My sense of Irony has just died

I

And look where all that university work got you,to Barnsley football club ,just kidding

 

Every one of mine has at interview but it’s a requirement in schools that I have a minimum of C in English and Maths and that I have a teaching degree for teaching roles to be paid as a quailed teacher and not unqualified. No one ever cares about A Levels though (unless I wanted to teach the subject to GCSE probably), I just needed them to get into uni. I still want to do a Masters one day but I put it off as there was talk that it would be a requirement a one point and I hoped my school would contribute to it if so. It’s not become a requirement, in fact it’s become easier (and cheaper) to employee teachers who don’t even have a degree and course fees have gone up massively so that was a bad choice by me! (I want one regardless of if it is needed or not, I’ll probably do a PHD at some point too for the same reason).

 

Honestly I did my masters cos I’m a bit of a **** and liked the idea of having one. Thought about a PHD for the same reason, but decided against it. Might do at some point.

 

Be very careful if you do a PhD. I started one and it wasn't right for me. I wasted a year on it really before I was kicked off.

 

I would have thought the main danger was somebody being accepted an a degree course that was beyond them and them building debts up for nothing.
Also we have had this every year they have changed school qualifications, the previous one was easier / harder etc.
I never went to Uni but can't say it held me back because after my first job nobody took much notice of my academic qualifications it was always on me work ability / experience after that.

 

Shocking thing for any politician to say,let alone the Secretary of state for Education. How,without any evidence does he make his claim?
Why do British people put up with it?

 

Some of the downgrading is insane, in some cases they have been downgraded by 3 entire grades (and in a tiny number of cases they have been upgraded 3 entire grades). Some of the changes I'm hearing about are seriously ridiculous, a fully bilingual Spanish lad got given a C rather than the A* he got in his mocks in Spanish because the school hasn't done well in that subject historically

 

my niece recently completed her MA having done a degree a couple of years ago. She has no GCSE's (she sort of 'dropped out' of school at age 15/16.) She wants to teach but without English and Maths GCSE she can't.
The odd thing is that she was accepted on her BA and MA courses without any GCSE's.

 

10-15% of students either change course (or university) after starting. Roughly a similar number drop out. Most of these are between September and December in the first year.

My first job was registering students and working out the funding submissions - in those days, universities were punished for having too many or too few students enrolled.

 

Been watching a bit of Sky News today because I'm bored shitless and it looks like our beloved Government have basically downgraded any student from "Oop North".

Bet the famous Red Wall are thrilled they used their vote so well.

But still, Brexit eh?

 

Luckily for your niece, there are lots of places doing GCSE English and Maths courses for adults so she should be able to complete it fairly easily. Often, results aren't considered for university places if relevant experience can be proved instead, especially for mature students.

 

Not only that, although that is what will be talked about, but they have also upgraded results for people who go to good schools in high class areas - some by up to 3 grades(!) just to make the gap even wider. It's always all about the money and social class but they've never been able to make it so obvious before.

 

Only the Conservatives could have pi$$ed off a whole generation of new voters! Hopefully it will all come back to bite them in the @rse

 

Just been reading about the French system, and all their results are published online. In March they realised that exams would be cancelled and went with coursework. The result is an increase in the overall pass rate from ~63% to ~70% and the government basically said "Its a special year and these are the results". I understand not too many complained.

 

And their parents, and their grandparents.

 

My A-level grades are appalling, I didn't really want to leave college as I was having such a great time so I didn't revise (or attend any classes really). I was persuaded to go to my first choice Uni during clearing by the head of department who remembered me from the open day and called me. I'm now a Professor having got a degree, MSc and PhD, I head a Research Centre with a £4m budget and 30+ staff and have written ~80 peer reviewed papers.