Thinking of England at this moment, we cannot help thinking of the riot happening in big cities there. Being a Thai student who is going to study there soon, Pim tries to update the news to make sure of her security. "On the day that my family agreed to send me there, they are sure that it is a worthy investment." she said. "I am careful in planning all about this. My family is not rich." A young girl and a hope of a bourgeois family added.
The story of Pim and current situations in UK remind me of the students' protest in Wesminster last November (2010). The tuition fee rise made students frustrated. Though the situation about England's education has already calmed down. The future of education, not only in England but in many countries, is still questionable. The article in BBC News Is the student customer always right? shows that after the fee has risen, universities themselves are in awkward situations as well as in doubt about their academic progress because students became customers who are always right.
The article talks about instability in institutions. When universities have to adjust their system to respond economic system, they must handle financial problems themselves. Furthermore, universities are out of government's system, that means no subsidy from state. (Thailand's universities are the same.) Running their business as a company, they must offer products that consumers needs. Well, marketing strategies will be needed. The courses that can attract students will survive successfully but, how about the courses that have little demand? Won't department of philosophy, section of pali, and section of comparative literature be closed? These subjects are not popular, but it does not mean that they are not important. Business company can also easily forget that researches are essential for academic progress. