Dr McQuillan, a Dean of Faculty Studies, takes issue with the Browne Report that advocates cost cutting measures to the Humanities in English universities. The Dean makes a commendable case with which those whose lives and careers are dependent on well-funded humanity courses cannot help but agree. His argument, however, is narrowly focused, for it takes no account of the massive fiscal problems with which Britain is faced, so it goes in the ‘ME, ME, ME bin.
He writes of ‘education for the lower orders’ and ‘social mobility afforded by a university education’, which are true and noble sentiments. Yet they are not without a fault that stems from the sometimes blinkered vision of the highly educated.
Writing as one who issued from the ‘lower orders’, whose education ceased at the age of 14, which is a statement of fact and certainly not a boast, here is a contrary view. The United Kingdom has put great store in higher education as the right of every Tom, Dick and Harriet, but to the gross neglect of vocational and apprenticeship training.
As a (PPE Oxford) correspondent wrote, ‘Many children in the UK no longer respect technical and vocational training. Around 33% (i.e. all 17/18 year olds still in education) want to go to university to avoid occupations in manual labour. The UK simply hasn’t the economic conditions to employ large numbers of apparently professional university graduates. You have probably witnessed the demise of UK manufacturing since the 1970s so will not be surprised that neither does the UK currently have adequate unskilled labour jobs. Consequently over the last 10 years more than 80% of school leavers aged 16 (i.e. those not continuing in education) have not entered employment. The trend over the last 30 years is that half of these long-term unemployed will at very best only achieve periodic casual employment.’
In short, if those who decry the loss of funding for studies in the humanities directed their efforts to correcting the imbalance in the British education system at large their contribution to their society at large would be of incalculable value.