Misleading Claims by Universities

[IanBenson]

The University of Plymouth use the slogan "the enterprise university".

In 2008 only 2 graduates out of 10,000 started a business with the help of the university. Out of 275 expert academics only 1 has expertise in enterprise. The university do not know whether any of their 3,000 staff have ever run a business.

I think students could be attracted there expecting a hotbed of new-venture creation only to find a normal university with less enterprise activity than many others.

Please post a message if you agree that this is misleading. The publicity might help them rethink their slogan. More details at www.nottheenterpriseuniversity.com Thanks

I would not trust any publicity information put out by Universities. You have done well to get this information, so I feel you do not need too much additional advice.

University Chancellors are only interested in filling places and will put pressure on staff to fiddle results, and this is widespread. Most lecturers of course keep quiet to protect their jobs. A recent example of this is at Bourenmouth University another low grade, struggling University, that is only interested in academics doing research and is kicking out the decent teachers with industrial experience. The academics have little interest in getting jobs for students which shouldn't surprise anyone since they have never done a proper job themselves in most cases.

Plagiarism is rife and many academics do not bother to properly check students work, and if they do spot something obviously wrong they will still award it a high grade. We have seen first hand evidence of this.

Just remember Universities just like other institutions are only interested in making money and expanding the layers of non-teaching staff.

The good, well-meaning academics must be heartily sickened by the attitude of their managers.