The Student Room Group

Scroll to see replies

No. And no.

What would be the rationale for closing down every institution which happened to fall outside the top 30 of whichever dubiously-formulated ranking table someone decides to use? And would the cut off be next year's table publications, the current ones, etc? Poor old Sussex, for example, #21 on the Complete University Guide 2013, but it drops to 31st on this year's table and is ruthlessly swatted out of existence by Eddie the Inane Elitist. I realise that had I gone to Oxbridge or an elite London university, I would have been able to come up with a more convincing and witty name, perhaps with stronger alliterative qualities. So sorry about that.

Of course, once we had the top 30 settled into their monopoly for 10 years, we'd have to close everyone outside the top 10 to ensure that standards were being maintained.
(edited 10 years ago)
Reply 241
Queen Mary is a Russell Group Uni that is 31 I believe, aiming to be top 10 by 2015, and entry requirements are at least ABB, so no.
who are you people to judge what is or isn't a worthwhile course or University?

let people study what they want if they have the qualifications for it, and I don't see the issue with having the Uni's we do either.

this thread is just typical elitist egotistical bull****.
Reply 243
haven't there being like several threads on this

and russellsteapot is spot on as always
Reply 244
Original post by Robbie242
haven't there being like several threads on this

and russellsteapot is spot on as always


Yes, there's even one currently still going in tandem with this one :lol:
Reply 245
Yeah shut them all down apart from oxford and cambridge. i hear they are good
Reply 246
Original post by Flauta
I don't think we should, if someone wants to further their knowledge of a particular area, does it matter whether it'll get them a job or not? A university is for those who want to learn more about a subject, doesn't necessarily have to prepare you for a job in that area.

Some people have no option but to go to those universities which are local to them. If you shut them down you're depriving people of going to university. Also think of those who would go to the middle range universities, and can no longer get an offer because it's more competitive to get into them.


But why should the state fund people 'just wanting to learn more about a subject' when it does not stimulate economic growth ect. The state doesn't fund fancy cars or nice clothes for the poor.
Reply 247
Original post by Kimina
But why should the state fund people 'just wanting to learn more about a subject' when it does not stimulate economic growth ect. The state doesn't fund fancy cars or nice clothes for the poor.


Education is about more than just money.

Just because a field doesn't have immediate economic impact, doesn't mean that it isn't important to society as a whole.
Reply 248
Original post by Kimina
But why should the state fund people 'just wanting to learn more about a subject' when it does not stimulate economic growth ect. The state doesn't fund fancy cars or nice clothes for the poor.


Education is a foundation of country.
There is a clear correlations between economic growth and good education (except those with rich natural resources).

Nations with poor education system and poorly educated people have no future.

Whereas fancy cars don't contribute a lot to nations' economy.
(More citizens with fancy cars contribute very little for higher GDP growth. but more educated citizens can bring higher GDP growth.)

In other words, 'the investment for higher education has a much higher multiplier effect than the investment for fancy cars'.
Yeah, shut down all former polys/ mets and the **** ones in general. Other than london, there should be one uni per city.

Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by PlsGimmeMBBS
People studying their butts off at school and sixthform to go onto hard or useful-to-the-world courses such as medicine, dentistry, oxbridge degrees (hard, perhaps some bull subjects like classics tho), UCL, Imperial, engineering, law (unless at crappy unis like Uni of East London), english at Edinburgh etc AND those studying vocational courses at college like Plumbing, Engineering AND those going into employment are suffering for people who go to study at crappy universities such as Chichester, York St Johns, Bournemouth, Reading etc, who go to uni for the sake of it when they would probably be better off doing a vocational course at college or working.

Both get funding from the state, yet if the latter group where scrapped then the money saved could help those going on to study useful and respected stuff.

Discuss


This is just the kind of elitist attitude that clearly shows you have no understanding of 95% of the population. What you're essentially saying is that we should destroy the dreams of most people, simply because it's either not 100% useful for the capitalist system or because they're not geniuses?
THe HE sector needs reform but along what lines ?

My personal feeling is that there needs to be some sort public / private partnership and to reduce the power of the teaching unions.
Reply 252
Don't shut them down, just stop subsidising courses that aren't worth it (there are a number of ways to determine this, for many courses accreditation from the relevant body would be a good start). By saving all of the money from this, you could make the remaining courses free once again.

Also, I don't think classics at Oxbridge is what you think it is...
Reply 253
Threads like this make me wish TSR hadn't gotten rid of neg rep. I'm not saying I would have negged you, op (I very rarely negged anyone), but I would have been interested to see how many negs you would have got, lol.
Reply 254
Original post by Jjj90
Oh by the way, they teach media at Oxford. It isn't just the 'poorer' universities that teach what I presume you would perceive as useless courses.


http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate_courses/courses/az.html

No, they don't. Whilst I agree with some of the points you made, that wasn't a particularly difficult thing for you to check before throwing it out there.
Reply 255
Original post by Joel R
http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate_courses/courses/az.html

No, they don't. Whilst I agree with some of the points you made, that wasn't a particularly difficult thing for you to check before throwing it out there.


Maybe this course

DPhil in Information, Communication and the Social Sciences
http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/postgraduate_courses/course_guide/oxford_internet.html

Though OII is an institute for social informatics, it is related to media study.
Reply 256
Original post by RussellG
Maybe this course

DPhil in Information, Communication and the Social Sciences
http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/postgraduate_courses/course_guide/oxford_internet.html

Though OII is an institute for social informatics, it is related to media study.


An eventual specialisation in Communication and social studies (with a connection to media) is hardly the same as an undergraduate course in media studies. That's not dissimilar to comparing a biology degree (eventually doing a PhD in muscular physiology) to an undergrad degree in sports studies. :wink: Regardless, the original post was at the very least an exaggeration, if not an outright lie.
Reply 257
Original post by Joel R
An eventual specialisation in Communication and social studies (with a connection to media) is hardly the same as an undergraduate course in media studies. That's not dissimilar to comparing a biology degree (eventually doing a PhD in muscular physiology) to an undergrad degree in sports studies. :wink: Regardless, the original post was at the very least an exaggeration, if not an outright lie.


Yeah I agree with your point. It's different.
I just wanted to mention there is a course related to media study in oxford :smile:

But I'm not against what you want to say.
People would die if no one did my job and the course I did isn't on the list :smug:
Original post by Joel R
An eventual specialisation in Communication and social studies (with a connection to media) is hardly the same as an undergraduate course in media studies. That's not dissimilar to comparing a biology degree (eventually doing a PhD in muscular physiology) to an undergrad degree in sports studies. :wink: Regardless, the original post was at the very least an exaggeration, if not an outright lie.



Original post by RussellG
Yeah I agree with your point. It's different.
I just wanted to mention there is a course related to media study in oxford :smile:

But I'm not against what you want to say.


Perhaps this one year MSt was more what you are looking for to demonstrate Oxford does media studies

http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/postgraduate_courses/course_guide/film_aesthetics.html

It is nonsense to suggest that because a university does not do a subject at undergraduate level, it does not do it at all.

Here is Cambridge's course.

http://www.mml.cam.ac.uk/gradstudies/smc/

and here is Imperial's

http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/humanities/sciencecommunicationgroup/masters/mscinsciencecommunication