Why i wish to quit my University Education: A Vehement Rant

[DinahX]

University is first and foremost an institution become tailored for the ungifted and the lazy. If you need to pay £20,000 to be taught what you could just as easily read for free in a library or an academic journal then clearly you are either these, brainwashed, or like me unto this point of no return – thoroughly beaten into submission by ‘knowledgeable’ elders and social pressure. And if you think that piece of paper you receive at the end of your interment automatically confers some kind of golden halo of wisdom about your head, you are plainly as deluded as the rest of society. It is a piece of paper; a worthless trophy that proclaims ‘I am a parrot who can regurgitate the information that I am told is correct and worthy of my attention.’ Do note: you are being selectively taught. And by what godly right do lecturers have the gift to discern what one should and should not know might I ask? This is pure academic elitism! A degree in film studies is no more a Mickey Mouse degree than the study of English Literature – and that is a complete and utter waste of time if ever there was one! So you can read a book? Hooray! I’m sure that puts you a pedestal above the humble road sweep who reads dickens or & algebraic equations over breakfast, and of course your analysis of the fictional word, of that empathic noun at the end of a sentence really enables you to benefit the world at large, of course.
University is designed, like most educational establishments, to channel and suppress originality into social subservience and perpetuate conformity of the masses. Money and brainpower is recycle into a breeding program of corporate dragons whose overgrown rears roost upon a pile of hollow riches and worker clones who slave away the next fifty years of their lives in a positive feedback mechanism of stress and consumption. Graduates are primed to become locked into this shallow struggle of self-sufficiency sustained by a species mythology based on the triumph of so called civilisation over animal nature, but civilisation is itself nothing more than rules and laws, and if you want to reduce that, to a code by which human nature sustains humanity, yes human nature, nothing more grand in this scheme as it stands.
And the government hopes to raise university intake levels by 50% further reducing those practicing essential skills to humanity due to this banner of intellectual snobbery.
This repressive regime is becoming a training place for the mass of the youth. The chances of inspiring minds that will perpetuate fellowship, intellectual and spiritual evolution burn like the hopes and dreams of the enlightenment God, and those who dare to go against the grain feel the bitter cold of a doorway on a city sidewalk…or dare to challenge and defy, dare to succeed, dare to show a better vision of the future maybe?
So, if you are brave and if you want to make a stand for change, then don’t go to university! Prove you are intelligent enough not to need to!
Whatever happened to apprenticeships? To contentment and not greed? Why not introduce an entry exam to careers so that people with real talent and individual spontaneity of the kind that wilts beneath the oppressive routine of academia can flourish and pollinate the entire world instead of admitting the rich, the obsessively narrow minded, and the drunken partygoers who managed to put in a hung over appearance at their tutorials once in a blue moon while cramming the night before the exam – because lets face it, you only need to read a book, and who marks these exams anyway…? Are you following my train of thought?
Why not base entry to university on original opinion, interview, performance and genuine enthusiasm for the subject?
University is the training ground for an implanted model of academic elitism, restricting access to the prize of riches to the few, forever embracing that principle of human selfishness. Just because you know the language, makes such knowledge no less a targeted game of words than the slogan on a cereal packet; don’t think yourself a king just because you wear a crown, you can just as easily have your head chopped off.
Oh I know this is not the be all and end all of the situation. Even the most of esteemed self taught genius (which I am not) need recognition or face the guns of a thousand less intellectually inclined minds to shoot them down on the basis of one tiny fact…a certificate, an award, a piece of paper.
I am sure this little rant will be received with the utmost criticism, but here it is, as I state it, a little question mark in the otherwise oblivious ocean of humanity.

©ô.StC

[ever_nocturnal]

.

[tintin]

Don't worry - I'm feeling slightly disillusioned at the moment with the whole thing as well (though that may be more to do with only having 5 weeks to go and counting!). You're right that most of the stuff can be now found on the Internet or a Library, but I guess that what differentiates being at a University is that, especially the further up you get, you can discuss these ideas with the very people who had them in the first place.

I dislike, especially in applying for jobs and interviews, the way you have to reduce your academic "achievements" down to what skills you got from it...perhaps that's a good thing, perhaps it's not.

But I do agree that a target of 50% is totally absurd.

[nova]

Just because the governement wants to reach its target of 50%, however flawed an ambition that may be, does not automatically make your degree worthless, nor does it force you into acting like all those for whom a degree may not be suitable. The nature of the qualification you obtain from university has not changed that substantially over the years, and it will always afford you the liberty to do with it as you wish. University still gives you the freedom to have your own ideas, and express those ideas in a way you see fit. Certainly you could do this on your own, but university also serves as a forum within which you can discuss your ideas with others, as well developing them through the study and discussion of those of others. Perhaps if you spent more time devoting your attentions to your own degree, and less to what the government says it ought to be, or what the press says it has become you would start to find the process rather more fulfilling.

[hr]"I slopped at the corner on cold chow mein and shot billiards with a midget until the rain stopped."

Tom Waits.

[munchingfoo]

I think you should also restrict the flame of the university as a whole to the subjects you mention(Their choice not mine), namely arts. It is ridiculous to say that a degree in computing or chemistry for example is utterly useless. Without people doing degrees in these subjects you wouldn't be able to rant on this thing called the internet, using another thing called a computer. I am somewhat in aggreance with the arts/lazy/only read books point, it is possible however to work hard at these degrees, get skills an employer wants and find and job.

