One down, 999 to go...

[steepholm]

The first tranche in a whole raft of cuts has been rolled out. There will be more, going forward.

For some reason, my eye lighted on:

Cuts of £200m to the university budget will mean 10,000 fewer extra places than had been announced.

This is what is known as making "efficiency savings" in order to "protect front-line services", I believe. Now, where did that white rabbit disappear to?

Comments

[gillo]

Now is this the ten thousand extra places the last government announced or is it those plus another ten thousand? And what exactly are universities supposed to do about the legally binding offers of places already made? Or is it only recruiting universities that have to suffer? (Bitter? Moi? I am there on results day with my sixthformers and it's hard enough as it is.)

Since there will be no graduate recruitment to the Civil Service for the foreseeable future it won't matter if we mislay ten thousand graduates. It's not as if the country needs educated people, is it? (But note how the sciences are protected. Because studying the arts has no monetary value. (My husband, research scientist with a doctorate in Chemistry, was made redundant twice. I am a mere English teacher and my income kept the family afloat. But we don't matter.)

Yes, I'm both incandescent with fury and beaten down because it was so much expected. How many of the Front Bench have science degrees, I wonder?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

How many of the Front Bench have science degrees, I wonder?

Having just gone through the links on Wikipedia, I can answer that one. Out of 28 front bench ministers, there is precisely one with a science degree: Vince Cable (by coincidence, the very person who'll be implementing today's cuts). Or, even more precisely, just half of Vince Cable, since he took a joint degree in Natural Sciences and Economics.

Now, if you'd asked about PPE...

Not that I totally trust this Wiki page. The link for Kenneth Clarke takes you to Kenneth Clark the art historian, for example. I also like the cause-and-effect aura that hangs over these two sentences from IDS's biography: "Duncan Smith converted to Catholicism as a teenager. He speaks Italian." If only that were all it took.

[gillo]

Vince Cable is an economist through and through, whatever his first degree was in.

It's the old mantra. Science is technology advanced enough to seem like magic to these guys, so more scientists is the magic answer to all woes. All other subjects outside the charmed STEM are "irrelevant". Even though the people making the decisions all have that sort of degree themselves. PPE followed by think tank or researcher job followed by a seat to nurse.

[sheenaghpugh]

It's not as if the country needs educated people, is it?

I believe the phrase goes "If you think education is expensive, wait till you see what ignorance costs".....

[gillo]

That is probably their plan. Secretly they know that anyone who didn't get into Oxbridge doesn't count as educated. And uneducated people are easier to lead by the nose.