AIBU to feel that some parents just want their children at Uni even if its a BS degree

[DistinguishedSocialCommentator]

Hello
I come from a background/culture where education is seen as very important and going to a university is a must (My parents came to England in 1962)

Yes, more and more jobs are seeking degrees and often even when not necessary. There are many professions where you must have a degree to join the course training

However, what I and my family call BS degrees, to name but a few

Arts
Studio Fine arts
Arth History
Business studies
Exercise Science
Fashion

I cant see what jobs they will get as there must be other routes, less intensive and extensive to get the job they want

When I've talked about mickey-mouse degrees at parties etc and not be aware that some parents children or they may have studied them, they start to defend the indefensible.
The biggest bS degree is 'Politics' - WTH!! Sadly, we know a few people whose children have done that and ended up running the family shop/business - total waste of a degree

There are other degrees just as crappy - they should be banned IMO

AIBU to think these degrees are a waste of time and often do not aid the person into a job in that field?

Yes, in our institution it was the Physics undergraduate degree that went first, it was expensive to run and (sadly) there was little demand for it. Realistically students could see that job alternatives after graduation were limited.
The postgraduate courses continued but only for overseas students.

By cancelling degrees that are poor quality would that not release more money to fund the quality courses that require more staff and funding?

It's unethical to keep open unpopular, or inadequate degree courses just to keep academics in a job.

Nobody is suggesting that should happen BUT what IS happening is that good courses are closing becuase they can't afford to run them not becuase they are low quality or unpopular.

Large sections of the UK HE system are universally respected, but it's disingenuous to believe that a degree obtained from the ex polytechnic of Huddersfield carries the same kudos as a degree from LSE.

If you look at an institution as a whole then you have a point however, even the 'ex-polytechnic of Huddersfield' has specialist courses that are very respected and perform well globally. For example, Music, Performing Arts, Education, Engineering and Computer Science.

(also, it's over 30 years since it's been a polytechnic so maybe time to move on from that as an insult. it's bit dated now....)

Would you say that a computer science degree from Huddersfield has as much kudos as the same degree from LSE?

Not a popular view but realistic, however academics can't always adjust their subjects or specialisms to fit in with another degree course. Universities and unions obviously want to avoid redundancies where possible.
The less good institutions that others have written about may well have inherited staff from previous colleges of one kind or another when they became universities. Such staff may be excellent teachers but not necessarily excellent academics - in most universities staff are required to have a research output as well as to teach.

Why do you care so much about what other people study? Getting any degree takes a level of discipline, determination and intelligence. We can't all be doctors or engineers...

Not if the 'poor quality' courses recruit well.....Psychology is a prime example.
You can fill psychology courses many times over yet they can often have some of the lowest graduate outcome figures.
Also, university finances are not straightforward.
We have devolved system at my institution. A course closing in another faculty will not release funds to support courses in my faculty.

And all of this is before you take into account research income. I work in an department where there are very few research grants and those that do exist are relatively small fry. That makes my department even more vulnerable as we can't subsidise teaching etc with research money. However, I would argue that my department and subject area are vital for society yet we are at real risk of closing. Who needs teachers anyway hey??

Yep, a major university near me no longer offers geography degrees. Which is mind boggling given how employable geography graduates are, and how transferable the skills gained in a geography degree are!

Ok but the game is raised now so even for bullshit jobs a degree is a baseline. My youngest daughter works in a nursery where the staff are paid minimum wage and even they all have degrees in child related subjects. So whether you think those degrees are bullshit or not is irrelevant.

No, that's not what I was saying.

However, Huddersfield does have specialist courses which are very well respected. You shouldn't dismiss an entire university just becuase it's an 'ex-poly'. It's best to look at subject rankings - I know of at least a couple of courses at Huddersfield which are world leading and not offered at many places.

Our Head of Department used to insist that clerical jobs were advertised as being graduate only, yet some of the best administrators we had were not graduates.

No, and I have a masters in Information Systems from LSE. But it has made bugger all difference in my ability to get jobs. A few older HR people have commented on my 2 x RG degrees, and presumably in the past it helped get me to interview, but I am now and have been senior at companies like Google, Microsoft and the like and we take graduates from both. I can think of current crop where one has the same degree from Hull and the other from Bristol. In fact, I see people selectively bigging up candidates who have firsts, even though I can see that many of them are from lower ranked unis where it is presumably easier to get a first.

The whole RG/prestige thing matters way less these day than parents like to think it does.

Your thread should make sense to me - my BA is in the dreaded arts, albeit from a top 10 uni, but I went back about a decade later and converted to law. I'm now earning a goodish salary and generally like my job.

But the thing is, I gained a lot from the "crappy" jobs that I did before I went back to uni. I built my confidence, developed soft skills, lived and worked abroad and took jobs that interested me because of things I'd studied in my BA. Since converting, I've only worked in the legal profession and whilst it's good for me, I do miss getting to be a bit carefree and young and creative. If I had my time again, I'd probably have tried to fulfil my dream of being a writer instead.

I went to uni with a lot of very snobby people like you, and whilst you and yours may be out-earning the Prime Minister, I wouldn't want to socialise with, marry or be you for all the tea in China.

I think it only a good thing that some universities are having to cancel courses because they're really just lost leaders with little worth.

It's a loss leader. It's not something that's mislaid. It's something that is run at a loss.

BTW, for most universities that will be the engineering/science degrees. The ones that require expensive laboratory equipment and resources.

Music - a leading centre for music and music technology.

Such a basic misunderstanding of loss leaders, there...

In any sales model, loss leaders are really important!

They are the cars put at the front of the forecourt at a knock down price to attract people to more expensive models. You need your loss leaders to run your business.

Given that LSE doesn’t offer computer science (data science is not the same) and Huddersfield does, then yes.

That's - not how loss leaders work.

Eh?

A loss leader strategy involves selling a product or service at a price that is not profitable but is sold to attract new customers or to sell additional products and services to those customers.

Pretty sure my definition is better than the PPs.

If it's my definition you're talking about, I wasn't trying to define it. Merely pointing out that it isn't called a "lost" leader.

No, I was talking about the previous one!

Ah, sorry! 😀

I think we're on the same page!

Clearly your degree wasn't in anything that requires good grammar, good communication or reasoning skills.
My friend at uni did a degree in fire safety. To be fair even his friends joked that it was 'mickey mouse' at the time.
He used the skills and knowledge he gained to become a security guard, and now owns a security guard company.
Another friend did fine art, and now create beautiful works of art that sell on Etsy for hundreds of pounds a time and has customers all over the world.
They are both richer than me, and I did neuroscience.
You talk a load of shit.

Are you going for worthless degree this year?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13469261/Tories-university-degrees-radical-plan-courses-money-apprenticeships.html