Tuition fees have changed the way students see education

Uni? It's all about the money

Even a traditionally miserable British summer couldn’t dampen the spirits of this year’s A-level students. Following the lifting of the cap on university places in England, more of them than ever are looking forward to starting a degree course in the autumn.

Are today’s 18-year-olds brighter or more hard-working than the 18-year-olds of 10 or 20 years ago? Probably not. The key inference to be made here is that universities are now accepting applicants in record-breaking numbers because the fees system gives them a strong financial incentive to do so – regardless of whether the students themselves will benefit in the long term.

Do universities have in place the infrastructure and staffing necessary to deliver a consistent quality education as intake grows? Good question, but equally important is the preparedness or otherwise of the students themselves. Putting aside arguments about access to education and social mobility, it’s clear that tuition fees have changed the culture of universities in a way many students will struggle to get their heads around.

I know I did. When I arrived at Cambridge University in 2002 (four years after the introduction of fees) the culture shock was immediate and intense – and my secondary school wasn’t even particularly shabby, as state schools go. Eventually, I learnt that posh accents don’t necessarily indicate intelligent thought, that neither Pot Noodles nor Marlboro Lights count as brain food and, most importantly, that squeaky student wheels get the most tutorial grease. But, by the time I did, my three years were up and it was on to the world of work and a whole new set of unwritten rules.

Reflecting since, I’ve often wished I could have had the benefit of a university education before I actually undertook my university education. Then I would have known the right questions, and perhaps even had the confidence to ask them. Oh well.

If there is one group of less privileged applicants who are equipped to get the most out of university, it’s mature students. So it’s depressing to note that mature students are also the one group who seem to have been put off by tuition fees. In Scotland, where the system is more generous, mature student numbers have jumped by 37 per cent this year. In England, where students now pay £9,000 a year, they have fallen by 2 per cent. Perhaps if the typical bright-eyed 18-year-old understood at the outset how debt can limit your career options, they’d make different choices too.

The life-long advantages of a private education are many, but here’s one we’ve only recently had cause to consider: students who have spent their school years at fee-paying institutions, already understand education as a financial transaction. They know that the primary relationship of higher education in 2015 is not student and professor, but customer and retailer, and they’re not afraid to demand their money’s worth.

When chivalry is sexist

Few would welcome Bad Education star Jack Whitehall as their new stepfather, but Andy Murray did over-react slightly when he demanded an end to the mild Twitter flirtation between the 27-year-old comedian and his mother, Judy Murray. “I respect his request, but there’s nothing I can do if she tweets me,” Whitehall later told The Sun.

Nor is Murray the only tennis player who’s proved touchy when it comes to the women in his life. This week Australian pro Nick Kyrgios was fined $10,000 (£6,400) for a jibe he made about Stanislas Wawrinka’s girlfriend during a match. It seems if you really want to wind up a man, the best way to do it is by insulting “his” women.

The “your mum” jokes (or “yo momma”, in America) is the first insult form we learn as children in the playground, and its roots stretch back into history. The Bard himself was not above the odd “your mum” jibe (see Timon of Athens and Titus Andronicus) and in the Bible, Jehu cheeks King Joram with this line: “What peace, so long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?”

It’s sweet that grown men still love their mummies so dearly, and leaping to the defence of a wife or girlfriend might also be considered chivalrous, yet in this age-old phenomenon there’s also a tenacious form of sexism at work. It’s the patriarchal notion that a woman’s value is her sexual purity and it is the job of a man to defend this.

So, men, next time someone tries to insult you by taking aim at an important woman in your life – why not simply advise him to take the matter up with her directly? That’s the thing about yo momma; she’s old enough and ugly enough to look after herself.

R.I.P. LOL

The internet powers that be (Facebook) have decreed “haha” and “hehe” the hip new way to express mirth online. “LOL” is, according to their research, officially dead. In compliance with this diktat I’ve decided to use up all residual lolz in a one paragraph lol-a-thon.

Remember that time when David Cameron thought it stood for “lots of love”? LOL! LOL too at those stuck-in-the-muds who four years on from the introduction of OMG to the OED, still whinge about the damage online abbreviations do to English. Don’t they know that language is a living, ever-evolving organism?

LOL also at “roflcopter” and “amazeballs”. In retrospect, how did we ever think they were acceptable? Can we still keep “YOLO”, though? No? Only lolzing.

Hopkins weighs in

Katie Hopkins is a professional troll who says mean things on Twitter, in her newspaper column and, when given the opportunity, also on television. This is just a fact of modern British life that most of us have come to terms with by now.

Still, it is disturbing to note that Hopkins’ outlandish proposals can become a reality in less than a fortnight. Only last week, on the first episode of her new TLC panel show If Katie Hopkins Ruled the World, the ex-Apprentice contestant called for airlines to charge overweight people more to fly. This week, Uzbekistan Airways has announced it will start weighing passengers before flights.

Since when did Hopkins have such immediate and international influence? Here’s hoping it’s just a big fat coincidence.

Twitter: @MissEllenEJones