It will be very very difficult but not impossible. A lot of the factors that have led to his unpopularity are external, and may reverse just as quickly as they emerged, and the Kingās speech has just announced the legislative agenda for the next parliamentary session from which he might recover some support as it is delivered.
I think his biggest problem, and one Iāve raised before, is that he has been very unpopular with those on the very left of the party, who have tried to embarrass and/or remove him ever since he stepped into the leadership race following the end of Corbynās time as leader. With the rise in the support of the Green Party I think that element of the Labour Partyās support will either ebb away further to them or have greater incentive to act out against him.
I think for the party, there is a real problem here because there are probably few if any potential candidates who can pull all wings of the party together, pacify the unions, and work within the confines of the current economic climate, and to do so in a way that makes a significant impact on the electorate in the remaining three years before the next election.
If Starmer is replaced, I donāt know what a new leader can realistically offer that would be increase their chances of re election.
noted.
but just a little something for you to ponder onā¦ if Universities are such a bad investment vehicle, why are there so any of them opening up? why the aggressive marketing? why so many new branches and divisions, and online presence?
maybe the official mission statement is altruistic, maybe the brochures promote a certain world view, but is the reality something different?
the original debate though, to my mind, was when you suggested it was silly (not exact words) to curb international students.
maybe we can meet halfway though, The education sector is now primarily a commercial industry first. How we got here is debatable, but it needs regulation regarding student visas and basic courses of cut and paste learning.
it should also be running scared, anyone with half a brain can see it is in a race to the bottom as lets face it, just about all acedemic study CAN (eventually) be substituted and taught online, lecturers will be freelance and courses regulated.
i suggest the industry is quite cynically (yes) transforming from being higher education to being basic education. people are basically being forced into debt to apply for a basic job role.
scoff at me all you like, but the education system is eating itself and designing a financial prison for future generations.
Free education* (for the local population), should be like free health careā¦a basic right.
*and the āfreeā version should not be a substandard safety net, the stats on Australian families paying for private education is eyewatering in its trending, but that IS a side discussion.
I donāt know whether Labour Party leadership challenge rules limit the frequency in which a leader can be challenged, but it would be interesting to know whether Burnham would ask his supporters to vote for Starmer to stay in place until he himself can get a seat.
This is not necessarily the Universities doing though, employers often look for ways to reduce the number of applications they receive to more manageable levels and one way they do this is by asking for applicants to have a degree. That naturally encourages people to look to go and get themselves a degree.
I donāt think Mascot would disagree with this. I donāt, and I am probably more to the right than he is.
yes im sure we dont disagree on that part, it probably is a side track from the original debate thoughā¦ does dial into it a little bit though, i do hear murmurs of Australian universities prioritising international studentsā¦but thats really not something i can substantiate.
As @ISMF suggested, this is where the easiest revenue comes from, and with the rest of the budgets being so stressed that is increasingly been seen as an essential avenue to pursue to fund other more core parts of the mission.
There is undoubtedly a culture within admin of needing to generate more revenue to there is more to siphon off into the pockets of administrators, but I think that is an issue of self interest and self dealing of the administrator class, not a university system itself or inherently being driven by a desire for profit.
Yes, im sure cutting liberal arts degrees will make training doctors just impossibleā¦
ItĀ“s not though. Not anymore.
Certainly not by what it actually teaches students. Perhaps by virtue of the tick box that companies still somehow use when postings jobs that applicant must have an agree.
And again, whatever grandiose view you hold of university, the reality is that it should set students up to be ready to enter and contribute to the world of work - to society and the economy. That is why they go. And it doesnt do this.
Assuming the IT you are referring to is āA university education is incredibly valuable for a pathway into a good careerā then it most certainly is compared to the alternative.
I dont hold a grandiose view of university - Ive worked there I know the warts all too well. But you dont need a grandiose view to accept that employment rates and life time earning continue continue to be significantly better for university grads compared to non despite the increased navel gazing of a vibes based assessment of university no longer doing what it is supposed to do.
The alternative of reading about it for free at a library?
Ah youĀ“ve worked there. I see.
not called for.
its a genuine concern from a parent whose children are about to enter that level of education, my āvibes based assessmentā is made with a level of personal interest spending what i would call an appropriate amount of time looking into.
you shouldnt need a degree and 400 hours of study, to ask probing questions..about degreesā¦surely thats a fair comment?
Yeah so that is a reaction to some thing I didnt say and certainly not to you.
Ask whatever question you want, but if you outright reject the ongoing robust economic value of holding a degree vs not having one, as the person I was discussing this with is doing, then that is a vibes based assessment.
Maybe the type of society and career climate matters too in university discussion. In a place like Singapore or in fact in big parts of Asia, technical jobs like Plumbing etc are low paying jobs that require no degree, while degrees are gateways to higher paying jobs. That is pretty different to places like Australia where plumbing are skilled jobs that can pay pretty well and certainly doesnāt require a 4 year degree to thrive?
And for what its worth, I completely understand the concern a parent would have about this whole thing. When I was in academia my boss and I launched a project to kill an entire graduate program that came under our control because we felt it was outdated in terms of where the job market had turned. We took 3 years redesigning an entirely new curriculum from scratch to better reflect what would make people competitive in the modern job market. But you dont need to know that part of my biography to know I take that seriously seeing I already said this in my first post on the matter
Think through what is the best fit. Consider if there are cheaper ways of getting the education you are interested in getting. Consider if the field you are considering going in has a return on investment. These are all very appropriate considerations. But none of that validates a perspective that is being aired about university failing people in job preparation. It is not supposed to do that because that is an incredibly limiting perspective of what you should come out of university being able to do. Instead it prepares people (generallyā¦Art historians can go over there -->> lol @SBYM ) more generally for employment and the data is very clear that despite the premium shrinking over the past couple of decades it still does that.
Today, Charles King of England announced he would instruct his ministers to implement a mandatory digital ID, and itās not even mentioned in here. Wow. It will bring about utter disaster, we will see opposition on the scale of the poll tax crisis, perhaps even worse, the big R.
It isnt mandatory (at least not yet)
Almost, it is stated as mandatory as an interact with Gov.
Is the vasoline this time.
I thought they were angling for mandatory for most people to have it, not that it would be mandatory to use? (I havenāt looked at what was in the announcements today)
Just that, it will be mandatory to have Dig ID when interacting with Government. Suppose the detail will grind out once Labourās re-re-rally is dealt with..