Woke university courses

[StripyCarpets]

I’m really bored of it.
I did the open day rounds with DD a couple of years ago when she was looking at a science subject. The subject itself was largely untainted as far as the content was concerned but the open days were heavy on the environment; understandable but also not necessarily relevant to all teaching in this subject. The talks from students were excruciating; nerdy kids talking about how they do drag etc and so many LGBTQIA+++ flags and signs everywhere. This was tolerable because it wasn’t affecting the actual course.
This year we’re looking at PPE (etc) for DS and obviously there’s so much scope for total capture, but I was really shocked by Bristol. The course leader was a Green Party fan boy, he explained what critical thinking was and demonstrated he doesn’t know what critical thinking is or how to do it. He explained that as well as teaching about politics students would taught how to make a difference in the real world. This is activist school. They can learn thus on Twitter.
If I was an employer, I think I’d be wary of employing a PPE graduate from Bristol. What I saw indicated that students would be indoctrinated rather than educated. It’s depressing, it’s expensive and it’s low quality.
Warwick was a completely different ballgame; very high calibre.

@StripyCarpets Bristol must have changed then. DDs friends would have laughed at this. Plus the person talking on open day - do you see them again? Dd didn’t. You simply don’t choose their module and employers like Bristol grads in the main.

I suspect that the OP is concerned that her DS will get his head turned by opposing political ideology to hers. Perhaps he should choose a politically neutral subject to study instead.

I agree that she sounds over involved in her son's choice of subject and university.

And is having left wing ideals any worse or different to being right wing?

Surely it’s up to your dc not you! Bristol (the city) is big on the Green Party, no surprises there and politics courses and universities more generally tend to lean left, economics tends to be the opposite so you get the balance.

but honestly op, time for you to step aside and let your dc decide

And is having left wing ideals any worse or different to being right wing?

This of course will depend on who you ask. The issue is that there is a huge political skew in UK academics’ politics. So we are not even attempting to provide a level playing field on which ideas can be critically examined, heard, weighed, refined, discarded on their merits.

It’s not incidental to the mission either: academia the main institution where that we have organised for that to happen.

We all have blind spots, unconscious bias, unexamined premises etc. A lack of ideological diversity means those go unchallenged.

Chart with 2016 data.

More recently, a 2024 THE poll found that of university staff who had decided, 64% for Labour, 12% Green, 11% Lib Dem, 4% Conservative.

Thats 87% vs 4% left-right.

Do you ever wonder why the most educated skew left? hmmh?

Totally agree with you OP - you just need to look at all the shenanigans around Oxford Union and attempts to silence various speakers to see there is an issue. Or the behaviour of Edinburgh when GC women tried to show a film there. Or the harassing of academics for holding specific views - like Jo Phoenix or Kathleen Stock. It is why the last government had to introduce a law on protecting academic freedoms. A large proportion of students also feel they have to pretend to hold more ‘progressive’ views in order to pass their courses.

Because they don’t live in the real world?

Tell me you know nothing about academia without telling me you know nothing about academia.🙄

My DS has just finished at Bristol and he’s very unpoliticised. You don’t have to go down the woke rabbit-hole at uni. He did a STEM degree and avoided all that - never mentioned lecturers espousing left-wing views, he just talked about his subject.

My DD was completely captured at Leeds though w the left-wing ideology.

When I was at uni in the early 90s you got the odd Guy selling the socialist worker and a few random radicals, but nothing like it is now.

Because the party that was meant to represent the concerns of low paid, low skilled workers has been taken over and hijacked by highly paid public sector workers, and unionised workers mainly from the South.

Hi, OP -

Answering the question asked by @Perfect28 on 28/06 at 8.52 would help to give us a context for your writings.

“Woke”. That lazy, stupid trope.

Oh that lazy, stupid trope about the ‘far right’ being thick.

@Lentilcakes

When I was at uni in the early 90s you got the odd Guy selling the socialist worker and a few random radicals, but nothing like it is now.

Depends where you were I guess or maybe there was a lull in the 90s.

In the 70s at some of the newer universities..you were running the gaunlet of Vietnam protests, Palestine etc.. Troops Out, and the whole spectrum of the Left, Trots through Marxists etc etc...and that's was just in the Maths department.

I'm all ears for a list of instances of prominent far-right people who demonstrate evidence of even average intelligence.

I know it’s not relevant but A level aqa sociology is very good at this .

I AM an academic

@Pacificwave Like many universities, Bristol over extended and has a very generous policy on what school dc attend and lower grades. They are the architects of them slipping down the tables but of course some of their courses are still excellent. Engineering and law for example. Dc just need to choose wisely and this course might not be it. I’d be fed up with personal politics getting in the way of teaching too!

And I am Marie of Romania.

"...generous policy on what schools dc attend..."

Can you explain what this means?

OK, great.

It’s very clear from your posts that you have a very skewed notion of what ‘neutrality’ is. You essentially don’t want your adult DCs exposed to views you don’t agree with. You even object to students being ‘nerdy’ for god’s sake; you are far from well-placed to talk about other people’s biases.

Right.

I don't understand why @Soontobesleeping is being mocked over saying she is an academic. There's tons of academics who write on MNet. Why should she not be one of them?

Is it just a pathetic attempt to undermine her arguments?