The Closed University
After years of listening to the voices inside my head arguing about what I should do with my life, I recently came to a realisation. I’ve become lost. You see, four years ago, I’d decided that whatever I did with my life, it needed to be complicated enough to give me a buzz and meaningful enough to contribute to society in some way. It took NASA landing a MAHOOSIVE rover on Mars to make me remember what I’d promised myself when I graduated. I told myself I’d earn enough cash to fund my education. I didn’t know whether I wanted to go into computational neuroscience or space engineering but I knew one thing. Whatever I go on to do with my life, I need an understanding of advanced mathematics to make it possible.
Take 1
Back in 2008, I got my first job writing software at a fairly boring company. A year later, I decided I needed a new challenge and having saved up a decent amount of cash, I decided it was time to take my education to the next step. I enrolled in a Mathematics degree at the Open University. The price of studying a 30 credit module at the time was something along the lines of £360. So with a full degree consisting of 360 credits, let’s say an OU Maths degree would have cost £4320 in total. Bargain! And this, of course, was the point in the Open University. Cheap, high quality education with low entry requirements. Truly open education. An element of our culture that should make us proud. I enjoyed my studies so much that I ended up taking on too many modules at the same time and pushed myself way too hard while I had other things going on in my life. I decided that it was best for my psychological well-being to take a break and resume my studies when it made sense to do so.
We do not have lift off
As I said earlier, the Mars landing inspired me to get back on it. I’d made a plan. I would resume my studies in Mathematics in order to prove myself for further study and then hopefully establish a career in something epic. Today, I went to the Open University website to enrol on a module and found that the cost had shot up from £360 to £1250. Yes, now the entire cost of an Open University degree is £15,000. This makes it only marginally cheaper than studying at a traditional brick university and therefore entirely undermines the purpose of the institution. This government has quite literally killed the Open University.
U-S-A!
Meanwhile in the United States of America, MIT, Berkeley and Harvard are busy building edX, which looks like it’s set to become the international distance learning platform of the future. Once again, the UK develops a kickass concept and lets someone else run with it. Congratulations America. You’re taking a step forward while we continue to remind the world why Britain is no longer great. Honestly, it’s fucking insane. You’ve got David Cameron twatting around telling everyone we’re going to lose out to China and India if we don’t get our education in check and at the same time he’s cutting university funding. He’s a giant douchebag and this country is very rapidly becoming a massive joke. (Right now, I’d say it’s just an average sized joke)
Ugh. I’m done.
Let me tell it how it is. People like talking about the 99% and the 1%. Well you know what? Let’s forget about wealth distribution for a second. Civilization was created and is developed by the 1% of people with the ambition, passion, intelligence, creativity and determination to get the job done. The other 99% merely consume the fruit of the nerds, the outcasts, the eccentrics and they don’t care where it comes from. They just trust that it will be there and continue to improve indefinitely.
In general, I’m just pretty frustrated by the way we value skills in our retarded economy. Footballers earn zillions by kicking a ball around yet if you want to contribute to science, the average person needs to crank up debt for the privilege of being accepted onto a gruelling PhD program and receiving the amazing sum of £13,000 per year if they’re lucky. If they’re not lucky, they’ll have to pay for the privilege. So what now, for me? Fuck knows. Maybe I’ll just sell my soul to the finance sector. Why contribute to society when I can make money instead?
Tagged cheap, enrole, expensive, frustration, open university, OU, phd, quality, website
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Savvy ScotAugust 10, 2012 at 8:28 am
Wow! What a read. I feel your pain. I think education will see dramatic changes in the next decade or two. Who would bother paying 10s of thousands to enrol in a course with an average professor when they can participate online with the best in the world for free? There needs to be a major reform!
AshAugust 10, 2012 at 11:05 amAuthor
Cheers James, it’s upsetting to see this beloved institution go down this way but it’s evolution, I guess. At least we can be positive about the situation in the knowledge that services like edX will replace it. It has big shoes to fill but I’m sure it’s more than capable when I consider the institutions involved. Did you ever enrol for the electronics course? I’m kind of tempted! There does need to be a major reform, and luckily it’s happening. I just wish the UK was part of the solution instead of part of the problem.
