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Outrageous at the least. These universities already became so commercial that they show photos of some Victorian era buildings as their campus, but most student
by zkmon 11mo ago
Outrageous at the least. These universities already became so commercial that they show photos of some Victorian era buildings as their campus, but most students never set foot in those buildings, as all classrooms are held in rented building outside of campus, and the main buildings are kept only as ornamental pieces.
Also, there are hardly any good teachers left. Most are hired on sharing basis, who shuttle between multiple colleges.
- j45 11mo agoWhich universities aren't commercial and about cashflow?
- _yvnd 11mo agoAll universities outside of the US Edit: Apparently not. Thanks for the insight, I stand corrected. I really should think twice before posting!
- HeinzStuckeIt 11mo agoYour post is very naive. In the UK, some universities are so dependent now on foreign students paying high fees to break even, that it has been widely reported in the media. And in a few EU countries, polytechnics have been upgraded to university status (at least in their English-language names) in order to attract fee-paying students from the developing world. Finnish polytechnics, for example, run whole marketing campaigns in the Indian Subcontinent in order to get people to come and pay those sweet, sweet foreign-student fees.
- ecshafer 11mo agoAre Polytechnics not considered universities in Europe? RPI (Rensalear Polytechnic Institute) or CalPoly (California Polytechnic Institute) for example in the US are just normal universities, usually with more of a technical, engineering focused. But they are essentially the same "level" as a university.
- HeinzStuckeIt 11mo agoIn Finland, the institutions that now call themselves “Universities of Applied Science” in English for marketing reasons, are still known in Finnish as ammatikorkeakoulu “tertiary professional-training institutions” and this is a rung below actual universities (yliopisto) in terms of both quality of education and social prestige.
- pjc50 11mo agoThe UK collapsed the poly/uni distinction thirty or so years ago, as it was seen as a source of class discrimination.
- Enk1du 11mo ago> The Further and Higher Education Act 1992 (c. 13) made changes in the funding and administration of further education and higher education [0] It was more about reducing budgets. That Conservative government was not filled with class warriors. Oh, how times have changed. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Further_and_Higher_Education_Act_1992 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Further_and_Higher_Education_A...
- graemep 11mo agoReally? That was the motive? It actually made it a lot worse if anything.
- graemep 11mo agoBritish universities do the same marketing. Seen it there. The problem in the UK has been ridiculous the expansion of universities. if we shut at least half of them down, reduced some of the others in size, there would be a lot more money for the rest. AI teaching is the opposite of what the best universities do, which is things like small group tutorials on top of face to face lectures.
- j45 11mo agoToo many universities and colleges seem to love opening buildings to name them. AI might be a threat because it can't take up as many buildings as students?
- graemep 11mo agoThey often get donations in return for naming buildings after people. They can name other things after people instead - organisations with the university.
- j45 11mo agoIt's surprising because so many countries have taken billions from international students, mostly from one country, and is now blaming the the students for having parted with their money.
- gos9 11mo agoThe University mentioned in this article is in England.
- zerkten 11mo agoThe original article is about a UK university. Cashflow and revenue generation is a very important topic for UK universities. They have copied the approaches of US universities, and in many cases have created overseas campuses when they have some name recognition. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_branch_campus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_branch_campus for examples.
- j45 11mo agoInteresting link, thanks for sharing!
- danaris 11mo agoPlenty of US colleges and universities are primarily about education and/or research, even today. Far from all, to be sure—and some are primarily about connections and the school name (primarily Ivies), rather than any of the above.
- j45 11mo agoNone of which exist without making sure the organization isa bout sufficient cashflow from government, students, and industry. I shouldn't say it so simply, it might result in attempts to convolute it to distract from the fact that bureaucracies serve to maintain revenue/income and grow it.
- danaris 11mo agoThere's a big difference between "the organization needs to maintain a sufficient cashflow" and "the organization is primarily concerned with its financial status, at the expense of its putative mission".
- j45 11mo agoThat sounds about right. The only thing I’d add is there are too many institutions obsessed with growth (new buildings to name and dedicate) which means growing cashflow.
- j45 11mo agoMany post secondaries are dependant on international student revenue and income to build all those new buildings to dedicate to the current president.
- jjmarr 11mo agoAllegedly most of them, since they have non-profit mandates and are often tax-exempt. The University of Staffordshire is a public university and is funded by the government to provide education to British people. Its mandate isn't "about cashflow". In reality, that particular school created a private commercial subsidiary called "Staffordshire University Services". All new employees are hired by that subsidiary, which does have a mandate to generate cashflow.
- j45 11mo agoCash flow and profit do not have to be the same thing.
- alsetmusic 11mo ago> Also, there are hardly any good teachers left. Most are hired on sharing basis, who shuttle between multiple colleges. Check out the "Who Wants to be a Teacher?" episodes of the Educate Podcast. I remember listening to these and shaking my head. Worse, if you go back further in the same groups older podcast, you'll hear the tragedy of students being taught to read using provenly bad methodology and teachers defending it saying they don't care that studies show that it's the wrong path. It made me genuinely very angry on behalf of kids. They're being robbed of their future. https://www.apmreports.org/collection/educate-podcast https://www.apmreports.org/collection/educate-podcast
- camdenreslink 11mo agoIf you live in a city with multiple colleges/universities check out the cars in the staff parking lot. Many will have parking passes/stickers for multiple colleges on there. These are adjuncts that have to drive all over town to cobble together a full time job as an instructor.
- pants2 11mo agoMy experience with adjunct professors is they're much better at teaching than old tenured professors who just want to do their research and couldn't care less about the students.