The Last Post Game!!!!

[Swatopluk]

Guys that philosophize about it, I guess.
My old alma mater was the Technical University (upgraded from 'mere' technical college after WW2 by adding some humanities), the new one is the Free University (founded and named in opposition to the Humboldt University in East Berlin that was fully controlled by the Communist regime).

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[Griffin NoName]

My original was a PolyTechnic which all became Universities subsequently - I have never known why because they were valid in their own right as Polytechnics and IMO we already had enough Unis. Of course, that was all maths, stats, and computing whereas now I am doing Psycho Studies at a Uni which is in the top 70* in the world and part of the select Russell Group (where it is 18 out of 20) being more ancient than the "Redbricks".......... my son says not to be snobbish.

* isn't it pretty meaningless to trumpet being in the top 70? I always wonder if it means they are no. 70. Personally I'd keep quiet about it.

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[Aggie]

My last place of education was a Institute of Technology which became a Polytechnic.


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[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Isn't the name itself irrelevant?

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[Griffin NoName]

Now yes. Pretty much. Everyone knows which are best anyway. Then it was more meaningful as Techincal meant something given that technology was newish and vocational and useful. We've lost that distinction which is a shame. Also, when I was studying back in 70's - people went to unversity to broaden their understanding of x,y,z and knowledge for its own sake, whereas now it's to get a job. But I don't think one can ignore the standard of teaching, research, etc - Cambridge is known to be the best, etc. etc. My impression of the Poly's in the 70's was there was really no difference in standards between them, so you knew what you were going to get. Actually it's allied to the class system anyway. Posh boys do Oxbridge, poor kids do Basingstoke University (I just made that one up, cf. Oscar Wilde).

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[Swatopluk]

At least over here only university may award doctorates, so the upgrade made sense. What makes less sense to me is that the status depends/depended on the existence of a humanities department (however tiny).

Last _{still the idea that natural sciences and technology are not really equal to the classic quartet*} Post

*theology, philosophy, (purely theoretical) medicine, law

[Griffin NoName]

I suppose a Uni has to cover a broad range of subjects, not just tech/sci. Although here, several unis are closing down departments (like chemistry, vetinary, philosophy) due to low intakes.

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[Swatopluk]

But why then do some institutions get away with no hard sciences at all, just humanities?

Last _{the old snobism that true schloars never dirty their hands*, I presume} Post

*ink does either not count or the writing is left to lower lifeforms putting down on paper what the scholars utter

[Aggie]

At least over here only university may award doctorates, so the upgrade made sense. What makes less sense to me is that the status depends/depended on the existence of a humanities department (however tiny).

Generally one is required to take electives in at least a few humanities courses. I suppose the definition of a university is a place of learning that allows students to earn a potentially useless degree. The better polytechnics fail at that, and indeed work directly with potential employers and former students to make the programs more useful as training-for-employment.  I've been on those committees.

--

Hard sciences cost cold, hard, cash for cold, hard equipment (plus volatile liquids and warm squishy living organisms, generally). It's much cheaper to build a department around the premise that one can be scholarly simply by writing a paper about a paper about a paper about something someone else once wrote.


Last _{besides, if it wasn't for degrees in the humanities, how else would prospective trophy wives prove their suitability as breeding units for the production of intelligent heirs for rich industrialists?} Post

[Swatopluk]

Since when are trophy wives expected to have a working brain (apart from good motorics)?

Last _{education of girls became en vogue just at times when marital sex was supposed to be pure boredom} Post

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Lately there are many articles (ie, last Scientific American) about why women rarely go for the physical sciences and engineering, how it's a male dominated world and there is a natural bias among scholars and employers, and certainly there are a number of fields in which you would expect more women with PHDs, but there is also a natural bias from women towards fields like engineering (at least at the moment).

Last _{the whole thing about universities existing only to provide highly trained workers is a subject in itself} Post

[Swatopluk]

People these days have no respect for the venerable ivory towers anymore.

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[Aggie]

Since when are trophy wives expected to have a working brain (apart from good motorics)?

For Old Money, quite some time (dating from around the time of the eugenics movement, I would suspect). One may not care whether said trophy wife is intelligent, but one does want intelligent sons, no?   The new rich are often less picky, I suspect, if one considers ME and not THE FAMILY LINE to be the most important object.

@Zono:  We also seem to be getting a lot of articles at how younger (school age) girls are doing better than boys at math and science, now that it's permissible for them to be taught such subjects.  It may be that the only real change is inter-generational change, and it just takes time for the old guard to retire or die of.  In most of my educational experience (especially biology, chemistry and environmental studies) there's been a good mix of male and female students, and this followed through to employment in the environmental sector.

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[Swatopluk]

But were those old money guys not also of the opinion that the brain comes from the father (women being defective in that department)?
What the ideal mating object needed was health, the right bodily constitution (bred for breeding) and a sense for the practical (organizing skills). Bluestockings were seen as lacking in all three, or not? What use is a pale, skinny, narrow-hipped horse-face that hides the latter behind a book all the time and can't even cook properly?

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[Griffin NoName]

Maybe it's time for the trophy husband? I just watched a program on TV about polygamous muslim marriages* in the UK. There was a woman who had been to Uni and had a successful career as an engineer. For reasons which she explained but which I could not understand and have thus forgotten, she decided she needed a husband and she wanted one who already had at least one wife. When she found him, she gave up everything and donned the niqab at his request.

*only the 1st marriage is recognized in English law, subsequent ones being bigomy and criminal, but all recognised in Sharia law - so that's ok then.

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ps. I don't think the marriage lasted............