Savvy ScotAugust 10, 2012 at 5:11 pm
I did actually, but it came at a really bad time (I had none). I have heard great things from it though!
AshAugust 10, 2012 at 9:16 pmAuthor
Haha I hear you! I’m a little rusty when it comes to differential equations so I don’t think I can do that module right now but I might take on one of the others.
JayAugust 14, 2012 at 2:40 pm
Math makes my eyes bleed
JenAugust 10, 2012 at 9:48 am
Have I told you lately that I love you? I’m proud that you’re speaking up on an important political issue and for once we are in total agreement about it!
I am genuinely gutted for you though
The world needs can-do nerds like you and what’s happening to the UK education system is outrageous. It’s utterly crap and not just for you personally: putting massive financial barriers in the way of talented people hurts everyone in the long run.
With my geeky background and aspirations I was bound to want/need to go to university. I worked hard for it and for the career path I’m on it was absolutely necessary and I couldn’t be happier with my decisions. However, I don’t know that I could say with certainty that I’d make the same choices if I’d been born later and as a result would be facing £40k+ of student debt. As a rational person such a massive financial commitment would make choosing higher education MUCH harder and for all the wrong reasons. If the government wants fewer people to go to uni (reasonable as it’s really not useful for everyone) then the way to do that is raise admission standards and improve career guidance & support in schools. Cutting funding to force the unis to raise tuition costs is bullshit. I’d ask the ministers who voted in favour of this to consider a scenario where a surgeon is about to operate on someone they care about (presumably themselves). Would they prefer it was the doctor who was academically the best performer or the one who could afford to go to uni?
Gah I could rant about this all day. It really, really sucks!
xxJENxx
AshAugust 10, 2012 at 7:41 pmAuthor
Haha yes, for one day only the purpose of SE is not to bait you. I totally agree with you in that we need barriers to entry for education to stem the tide of useless qualifications but financial barriers are abhorrent. I could talk crap about this all day too but I’ll shut up and try to focus my attention on winning instead!
x^3
PaulyAugust 10, 2012 at 10:09 am
Ashley, I did my degree through the OU for free because my earnings were not great, and I loved the experience. The university worked for me in a way that two traditional ones didn’t.
The OU was set up under Labour in order to reach people traditional universities were not, so it comes as no shock that the Tories have ripped the heart out of such an egalitarian institution.
Your rant about leaving the huge wealth disparity aside, and claiming that innovation comes from 1% is a fallacy. People who are working 10 hour days for minimum wage just to pay the rent (our housing stock should not be just another commodity) are not going to be innovators. A more level playing field, healthy and happy individuals are the conditions for fertile and dynamic societies.
AshAugust 10, 2012 at 10:57 amAuthor
Nice to see you on here Paul! I’m so glad the OU worked out for you. You know I love the institution too.
Sorry, I think this is just poor wording on my part. What I meant was let’s take the concept of the 99% as used in the wealth disparity argument and apply it to ‘innovation’ if you will. That’s not to say I entirely agree with your point though. If you’re correlating the will to innovate with financial success, then are you suggesting that rich people are the innovators? I don’t agree with that at all but I do concede that there are financial barriers to doing the things that are right instead of the things you need to do, and that’s kind of my point. I do believe innovation comes from 1%, but not the 1% with the money. I’m talking about the 1% with the spark. I agree that healthy minds spawn healthy societies. My argument was just that a person who is entirely happy to play PS3 all day and stuff their face with KFC will never have aspirations to spend his life staring down a microscope. Maybe I’m overly exaggerative, pessimistic, arrogant and whatever else but to me, right now, PS3-KFC guy seems to be a suitable metaphor for society in the UK. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think it’s their fault. I think their country has let them down. But people do not care about stuff.
Drew @ ObjectiveWealthAugust 17, 2012 at 4:46 pm
Pauly, then neither are people going to innovate who are working 14 hour days for £100,000 per year just to pay their large mortgage and other expenses. Anybody has the potential to innovate – it doesn’t, and has never come from, a level playing field.
John@MoneyPrincipleAugust 10, 2012 at 11:13 am
Spot on Ash. The OU has some really good modules and course work – although some of it has been ‘dumbed down’ over the years all the same.
