Mike Causey – Wrecclesham and Rowledge
Waverley Borough CouncillorArchive for Education
What the… ?
How is it possible that one of our government ministers can say that he may possibly abstain on a vote about a policy for which he is accountable?
It’s not often that I agree with a Labour shadow minister (John Denham), but it is ‘outrageous’ that Vince Cable can say this about his own policy, and think that it doesn’t bring his role and department into disrepute. And, devalue government policy making in general.
University of Life
The subject of university funding, and specifically tuition fees, is not yet something I’m 100% clear on, but it feels timely to pen a few mixed thoughts on the topic, with one eye on future weeks when I hope to be able to form a conclusion of sorts.
1. Graduate Tax
When I first heard of this proposal, I was immediately opposed. The idea was that graduate would pay different amounts depending on the success they achieved in their work. On principle I disagree with this approach, as it essentially says that graduate tuition is valued differently, even though it was provided equitably when it was received.
2. Held in trust?
One argument is that we hold further education in trust for the next generation. Having experienced it ourselves, and enjoyed its consequential benefits in our employment prospects, we are told we should ensure that it is available to our children in the same way. The challenge to that argument, is that the past 15 or so years have seen a ballooning of courses and students, that has reset the type of study that is available, and changed beyond recognition the number of students, and the type of ‘academic’ ability that is required.
I’m not trying to declare categorically that it’s worse that it used to be, and that we should return the courses and students numbers of 1995 (my year of graduation). But, I am saying that it is so fundamentally different that to declare that we must provide the ‘same’ opportunity to the next generation, is to compare apples with pears.
3. Cost
Is £9000 really too much to pay for a year of tuition? I don’t think it is. But, I do think that introducing it immediately doesn’t allow for the development of savings and other financial instruments that assist the planning of funding, and avoidance of debt on each graduate. Ultimately, what’s the value of the tuition provided, and who should be paying for it? If at least a portion is paid by the student, then how much is right, and why?
4. Professional Qualifications
How can we encourage the pursuit of more professional qualifications rather than the unquestioning study of academic and pseudo-academic courses?
Alumni and Azeris
What a fantastic evening back at my college: Royal Holloway, University of London.
I’d offered to help with the Careers Department, who organise a weekly talk by an alumni about their career since leaving RHUL. Having booked it before the summer, it seemed to come on suddenly, as a hectic month of work, including some travel abroad (which hadn’t happened for some time), caught up with me. However, from the start of the week I’d turned my mind to what I wanted to say, and my content and my head were ready.
Whilst I can’t speak on behalf of the students there, I can categorically say that personally I had a wonderful time. It did seem as though the students were interested in what I had to say, and being able to share something of the choices and challenges that I’ve made and faced since graduating, helped me reflect on what is important in life.
And as an additional dynamic, I didn’t realise that there were some Azeri students in the lecture theatre. I travelled there last week for business (my second visit to Baku) and used a couple of examples from my work there. It was lovely to know that there is quite a group of students from Azerbaijan at the college, and they even said that they would invite to their Independence Day celebrations coming up shortly! I hope so – Azeri hospitality is excellent.
The Graduate
Fair? Perhaps Vince Cable hasn’t understood the meaning of this word.
I really did have to do a double-take, when I heard, both on the radio and then via the internet, that Mr Cable believes it will be fair that students who subsequently earn more when they are working, might pay higher rates of ‘graduate tax’ that those who earn less. This, on the basis that those who graduate at the same time, were paying the same annual tuition fees. Uh? Doesn’t this devalue the tuition that was received by those who end up earning less?
My thoughts on higher education are completely thought through – more a reflection of what I’ve read and discussed with friends over the years, combined no doubt, with my sub-conscious political and ideological leanings. However, I offer the following few comments, in the knowledge that they need tested before being my firm beliefs.
(1) Implementing a tax for tuition fees is a risky approach. Such a tax will, over time, become isolated from its original intention. It will become part of the overall tax burden, and thus subject to the vagaries of future political manoeuvring.
(2) Acting as if university education is a universal right is a kind of social engineering. It devalues other training such as apprentices and other professional qualifications, and ignores the perils of setting unrealistic expectations for students of what will be required of them in the workplace. Labour’s target of 50% of school leavers attending university may be a statistic that has been reached, but in the real world, what has that done? Has it improved that standard and maturity of language, of communication skills? Has it enabled graduates to acquire the soft skills of emotional intelligence, perseverance, commitment and good manners that make the world go round?
(3) Further to the above, shouldn’t the government be considering freeing the tertiary educational establishment to charge a full fee for the education that it provides? The US system may have it drawbacks – especially to parents who have to save for many years to send their children to college, but it does mean that there are more scholarships, greater collaboration between academia and industry, and arguably and a higher commitment from students to their study.
In summary, I’ll emphasise once more, that my views need some work and I’ve written them simply as the reactions I’ve had to this guidance that the Secretary of State has given to Lord Browne for his review of student finance. But really, does the ‘fair’ describe this in any way at all?
RE, PD, P&E
A few months ago I had a conversation with a secondary school teacher that depressed me: not allowed to mark work in red ink; multiple trial essays and teach guidance before the actual essay that gets marked; an expectation that grades improve each year even though the students are totally diffierent.
Today I had a conversation with a secondary school teacher that leaves me at the other end of the spectrum of emotions: hope.
This particular teacher’s topic is RE (Religious Eduction). And PD (Personal Development). And P&E (Philosophy and Ethics). And I can only wish that when I was 15 or 16 I was taught the same issues: government, good and evil, medical ethics, to name but a few. I know that we covered a few bits and pieces in A-Level General Studies, but I’m convinced that our curriculum was nowhere close to being as developed and potentially sophisticated as it is today. I’m incredibly encouraged that such a broad range of thinking issues are part of pupils’ study and, whilst it doesn’t guarantee that a pupil attends to the topic with enthusiasm, it at least presents the opportunity that a proportion of our school leavers have a basic ability to converse in the important languages of worldview, philosophy and civil society.
Vintage stuff
The extent to which I enjoyed yesterday afternoon means that I’m fighting to think of the right words to convery the complexity of emotion and thought that I experienced.
It was my father-in-law’s birthday, and glorious weather, and so coupled with the fact that our son Caleb simpy loves trains and tractors, it was an incontestable decision that we should visit the Rural Life Centre‘s Steam and Vintage Weekend.
Having visited there before some years ago, I had some inkling of what to expect, but once more in my journey of fatherhood, I was taken aback by the new outlook on sights and sounds that a child brings to everything. From the moment we walked through the gate, it was simply joyful to see Caleb’s open-mouthed awe and wonder at the blacksmith, then the vintage tractors, steam engines, cars, motor bikes…. and finally the steam train ride. What pure unadulterated delight it was for both of us to ride in the open air, and feel, see and hear both the manmade things, and the nature, around us.
Every now and again, I need to be reminded of the simple things in life – the ongoing education in the university of life, and the treasure of family fun and Sunday afternoons.
Weydon School – Gas Leak
I don’t have much information, but I do know that Weydon School is closed today due to a gas leak. The gas board are on-site, and I’ll post an update when I hear some more.
