The Third Degree.

Granted my degree was 45 years ago but we had around 23 hours of lecture time. Last year the average was 13.4, down an hour from the year before. At £9,000 student fee and a 30 week uniyear that’s just over 400 hours per year with the students paying £22 per hour for them. With a class of say 40 students that’s £895 per hour. Now I don’t think lecturers get that much, more like £45k pa, i.e. around £38 per hour. So one wonders where the other £857 per hour goes. Obviously this ratio of 23:1 goes on the grand buildings, loan repayments, management, accountants, ancillary staff, library, nurse, counselling service, window cleaning, prospectus printing, in house Café Nero and student union. In comparison our building was19th century, we had a kiosk where you could buy crisps and a nurse that came once a week. I don’t remember if we had a library, I did maths. My obvious point is the vast majority of a student’s fee goes on the non-educational aspects of their uni experience. Now imagine visiting your favourite local restaurant for the purchase of a £15 meal. It also has overheads not directly involved in the preparation of your meal but lets say they account for two thirds of your bill. So ingredients, gas, chef and waiter salaries account for £5. From the above 23:1 ratio this modest meal under the structure of our universities model would present you with a bill for £115. But don’t worry, they’ll loan you the extra hundred quid and you can pay it back out of your wages and only if you do really well and manage to get a job that pays only slightly more than the minimum wage. Then again there’s something inherently noble about a young friend wanting to do “Textile Design and Fashion at University”. It appears to show imagination, zest, and an intense desire to be creative. Unfortunately she has none of these necessary attributes, it’s solely based on her liking for dressing up and clubbing. It’s like wanting to do an English degree because you love reading Heat. It’s not their fault, it’s us making them an offer they can’t refuse and using their understandable naivety to mortgage their future pay in order to pay off our current deficit! Sorry it just makes me mad.