socialmedian: Mandelson is playing the altruistic antelope on universities

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Mandelson is playing the altruistic antelope on universities | Zoe Williams

Source: The Guardian

Nov 04, 2009

Summary

Mandelson's vision of the universities of the future looks like old-fashioned spin – to divert attention from the really big issue

Peter Mandelson wants a "consumer revolution" in higher education, with students given far more information on the actual value of their course. The silent driver is that fees have to go up: so much of his document (Higher Ambitions – the Future of Universities in a Knowledge Economy) stresses the fact that the fat years are over, you don't need a degree to see what's going on. However, equally obviously, it would be a straight-talking fool (or non-politician) who, with an election looming, spelt out how much they were prepared to raise fees.

I was at university in 1993, when Ofsted did its first inspections of higher education establishments. One lecturer was outraged: they had found him outstanding in every respect, except that he lacked visual aids. But a history lecturer didn't need visual aids, he objected: visual aids were for people doing fake subjects such as fashion and science; and, most importantly, the very inadequacy of

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