Greenwich School of Management went bust yesterday. Ordinarily this probably wouldn't have caught my attention greatly. If people have heard of privately-owned GSM, it's probably due to its featuring in a Panorama investigation a couple of years ago into purchased admissions, dodgy degrees and bent assignment-brokers - which most of the papers writing about GSM today are too polite to mention.
There's something else nobody is mentioning, though a couple of oblique euphemisms can be found if you look. A while ago I did a bit of lecturing there on a pro bono basis and one couldn't help but notice that every single student encountered was not just BAME, but black. Given the incessant messaging we're all bombarded with that 'diversity' is the most important possible criterion for, well, pretty much anything these days, you'd imagine that the students themselves might have noticed this, and figured something was going wrong. Probably they did (and the dropout rate was more than 50%); but maybe they hadn't reckoned it would end this way.
You can only feel sorry for the many enthusiastic and eager learners. The false promises fed to students, all dating back to bloody John Major and his vision of 50% of school leavers going on to "university" (by hook or, as in some cases, by crook) routinely lead to massive disappointment, not to mention gratuitous debt. Whether it's the fault of schools, or just human nature, the facts are that a good deal fewer than 50% of school leavers are truly ready for, or are going to benefit from, a university education.
Yet tens of thousands of kids in the other category are frogmarched into former polys (and debt) to keep the numbers up, with predictable results.
There's another post to be written about private universities, and markets in education generally. For now, the point is that those preying on young people unsuited to tertiary study include the politicians with 'visions' and dumb numerical targets as well as the bent bastards offering to get students' assignments done for £500 a pop.
ND
Whether Greenwich School of managment or elsewhere the squeeze of 50% into "university" is criminal waste of time, money and for those attending, youth and potential. Even the "respectable" universities are not much further up the continuum, no matter how much guff they spout.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the wider issue is that much modern education is nothing of the sort, like the culture itself, it is aiming to become nihlistically valueless with the only with the ironic aim of trying to be "valuable". IF I had kids going through the system now I'd have to home educate given the doctrinaire propagandised crap I see friends younger ones being taught, (BTW that includes much vaunted STEM subjects too).
Excellent news!
ReplyDeleteThe Imperial College of Law and Management (Upper Chambers, 14-16 Catford Broadway, entrance by Morley's Fried Chicken) will be happy to take on these students for a much reduced Intra-Semester Transfer Fee.
Our feeder colleges in Lagos and Port Harcourt have filled the Michaelmas Term intake, but we have the option of additional tutorial facilities at our Peckham Annex following the Administration of the retail chain store holding the head lease.
We can accept fees in our Dollar, Euro, Rouble and Naira denominated accounts in addition to Sterling.
Semper magno sacculus
Great post and comments.
ReplyDeleteSoft degrees are free in effect anyway, at the cost of proper STEM students who will get whacked at an effective 50% tax before they can afford a mortgage.
Seriously.
Better off being a chav.
Better off being a sparky or plumber.
ReplyDeleteActually Nick I can see another opportunity here .. these premises are ideally suited for the new Royal Greenwich Nautical College (yes I've checked - the name would actually be quite legal), training aspiring merchant naval candidates from across the globe to the highest standards of MCA certification. Of course the fees would be steep, but for young chaps from Singapore or Nigeria also wanting to experience the fleshpots of London, it would be an attractive prospect ...
ReplyDeleteYou are indeed feeling bouyant these days, Mr R
ReplyDeleteI once watched a documentary on German apprenticeships. The young man being interviewed explained that he spent the first 6 months of his metal-working apprenticeship "filing".
ReplyDeleteBecause 20 or 30(or whatever) different types of files combined with 50 or 60 (or whatever) different metal alloys, shapes and thicknesses resulted in a lot of combinations.
No, no, nomuch better to go to the University of Bullshittery and earn a degree in same with a 'fuck all' designation, cum laude.