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A lot of universities do not have a pure math faculty. It can be good or bad, it depends on the goals of the university and which faculties it wants to speciali

A lot of universities do not have a pure math faculty. It can be good or bad, it depends on the goals of the university and which faculties it wants to specialize on.

morelisp 6y ago
> A lot of universities do not have a pure math faculty. If true this shocks me. Pure math makes up two of the seven liberal arts. The pure math department at my (US state) university had significantly higher status than the applied one, and this seemed to hold true for the other (also mostly state) universities my friends went to as well. Community colleges and technical schools? Sure. Colleges? OK I guess, if they have a notable e.g. physics or engineering program and keep the pure math courses there for administrative reasons. A university without any pure math faculty? Then you're not a university anymore...
- pmiller2 6y ago
  I don't know of a single US research university that doesn't have a math department.
  - redis_mlc 6y ago
    Pure math departments are important for identifying the outlier students who are capable of contributing to the field. An entire department might only find one star per year (or decade), but that could advance a topic 100 years overall. Occasionally a self-taught prodigy like Ramanajuan emerges, but society needs many more.
  - redis_mlc 6y ago
    The article is about pure math, which is the foundation of mathematics using sets, topology, etc. It has separate classes, textbooks and professors from applied mathematics, and often a very low courseload because of the difficulty (like 24 hours per week.) From a simplistic standpoint, pure math is not focused on equations or numeric solutions, unlike applied mathematics. (You don't need a calculator for most pure math classes.)
- robjan 6y ago
  In the UK many of the equivalent to community colleges and technical schools (polytechnics) have been reclassified as universities to attract more funding and prestige
- chrisseaton 6y ago
  > Pure math makes up two of the seven liberal arts. The UK university model doesn’t follow the liberal arts model. That’s not what we’re aiming to do over here. Especially at a very low-tier university like Leicester. Our degrees are more highly specialised than yours. Don’t judge our universities by your model.
  - morelisp 6y ago
    "Your model" in this case means the model used by not only the US, but the rest of the Anglosphere, Europe, most of Asia, and generally the rest of the world - as well as the UK until less than 30 years ago. Don't blame us when you misuse the damn word.
    - chrisseaton 6y ago
      > as well as the UK until less than 30 years ago I'm not sure what you are referring to - we didn't use a liberal arts model 30 years ago. The modern idea of 'liberal arts' is an American invention, aping classical ideals but not actual traditional European practices.
      - morelisp 6y ago
        The seven liberal arts are the foundation of the European university system and not a modern American invention.
        chrisseaton 6y ago
        No, only if we go back as far as the medieval ages, so not in practice, which is what I said. Wikipedia explains > Thus, on the level of higher education, despite the European origin of the liberal arts college, the term liberal arts college usually denotes liberal arts colleges in the United States. With the exception of pioneering institutions such as Franklin University Switzerland (formerly known as Franklin College), established as a Europe-based, US-style liberal arts college in 1969, only recently some efforts have been undertaken to systematically "re-import" liberal arts education to continental Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_arts_education https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_arts_education Almost zero people in Europe will have done a liberal arts education. As a mainstream thing it's really a uniquely American idea. And again, where is this idea of the UK doing liberal arts 30 years ago from? That's a bizarre claim not grounded in any kind of reality.

A lot of universities do not have a pure math faculty. It can be good or bad, it depends on the goals of the university and which faculties it wants to specialize on.

morelisp 6y ago

> A lot of universities do not have a pure math faculty. If true this shocks me. Pure math makes up two of the seven liberal arts. The pure math department at my (US state) university had significantly higher status than the applied one, and this seemed to hold true for the other (also mostly state) universities my friends went to as well. Community colleges and technical schools? Sure. Colleges? OK I guess, if they have a notable e.g. physics or engineering program and keep the pure math courses there for administrative reasons. A university without any pure math faculty? Then you're not a university anymore...

pmiller2 6y ago
I don't know of a single US research university that doesn't have a math department.
- redis_mlc 6y ago
  Pure math departments are important for identifying the outlier students who are capable of contributing to the field. An entire department might only find one star per year (or decade), but that could advance a topic 100 years overall. Occasionally a self-taught prodigy like Ramanajuan emerges, but society needs many more.
- redis_mlc 6y ago
  The article is about pure math, which is the foundation of mathematics using sets, topology, etc. It has separate classes, textbooks and professors from applied mathematics, and often a very low courseload because of the difficulty (like 24 hours per week.) From a simplistic standpoint, pure math is not focused on equations or numeric solutions, unlike applied mathematics. (You don't need a calculator for most pure math classes.)
robjan 6y ago
In the UK many of the equivalent to community colleges and technical schools (polytechnics) have been reclassified as universities to attract more funding and prestige
chrisseaton 6y ago
> Pure math makes up two of the seven liberal arts. The UK university model doesn’t follow the liberal arts model. That’s not what we’re aiming to do over here. Especially at a very low-tier university like Leicester. Our degrees are more highly specialised than yours. Don’t judge our universities by your model.
- morelisp 6y ago
  "Your model" in this case means the model used by not only the US, but the rest of the Anglosphere, Europe, most of Asia, and generally the rest of the world - as well as the UK until less than 30 years ago. Don't blame us when you misuse the damn word.
  - chrisseaton 6y ago
    > as well as the UK until less than 30 years ago I'm not sure what you are referring to - we didn't use a liberal arts model 30 years ago. The modern idea of 'liberal arts' is an American invention, aping classical ideals but not actual traditional European practices.
    - morelisp 6y ago
      The seven liberal arts are the foundation of the European university system and not a modern American invention.
      - chrisseaton 6y ago
        No, only if we go back as far as the medieval ages, so not in practice, which is what I said. Wikipedia explains > Thus, on the level of higher education, despite the European origin of the liberal arts college, the term liberal arts college usually denotes liberal arts colleges in the United States. With the exception of pioneering institutions such as Franklin University Switzerland (formerly known as Franklin College), established as a Europe-based, US-style liberal arts college in 1969, only recently some efforts have been undertaken to systematically "re-import" liberal arts education to continental Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_arts_education https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_arts_education Almost zero people in Europe will have done a liberal arts education. As a mainstream thing it's really a uniquely American idea. And again, where is this idea of the UK doing liberal arts 30 years ago from? That's a bizarre claim not grounded in any kind of reality.