It is great that UK universities and research centres have got back the share of the Horizon programme funding. This helps not just academics but also British industry as good science can lead to great commercial ventures. And as the current and insane US government appear to be doing all they can to destroy the best American universities, perhaps the UK can have the funding to become a welcome home for scientists currently doing their research in the US.
Now the UK just needs to sort out the other problematic loose threads from Johnsonās disastrous EU exit agreement.
1 Like
That has surely got to be too steep a hill to climb.
1 Like
Itās good for the few Lincs, but itās not academics we are short of. Itās engineers, Bricklayers, Electricians, Plumbers and even labourers.
The few academics might be good to create commercial ventures, and then take them overseas where the labour is cheapā¦ 
All the clever people are being trained here and paid for by the general public, and then leave the country for a better life elsewhere (like you Lincs) and then we import all the scallywags and debris the world has to offer.
2 Likes
Universities produce thousands of people with degrees in social studies, yet produce none with any common sense or the ability to to simple manual tasks
2 Likes
Spot On. Well posted topic.
A vital Regain, For a country know for is lack of Productivity. Minimal Natural Resources. And its International Fiscal Hub, having been allowed to be moved overseas from London.
What do & long had. Some 300 Universitiesā
Two Thirds. Virtually Diploma Mills.
One Third, With Brilliant Academics & Those capable. Aspiring to become.
All we need this time around.
Is that these grants are Focused and Administered, by Charter, As British.
Innovation and Invention resulting.
Firmly by Law. Patented, Funded and Produced. Within the UK.
Unlike in previous decades.
Sold off overseas. For puerile. Quick Gain.
2 Likes
I admire the focus to continue opportunities for universities to offer up resources for advanced learning for all countries.
I am ashamed of the US and its efforts to control education of all kinds.
Go UK!
2 Likes
I had a think about these two comments and how dismal they are. I would like to see the UK as leading in technology and being a high growth, high productivity country. But also with a quality cultural side - arts, creativity, etc. You are not going to get that from creating a workforce of plumbers and bricklayers. That is backward thinking and completely fails the drive for STEM subjects to be promoted and invested in. No wonder some technology companies take themselves overseas if we do not have good tech graduates here.
Iād also note that as university fees and studentsā costs of going to university are paid by student loans - what makes you think the general public is paying for this?
And as for non-STEM graduates - what is wrong with that? I worked with many exceptional people in different business who had arts degrees or humanities degrees. It did not stop them being analytical, insightful, empathetic, purposeful and, yes, with common sense. I suspect that if a kid decides that social studies in a crap university is the best route to give them a great, well paid career then that kid never had (and never will) have any common sense. That is, the problem lay with the individual rather than the subject.
3 Likes
Aww SuperGal. Thereās No Shame Indeed Respect. In having Invented.
Zippers 
Defibrillators.Microwave Ovens.LEDās. GPS.
And the Amazing. Philosophical Bill Gates
www. Internet.
To mention Just a Few, practical innovationās,
We take for grated and couldnāt do without now. 
1 Like
Lincolnshire
all I can base my point of view is from personal experience. I didnāt have a university degree or even o level exam as I left school before that.
I came up the hard way through grafting. Did I do better that those with degrees? what do you think?
my place valued @ at least Ā£730,000 -Ā£750,000. Not bad for someone without qualifications.
I didnāt pussyfoot around like those taking gap -years. No I was out actually EARNING. No heavy fees to pay back either which I would have had if I had gone to UNI, which I could have one if I had wanted to. But put off school life for ever.
No I put my skills into building an extension to my second house - learning carpentry- trained as an electrician - can lay a bick as well as the net man etc etc. then running my or I should say our successful business
From my experience working for British Telecom the junior managers were as thick as two planks didnāt know the job ,yet came with degrees that meant nothing
travelled to more countries than a lot of people , run 2 cars and have a ācomfortableā life style in retirement. With two sons doing well in their own jobs and 4 grandaughters
No I think Sue and I have done ok Thank you
1 Like
Aww Lincs where do I start to take you post into piecesā¦
It was a high productivity country until they (Blair) decided to send all school leavers to university to obtain mostly worthless qualifications and a partner for lifeā¦Both my grand daughters do not do jobs remotely related to the topics they studied, and they both left UNI with a potential husband.
So itās better to bring in skilled labour from foreign countries instead of providing our own tradesmen? You then have the added bonus of finding the resources to look after their families when we can barely look after our own. This country is āTop Heavyā with brainy people who will never find a proper job.
Technology companies take their business overseas for the cheap labour because our workers have priced themselves out of the market. Yes, we have the skills to develop a product or company by the few who leave University who deserve to have been there, for the rest itās just a jolly time and free ride.
The majority of students will never pay off their loans, in fact most of the loans are being written off because it cost more to administer than the gov will ever get backā¦
With all due respect, I suspect that the type of people that have been your colleagues over the years are probably a minority and do not represent the majority of the working classes.
All going to University has done for most of the graduates is wasted five or six years of their life when they could have been part of the working population, learning a trade from the older skilled people who are passing on those skills that are not found in any book or lecture room. And at a time in their life when they at their most receptive to learning, instead of leaving UNI with a handfull of qualifications and thinking they are somekind of Bill Gatesā¦
All I ever wanted to do was take the ārealā earnings average and add 50%, that is sustainable.no jumping on the latest Fad.
Let the wide boys get on with it, I have no interest in their demise.
Thanks for taking the time to reply. You make many valid points. Iāll try to be brief but I want to address everything you raise.
High productivity until opening tertiary education. There is zero evidence for this claim. None.
Bringing in trades-people from overseas. You miss my point entirely. My point was that it is certainly good to have local people fulfilling skilled but menial tasks - that aināt taking the UK economy anywhere. For that you need more than exceptional plumbers.
Tech business go overseas because UK workers are costly. Certainly low skill assembly work is not suited to the costly UK. So why do we let school leavers end their secondary education only suited to low skill assembly work?
Most students never pay off their loans. Here we agree. I agree that university education should be for the very best - evidenced through performance. It should not be the expectation of the privately educated (so Iām a big fan of VAT on private schools). It should be state funded because it benefits the whole country. The funding should cover STEM and arts / humanities. But (big but) there needs to be a pay back in some form. Iāll defend the concept of history of art (for example) as a student course - but chaps, cough up at some point.
Your colleagues do not represent the working class. No shit Sherlock. Of course I worked with intelligent tertiary educated people. Anyone else (i.e. thick or unwilling to learn) would not get a look in. Quite right but not class based. But the claim was that anyone from any background that opted for an easy social studies course were useless. My point was that idiots who chose the easy & lazy option of one type of degree were lacking in common sense. Do not bring class into this - that is a false argument.
Most graduates waste many years when they could have been productive. Sorry, at this point you simply demonstrate your lack of insight, information and awareness. If you stated that āsome graduates might have been better doing work and gaining that experienceā then Iād agree. But the idea that old ideas & skills will equip the young and the country for the future is deeply flawed and inaccurate. Things change and progress, my friend, and you cannot change that.
But let us end on an agreement. Many youngsters come into work thinking they deserve immediate accolade, senior responsibility and high reward. Iām not sure that is a failing of the education they have had (hey, youāve got a rubbish degree from a shite college in social studies so you will be leading the ad campaign for a major supermarket day two in your job). I suspect other factors are of greater significance. See, we can agree.
1 Like
Well done.
When I Played in the Orchestra, I was surrounded by posh kids who strangled cats 
, the conductor confirmed my Special status but that wasnāt enough, unfortunately, sometimes defeat is the only option 