Friday, June 24, 2022

Arts attack

I'm well aware I should know better (perhaps I would if I'd studied a "proper" subject at university?), but I can't help but give a knee-jerk reaction at the sight of clickbait headlines about "Mickey Mouse degrees" and the earning potential of graduates.

The grim reality is that value for money is increasingly a consideration for young people when choosing a course - inevitably so, given the amount of debt into which any degree will plunge them (unless the Bank of Mum & Dad can bail them out). And it's quite easy for old duffers in my position, who didn't have to worry about fees, to endorse doing whatever you want and grumble about the shifting attitudes among prospective students.

Yet this relentless insistence on measuring the value of everything in exclusively monetary terms is infuriating. Photography courses are not worthless. Neither is any course that opens your eyes, makes you think and encourages you to consider your personal perspective on (and position in) the world. And don't let the Tories - or anyone else, for that matter - tell you otherwise.

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