[Wong]

Bye.

[zeppelin]

All that University is, is a signaling device to show that you can achieve this level of education. The actual level of education matters little, all employers want to know is that you were A) good enough to attend and B) good enough to graduate.

[KateBush]

I'm starting to wonder if yoo're right, Dinah. I've certainly felt before the way that you do now. But we can't really make a difference to this ridiculous system unless we enter it, and change it from inside. What pisses me off is that people assume if you've not been to university you're a loser. My brother and parents are perfectly intelligent, but never fancied university and they're doing brilliantly thankyou very much.

I only came to university because I loved my subject, and they've even tried to knock that out of me! But I'm not letting them. I agree to some extent with TinTin about being able to work with eminent critics and academics etc, but to an extent you're right too.

Do you graduate this year, or are you going to quit the University? Education is a very valuable thing, but I don't like what it is coming to represent, especially here. It seems to symbolise for more and more people these days that you went to a good enough school to get in, or that your parents were wealthy enough for you to come here.

I hope you start to feel better soon.
[hr]a red rose is not selfish because it wants to be red rose. It would be selfish if it wanted all the other flowers in the garden to be both red, and roses. -Oscar Wilde

[helen b]

well that was boring to read

[Aldous]

Why not base entry to university on original opinion, interview, performance and genuine enthusiasm for the subject?

er... not really uni's fault of they are obliged to accept on a-level grades - and imagine how many people would have to be interviewed and you get a new 'originality'

and as far as i can tell marking in the english department seems to be based precisely on 'original opinion, performance and enthusiam (you still have to read the books and it helps to read books about the books and books to compare to the books and books about how to express your view on the books and books to explain you view on the books...) - so maybe you shouldn't be so critical or else be prepared to accept the accusation 'you are, ma'am, a typical Tory philistine'.

[Humphrey]

Oh god its another frigging Marxist

[Biitchboy]

You know, even if i were not to get a degree at the end of it for whatever reason, i'll still be glad i came to uni. It's about so much more than a degree. I've truly enjoyed my time here, and I've learned so much, and I'm not referring to International Relations.

[hr]If I gave a shit, you'd be the first person I'd give it to.

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~lgbtsoc
*This post does not necessarily reflect the views of the society*

[The Cellar Bar]

oh God it's another frigging Humphrey.

[curious]

I'm assuming then that there is quite a large difference between how people view Arts degrees compared to Science and other vocational degrees? Seeing as the point of them in most cases is to be qualified for a specific job and if not then there is a lot of room for your own studies etc.

I know employers view them very differently of course, but do the actual people taking them? And why do people stick at degrees they don't like? This is one of the most flexible uni's in the country when it comes to being able to swap your degree at a click of your fingers!

[Humphrey]

[s]The Cellar Bar wrote on 18:10, 19th Apr 2004:
oh God it's another frigging Humphrey.


No offence meant by my earlier post, I’ve just been struggling with Althusser and E. P Thompson, which is apt to make me a little cranky towards those of a Marxist persuasion. I enjoyed reading this well written polemic of Diana's, I thought it was full of wild generalisations and stereotypes, but as a pessimistic view of modern society it managed to arrest my attention longer than the project I’m supposed to be doing.

[are you sure you want to leave?]

I have to admit I have had similar thoughts about university, but you take it to the extreme. I have thought about leaving many times, so i feel i am in a good position to offer a counter argument.
I agree that in general one non vocational degree is just as worthless as another, and that most go to university to get a piece of paper with 2.1 or 2.2 written on it.
But I do think going to university is a good thing providing you do the right things. Definitely going to debates etc has exposed me to different ideas that i would never previously considered. Living with my flatmate in second year exposed me to various beers and whiskys i would never have even though to drink.
I have met people from all over the world, from every different strata of society that i doubt i would have met before.
The more depth you become involved in a particular area of a subject eg by doing a dissertation the more able your brain becomes at dissemenating vast amounts of information. Being able to analyse and understand increasing complex and contradictory ideas increases your intellectual capacity.
However if you are not at university to grow as a person, and just wish to pick up a piece of paper then it has been proven that if your a level points are between 20-28 and you study an arts subject your overall earning capacity is not greatly increased by getting a degree.

[surfingsimon]

[s]DinahX wrote on 14:45, 19th Apr 2004:
i wish to quit my university education
One of my friends is just 19, he left school without any A-levels and went straight into work. He now earns £500 a week, drives a £6000 Mitsubishi Shogun and gets his petrol provided free (to him, worth £100 a week). Ok, he works long hours but no more than any investment banker.

Why the fuck did i chose to go to Uni? i'm 20 with £10k debt and earning £0 a week? Reply to that.....
[hr]
that is all. i have left the building.

[Biitchboy]

[s]surfingsimon wrote on 21:26, 19th Apr 2004:
Why the fuck did i chose to go to Uni? i'm 20 with £10k debt and earning £0 a week? Reply to that.....


How else would you get the government to give you thousands of pounds each year to spend on alcohol?

[hr]
If I gave a shit, you'd be the first person I'd give it to.

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~lgbtsoc
*This post does not necessarily reflect the views of the society*

[Prophet Tenebrae]

It's called oppurtunity cost - you pay for you education in the hope that it'll allow you to get a better job and hence make it all worthwhile.

Of course Tony Blair shoving as many people into the crucible as possible doesn't help. The plumbers are laughing at us. Especially Super Mario.

[Biitchboy]

I hate "super" mario.