancaster above Imperial and LSE??????? :eek:

Bristol at #33????????? :eek:

What a joke!!! :eek3:

Reply 7

ghast

**** it, lets just close all of them. Especially Exeter, who knew such backward people went there!

Reply 8

Quady

welshmun

How about we look at this list: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/table/2010/jun/04/university-league-table

and the close down the universities below 50/100.

That would be more sensible.

So you'd close Manchester?

Reply 9

superman19

Considering she never paid fees, she's mental.

Reply 10

Wesker115

For some reason I though the thread was about Katie Holmes, I was thinking, "Why was Tom Cruise's wife on question time? lol

Is the problem too many universities? Poor quality teaching from said "universities" ?
Or the result of a government push to ensure that 50% of students get a degree?

Nearly everyone goes to uni these days, should it be a "right" for everyone or should it only be best candidates which might be the case if we had half as many uni's. On a global scale we need to compete with countries like India and China which are churning out graduates by the bucketload. If we reduce the number of uni's in this country, then fewer people will go to uni and thus the positions that are being filled by those people now will just be filled by educated immigrants.
But by doing such a thing it may actually give degrees back the worth that they originally had.

Reply 11

username328860

What about the people who have gone to "lower" ranked uni's but are doing a course where high grades are needed, e.g. doing pharmacy at portsmouth/hertfordshire the grades required are BBB.

Reply 12

MuseValheru

I agree, there are too many universities and too many students. Degrees have been devalued. We can address the national debt and increase the value of degrees with one stone.

I say reduce the number of universities to about 50/60 which will pipeline the funding and allow for efficiency savings.

Reply 13

Davidosh

Personally yes I think you're ideas in some form could work OP however I think we need more of debate in this country as to what the point of going to university actually is?

It may sound daft but if it was decided that the main point of university is academic rigour and striving to improve educational standards etc then your plan can work morally as well as economically. However we couldn't justify your plan if people think that university is to broaden your horizons and improve yourself as a human being. Who are we to say that surf studies isn't going to do that for a person?

Once this fundamental issue has been decided we maybe able to go about reforming the university system which at the moment is a bit of a joke

Reply 14

Installation

paddy__power

I don't think anyone would advocate using a league table - can you imagine that ever happening?

I think it's obvious to most people which unis are worth keeping tbh.

Reply 15

ByronicHero

Installation

I don't think anyone would advocate using a league table - can you imagine that ever happening?

I think it's obvious to most people which unis are worth keeping tbh.

It will of course never happen, but that doesn't mean plenty of idiots won't advocate it. The world is full of stupid people remember.

Hmmm, perhaps it is yes. I would be more in favour of a moderate move of eviscerating the worst 20/30 personally. Those that are poor in almost every respect.

Reply 16

welshmun

Quady

So you'd close Manchester?

Yep knock it down, build a better one lmao :woo:

Reply 17

Phantom_X

Katie hopkins is an idiot.

she went to Exeter BEFORE it became fairly decent, and thinks she has the authority to distinguish between good and bad universities. Oxbridge, imperial, ucl are good unis but she forgot other world class insitutions that are in the top 100, such as bristol, LSE, Kings, Durham and York. Not exeter though :tongue:

Also she strikes me as a bit of a whore too. And not the good kind.

Reply 18

faber niger

Privatisation isn't a key to success; it may equal success for the market, but not success for social justice. There are many flaws with such a plan, just one being that it would necessitate rich people being admitted (even if they were considered poor quality applicants) merely to subsidise the poor. Being an important societal service, the government should subsidise all such education, except where it can clearly be shown to be better to do otherwise. Indeed, I agreed with Salma Yaqoob's suggestion -- to raise over £40,000,000,000 by putting corporation tax up to merely the European average, thereby paying the cost of student funding, at £2,000,000,000.

welshmun

Yep knock it down, build a better one lmao

Pillock.