Tuesday 25 November 2014

School's Not Out

The increasing censorship and so on at universities is the result of the introduction of undergraduate tuition fees.

Most people go to school for free. Yet those who go on to university, and there is no university that admits predominantly from the fee-paying sector, have done so on that basis: neither they nor, distinct from general taxation, their parents have contributed one penny to the efforts made by the school to get them there, but those efforts have demonstrably been made.

For nine thousand pounds per annum, in most cases to be paid off by being in debt for decades, they expect a deluxe version of that which they received at school. If that gives a university the culture of a school, then so be it.

Already, they talk about "going to", rather than "being at", a university and its constituent parts. They talk about "doing", rather than "studying" or "reading", a particular subject. They talk about "Year One", "Year Two" and "Year Three", rather than "the first year", "the second year" and "the third year".

They are still at school. Only more so, because they are paying to be there.

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