With the Cameron the Comedian and Clegg the Hypocrite inspired hike in HE fees, willingly accompanied by HE management (did you know that fewer than half HE employees are research or student-facing?), the OU has clearly seen the market and decided to cash in, thus completely negating Babara Castle’s ambitions back in the ’70s (ancient history maybe 2U).
And yes, the Cousins see the market and clean up – again. Typical failure of British Management, most of whom have been to the Lord Nuffield School of Management (ie the reason why we have no indigeneous motor industry).
AshAugust 10, 2012 at 9:40 pmAuthor
Hehe I didn’t think you’d be able to resist commenting on a nerd rant!
That’s a crazy statistic btw. Can I ask where you got that?
PaulyAugust 10, 2012 at 3:57 pm
No I didn’t mean that wealth=innovation, far from it. More that lack of funds/time due to inequality/poverty means that we don’t see the best out of people in those situations.
I’ll come see you soon
AshAugust 10, 2012 at 9:24 pmAuthor
Liar. You say that all the time lol. Hope you’re doing well and I totally agree. Depressing stuff.
GlenAugust 10, 2012 at 6:58 pm
Being Half PS3-KFC I resent your comments =P
AshAugust 10, 2012 at 9:19 pmAuthor
Ha, it wasn’t a dig, honest! I’m proud of you for getting your comp-sci on though man. Keep me updated!
GrantAugust 11, 2012 at 11:54 am
I cannot believe the government have taken yet another brilliant idea, which gave so many people the opportunity to push themselves and give them a better future, and somehow manage to fuck it up royally.
When you first started these courses Ash, I used to see the enjoyment you got when talking about them and how they were such good value for what you would receive and the prospects it would give you in the future.
It just goes to show that the government doesn’t really care about what the future will bring and how we can help children achieve more to boost our country for the better. They care about claiming shit loads of cash as “expenses” and living the life of luxury while talking shit to fill the papers with what the public want to hear.
AshAugust 19, 2012 at 1:37 pmAuthor
Haha Grant, “you’re so SterlingEffort.com”. I think you should write the next rant.
maria@moneyprincipleAugust 11, 2012 at 8:26 pm
I see my dearest has already commented but I can’t resist – as a university lecturer I have to tell you that what is happening is churning my stomach. As to you, forget about ‘fuck knows’ – this is dramatic but doesn’t get you where you wish to be. Check the universities on the Continent or go the US – get on with your dream: David Cameron, who happen to be a good example why expensive education is not worth it, should not be allowed to crash your dream. So, there!
AshAugust 19, 2012 at 1:40 pmAuthor
Oh, you know me Maria. I just like to be dramatic for fun
I won’t let this get in the way of my goals. It will just change the timing of them slightly. I’m more concerned for what these changes mean for the country and the people who are genuinely having opportunities removed. I’m not going to whine and say I fit into that group of people because I don’t.
JayAugust 14, 2012 at 2:50 pm
I have to say I’m loving the different views on this subject but I have to Agree with Ash on the Whole. As well as Maria! Don’t let this shitty situation dream-crush dude!
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RobAugust 18, 2012 at 2:02 pm
With maths modules I don’t get all this expense. If you are using an online course you have the cost of some video lectures (can’t be much surely), someone to help with dissertation style work on an occasional basis and someone to build and mark test papers.
I’m flumoxed as to why it need be so expensive and I don’t see why someone couldn’t do what OU should have done and offer low cost video based modules with some question sheets where you can buy tutor time on top. Core costs to them would be minimal and you could get your degree with enough tutor time for about £3-4k.
AshAugust 19, 2012 at 1:30 pmAuthor
Indeed Rob! It’s also true that mathematics is a fairly static subject (at bachelor level). The stuff you learn on the first year was developed hundreds of year ago. It’s not like they need a lot of research development like courses in computing, for example.
You have a good point when you question why someone else can’t do it. I think that’s exactly what will happen.
kenAugust 18, 2012 at 2:45 pm
Absolutely agree. The great rise in the cost of the OU prevents many full time, but not highly paid workers, from improving their lot. Studying should be lauded not inhibited.
AshAugust 19, 2012 at 1:33 pmAuthor
Exactly Ken! Thanks for your comment. As Jen says, any barriers to entry should be based on talent, not finance. That makes more sense both ethically AND economically.
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