Die Neue Zeit
12th June 2011, 17:37
http://www.economist.com/node/18805758?story_id=18805758&fsrc=rss
AN INCONVENIENCE that the medieval founders of Oxford and Cambridge colleges probably did not have to contend with was demonstrators bearing smoke-flares in protest at the creation of their seats of learning. That has been one response to plans for a private university advanced by Anthony Grayling, a philosophy don.
Mr Grayling’s New College of the Humanities is due to open in London next year. It has attracted star teaching staff including Richard Dawkins, a celebrity evolutionary biologist, and Niall Ferguson, a best-selling historian rarely off British television screens.
[...]
A growing number of well-qualified British students fail to get into their preferred choice of university, often falling short by an A-level grade or two. Extra pressure has been applied by the Office of Fair Access, the admissions regulator, which wants the best universities to admit more students from state schools. Meanwhile a funding squeeze, especially in the arts and humanities, has slashed state investment, constraining the growth of subsidised university places.
[...]
To British ears (parental ones, especially), the New College’s £18,000 annual fees sounds like a lot, even if that is less than the sums charged by the best American universities.
[...]
Supporters of the New College admit that it will draw most of its students from a pool of privately educated pupils who risk being shut out of the best publicly funded universities. Still, Clarissa Farr, headmistress of St Paul’s Girls’ School in London, thinks the college can rival Oxford and Cambridge in one-on-one contact with superior tutors—though quite how much of that the students will actually get for their money is vague. Some of the stellar names on the roster have committed to only a few hours a year of lecturing and may face contractual challenges from their existing university employers.
http://crookedtimber.org/2011/06/06/if-youre-an-egalitarian-how-come-youre-trying-to-sell-an-undergraduate-arts-degree-that-costs-more-than-an-mba/
Meanwhile, in terms of the educational experience, much has been made of the presence of Richard Dawkins, Niall Ferguson, Stephen Pinker, etc etc on the “professoriate” and indeed a lot of the press commentary appears to have inadvertently implied that these academic megastars will be doing the teaching. But, sharp cookies will have noted, none of them appear to have resigned from their existing posts or given any notice that they intend to do so, despite the fact that NCH is planning on getting the first bums on seats in Autumn 2012. In fact, close perusal of the fine print reveals that what the “Professoriate” are going to be providing is lecture courses, and the actual syllabus delivery will come from a staff “to be recruited”; given that the “Subject Convenors” seem to me to be fairly normal middle-ranking UK profs, I would guess that the teaching will also come from the middle ranks of the British academic proleteriat.
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/cultural-capital/2011/06/college-university-students
It has been said that the line-up of star professors will teach, when in fact they will collectively give 110 lectures a year, which makes for about seven or eight hours of teaching each, since there is no suggestion that they will mark essays, examinations or deal directly with students. Indeed, it seems that they will play no role in the design of the curriculum either, since that has by all accounts largely been lifted from that of the University of London.
[...]
New College is a business designed to profit from the insecurities of the public about the consequences of Government policies for the higher education in the humanities. It will also profit from the need for rich people whose children don't get into Oxbridge to have somewhere of apparently high status to send their offspring. The celebrity academics are important for marketing purposes only. The true nature of the college is as an undistinguished element of the University of London at which paying through the nose buys more time and indulgence for students, and a brand that will impress those whose knowledge is sufficiently superficial. It is in the end, sadly, a cynical initiative indicative of the dark times in which we live.
AN INCONVENIENCE that the medieval founders of Oxford and Cambridge colleges probably did not have to contend with was demonstrators bearing smoke-flares in protest at the creation of their seats of learning. That has been one response to plans for a private university advanced by Anthony Grayling, a philosophy don.
Mr Grayling’s New College of the Humanities is due to open in London next year. It has attracted star teaching staff including Richard Dawkins, a celebrity evolutionary biologist, and Niall Ferguson, a best-selling historian rarely off British television screens.
[...]
A growing number of well-qualified British students fail to get into their preferred choice of university, often falling short by an A-level grade or two. Extra pressure has been applied by the Office of Fair Access, the admissions regulator, which wants the best universities to admit more students from state schools. Meanwhile a funding squeeze, especially in the arts and humanities, has slashed state investment, constraining the growth of subsidised university places.
[...]
To British ears (parental ones, especially), the New College’s £18,000 annual fees sounds like a lot, even if that is less than the sums charged by the best American universities.
[...]
Supporters of the New College admit that it will draw most of its students from a pool of privately educated pupils who risk being shut out of the best publicly funded universities. Still, Clarissa Farr, headmistress of St Paul’s Girls’ School in London, thinks the college can rival Oxford and Cambridge in one-on-one contact with superior tutors—though quite how much of that the students will actually get for their money is vague. Some of the stellar names on the roster have committed to only a few hours a year of lecturing and may face contractual challenges from their existing university employers.
http://crookedtimber.org/2011/06/06/if-youre-an-egalitarian-how-come-youre-trying-to-sell-an-undergraduate-arts-degree-that-costs-more-than-an-mba/
Meanwhile, in terms of the educational experience, much has been made of the presence of Richard Dawkins, Niall Ferguson, Stephen Pinker, etc etc on the “professoriate” and indeed a lot of the press commentary appears to have inadvertently implied that these academic megastars will be doing the teaching. But, sharp cookies will have noted, none of them appear to have resigned from their existing posts or given any notice that they intend to do so, despite the fact that NCH is planning on getting the first bums on seats in Autumn 2012. In fact, close perusal of the fine print reveals that what the “Professoriate” are going to be providing is lecture courses, and the actual syllabus delivery will come from a staff “to be recruited”; given that the “Subject Convenors” seem to me to be fairly normal middle-ranking UK profs, I would guess that the teaching will also come from the middle ranks of the British academic proleteriat.
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/cultural-capital/2011/06/college-university-students
It has been said that the line-up of star professors will teach, when in fact they will collectively give 110 lectures a year, which makes for about seven or eight hours of teaching each, since there is no suggestion that they will mark essays, examinations or deal directly with students. Indeed, it seems that they will play no role in the design of the curriculum either, since that has by all accounts largely been lifted from that of the University of London.
[...]
New College is a business designed to profit from the insecurities of the public about the consequences of Government policies for the higher education in the humanities. It will also profit from the need for rich people whose children don't get into Oxbridge to have somewhere of apparently high status to send their offspring. The celebrity academics are important for marketing purposes only. The true nature of the college is as an undistinguished element of the University of London at which paying through the nose buys more time and indulgence for students, and a brand that will impress those whose knowledge is sufficiently superficial. It is in the end, sadly, a cynical initiative indicative of the dark times in which we live.