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A writer in the Independent today penned a piece entitled, “University is not right for everyone and that sentiment touches upon what I have felt for quite a few years now. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/philip-hensher/philip-hensher-university-isnrsquot-right-for-everyone-2053386.html

It is a simple fact of life that when only a few people take part in any particular activity, it tends to be ‘Fun’. Driving a car used to be fun before everyone had a car and were competing for the same bit of road space. Likewise, not only are our roads overcrowded but in these small islands subject to heavy commercial air traffic, so too are the skies. If you fancy flying privately, it is only tolerable whilst there are few other people wanting to do the same, faced with congestion and higher demand, rationing of any activity by “price or licence” is inevitable.

The Blair Promise

When I heard Blair declare that the aim was for 50% of school leavers to go to University, I thought that he was a total lunatic but it was typical of New Labour and politicians generally, seeking ‘universal panaceas’ when only tailored and local solutions will work out beneficially.

My primary point is that if you want to rapidly expand access to university ‘for all’, something has got to give and in this case as with ‘A’ Level Exams, it is the quality of the outcomes both in terms of the Degree Courses and the value of the Award. It is the curse of politicians to be fixated on “class issues” when they should be looking at the Laws of Supply and Demand.

It is hardly a surprise that the Labour Party with it’s theoretical concern for an egalitarian society have in fact over 13 years, reduced social mobility and increased the gap between the “Haves and the Have Nots”. If you read the above article in the ‘Indy’ and the comments, what follows below with some minor differences are the comments I posted to that article.

A Stupid Idea

Blair’s 50% target was either a stupid attempt to massage the unemployment figures and pass on the costs or the rambling of a total idiot. This is not a “Class Issue” if by University you mean an academic environment for which it is likely that at the most 15% would be suitable for. If by University you mean a collection of former HE establishments dragooned into one unit, re branded as the “University of Upton Muckton” offering Degrees in Media Studies, Leisure Management (pulling a pint) and other such intellectual activities, then surely, it should be a training establishment not a university ?

To my mind, we should preserve the traditional academic reputation of the Oxbridge type universities and the practical specialist universities in Engineering, Medicine and so forth. Keep entry throttled but make it possible via proper taxpayer funded scholarships (not grants issued by right) for anybody whose financial background qualified them, to gain entry by their personal ability alone, to be fully funded whilst there and no debt following them when they leave.

Reorganise Higher/Further Education

Below this level, we need the other so called universities to reorganise themselves to provide largely non-academic but practical job orientated training. If one can get ‘Academies’ to be funded by business, given the vast amount of money most large businesses have to devote to training, providing they were allowed to specify the skills they need into the curriculum, funds should be forthcoming. Done properly, these establishments could well provide the “outsourced” training facilities for most companies.

We also need to look at and elevate the ethos of craft/artisan skills. Having a degree or ‘ology’ is irrelevant at 2 in the morning with water pouring through your ceiling, you want a good plumber. We should be investing heavily in such a skill base plus but as importantly, we need an integrated further/higher educational structure where people can get transferred between the strata s. People and especially young men, develop at different paces and a lad who starts on a practical “construction course”, may well demonstrate an aptitude beyond the purely manual, they should be able to be moved up to a university course where appropriate.

Not a New Idea

This of course is not a new idea, it is just recognizing the realities of people and “different strokes for different folks”, we are not all built the same.

In post War II Britain, the idea was at the secondary level of education to allow transfers on ability between the three ‘arms’, Secondary Modern, Technical and Grammar, sadly it just never happened and it really needed to.

Education is the best means of creating social mobility but only if it is applied properly, intelligently and flexibly. For working class lads like me, the Grammar School was the way out and it is really at the secondary level we should still start today. The one size fits all theories of New Labour were a joke, the vast expansion of universities financially unsustainable and the dumbing down of the ‘A’ Level passes, a total disaster.