Corbynista dons who trivialise academia
YESTERDAY, the Mail highlighted a letter signed by 42 university dons, which condemned the media’s ‘unfair’ treatment of Jeremy Corbyn over anti-Semitism.
It was published in The Guardian (where else) and the paper described the signatories as ‘senior academics’ – which, if true, provides a devastating insight into the state of higher education in Britain today.
Leaving aside the hard-Left views of these supposedly fair-minded ‘educators’ (17 of whom are professors), it is the infantile rubbish they teach that is truly shocking.
Their specialisms include zombie films, rock band Jethro Tull’s lyrics, Star Wars and video games – all under the spurious umbrella of media, film or cultural studies. At a time of austerity, it’s mind-boggling that the State pays people to research and teach such dross.
Of course, these so-called academics are committing a cruel fraud on young people, who are told that a degree will hugely improve their earning potential – which is why they are prepared to incur debts of £50,000 to achieve one.
But what possible use to an employer is a media degree from a third-rate institution with a specialisation in zombie studies?
As David Goodhart argues in these pages, the ‘ helter- skelter’ expansion of higher education since the 1990s was intended to create a better-trained, more employable workforce, but has had the reverse effect. Too many graduates qualify with functionally useless degrees. They know about equalities, human rights and identity politics but little of practical value. As a result, a third end up in non-graduate jobs, feeling cheated and betrayed.
Meanwhile, technical and vocational colleges have been almost wiped out, so we still have a chronic shortage of essential workers such as engineers and nurses. Schools have contributed to this skills shortage by directing pupils into academic subjects, while ignoring vocational ones.
But university expansion has had another, more insidious, consequence – the deepening of divisions between graduates and non- graduates. Two nations are developing, with very different political and social attitudes.
And these divisions are being fuelled in universities, where Left-wing beliefs now seem to be mandatory for lecturers and students. More worryingly, they have become bastions of Corbynism, contemptuous of ordinary voters and aloof from traditional mainstream politics.
It’s time for a radical rethink of our whole tertiary education system.
We must start by recognising that university will never suit everyone, and placing far more value on technical and vocational work. With Brexit on the horizon, we’ll need all the skilled workers we can produce. And universities must stop running ‘Mickey Mouse’ courses just to squeeze more money out of students.
But most crucially, school standards must be driven up. It’s a national disgrace that nearly 20 per cent of children leave school illiterate and innumerate.
As David Goodhart says: ‘People in the bottom half of society don’t need “rescuing” by spending three years at a new university. They need a basic school education.’ DOREEN Lawrence’s 25-year struggle to achieve justice for her murdered son Stephen has been truly inspiring. She fought magnificently against shameful police indifference and incompetence. Finally, in 2012, she saw two men convicted of Stephen’s racist killing. But the Mail, more than anyone, understands her desire to draw a line under the past. Yes, she’ll never stop grieving for Stephen but it’s right that she now devotes the rest of her life to her family and the many good causes she embraces – and Britain’s police return to the many other criminal scandals that deserve their attention.