One of the biggest examples of equality Vs equity there is, and how the Blair government picked the wrong one. A university education was a dividing line in society they said. It was something only available to a select few. Everyone should benefit from a university education.
Thing is, apart from Oxbridge, the dividing line was never about race, sex or class. It was about academic ability. If you had the grades, you could come from anywhere (Equality). Now, there was a problem with high schools and sixth-form colleges not being as good in certain areas, but that wasn’t a problem with the universities. Many even tried to take such factors into account during admissions. If they’d solved the school education issue instead it would have been a fair system (again, apart from Oxbridge).
…but Blair felt that everyone should go to university. So they pushed up the intake numbers, converted all the polytechnics into universities (blowing away further education for less academic people) and turned the now unsustainable grant into loans.
End result: 20 years down the road and the bachelors degree is now largely worthless in hiring circles because everybody has one, and the masters degree is going the same way.
Qualifications are meant to give prospective employers information about people’s strengths. Now everyone appears the same on paper (Yay… Equity!) and the qualifications have lost their reason to exist.
There used to be a cap on uni places, Blair removed that cap. Polys converted in 92 under the Tories.
In theory, there could be more students applying than the cap, and in theory you could end up getting grades another year would have let you get in but not get in year you applied.
I say in theory as you would have had to have pretty fucking awful grades to not get in, I know of people getting in with a mix of Es and Ns during the pre Blair era, and no it wasnt a “soft” course or on a foundation year either.
Obviously I am ignoring subjects like Medicine that still had a cap even after Blairs meddling and have always been extremely tough to get in even with fantastic grades.
The biggest issue he caused by just removing the cap entirely was not ensuring a long lasting funding model, you cannot double the number of students and not cause runway increases in costs that ultimately have to be footed by the tax payer.
One of the biggest examples of equality Vs equity there is, and how the Blair government picked the wrong one. A university education was a dividing line in society they said. It was something only available to a select few. Everyone should benefit from a university education.
Thing is, apart from Oxbridge, the dividing line was never about race, sex or class. It was about academic ability. If you had the grades, you could come from anywhere (Equality). Now, there was a problem with high schools and sixth-form colleges not being as good in certain areas, but that wasn’t a problem with the universities. Many even tried to take such factors into account during admissions. If they’d solved the school education issue instead it would have been a fair system (again, apart from Oxbridge).
…but Blair felt that everyone should go to university. So they pushed up the intake numbers, converted all the polytechnics into universities (blowing away further education for less academic people) and turned the now unsustainable grant into loans.
End result: 20 years down the road and the bachelors degree is now largely worthless in hiring circles because everybody has one, and the masters degree is going the same way.
Qualifications are meant to give prospective employers information about people’s strengths. Now everyone appears the same on paper (Yay… Equity!) and the qualifications have lost their reason to exist.
There used to be a cap on uni places, Blair removed that cap. Polys converted in 92 under the Tories.
In theory, there could be more students applying than the cap, and in theory you could end up getting grades another year would have let you get in but not get in year you applied.
I say in theory as you would have had to have pretty fucking awful grades to not get in, I know of people getting in with a mix of Es and Ns during the pre Blair era, and no it wasnt a “soft” course or on a foundation year either.
Obviously I am ignoring subjects like Medicine that still had a cap even after Blairs meddling and have always been extremely tough to get in even with fantastic grades.
The biggest issue he caused by just removing the cap entirely was not ensuring a long lasting funding model, you cannot double the number of students and not cause runway increases in costs that ultimately have to be footed by the tax payer.