to be very heartened by the student riots!

[Heathcliffscathy]

apathy be damned...I predict more riots...looks like the youth have found their teeth.

"As I said in my post employers could rank the degrees and subjects, that way funding would link directly to usefullness of degree and potential employment"

ROFL.

Why don't you offer your services as education minister?

Op yanbu. Finally we are waking up from the apathetic stupor we have been in.

If 14million people could voice and opinion rather than watch fucking factor we actually would be in a democracy

The employer proposal is also quite bollocky, as very often the degree that someone takes and the jobs they do/career path they follow hardly ever match up.

Some examples: my mother - Trained to teach teenagers biology, is now teaching assistant to 5 year olds with learning difficulties (via numerous other incarnations). Cousin in law - English literature masters, head of IT and board member at insurance company.

so if potential employment is uncertain, the student must pay more?

how unbelievably shortsighted.

thats the arts, music and science students fucked then.... but then so many people seem to think a degree in the arts isn't 'proper' so, what does it matter, eh?

pure ignorance.

What's the point in 2000 people having a degree in pre Renaissance art for example - There's probably only 10 art galleries in the whole of England. You'll still end up working in marks & spencers.

The point is - you could be interested in it and be an academic. I am sat opposite someone who is currently doing a masters in archeology, which has shag all to do with her current job, but it's something she's fascinated by, and she's a very interesting person to spend time with and chat to. And we're not working in M&S

Sorry, meant xfactor. :)

But the arts have been around for ever, way before public funding was around. Artists learned their skills whilst jobing.

you don't get a degree in 'pre Renaissance art' you ignorant arse.

scoobytoo - oh my good god you're clueless.

when you picture someone in the arts you're seeing someone in a smock holding a palette, aren't you? admit it.

Yes the degree may not lead to the exact job of course but if employers looked at degrees they considered worthwhile for employment then those are the degrees that shouild be funded. For example an English degree from cambridge would probably be considered more worthwhile to most employers than a degree in david beckham studies from staffordshire univerity!! I do nopt want to fund a degree in david beckham studies call me mean if you want.

Actually I worked in the arts until I was 26 I earned all my income from the arts and I went to a specialist arts school which didn't involve wearing a smock or holding a palette.

so the future of further education should rely on 'employers'.... an em, who are these 'employers'.

agree you should definitely offer your unique services to the government immediately.

Also Blinks please don't be name calling it's just not necessary.

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/2297395/David-Beckham-degree-at-Staffordshire.html

But scooby - a lot of employers may say that an "arts" degree (or some, say, in the cello) is useless and not worth funding. How would you feel about that?

the 'mickey mouse degree' theory is often used in debates about further education to highlight how useless anything apart from law/medicine etc is... it's so boring to have it brought up again and again.

For most people the point of reading for a degree is, amongst other things, to get a goo job. There are plenty of degrees that people like to do to further themselves or because they enjoy the subject which is fine, however, why should everyone including the poorer workers of this country support them?

I want riots I want the real people of this country to rise up and finally say we are not going to take it anymore enough is enough, no more kicking the poor while lining the pockets of the rich, no more ministers saying do as we say not as we do etc.

I'm disappointed that the only people in this country so far willing to take a stand against the ConDems are a bunch of students who want the moon on a stick, people can't afford to have roofs over their heads when they work full time, Ministers are still awarding themselves living allowances on top of the generous salary they award themselves, and all the students care about is not having to pay their own way for an education that benefits them in the form of a higher wage.

This country is screwed up, land of the damned and truly selfish.

Yes, what's all this focus on micky mouse degrees?.

Good post Ryoko.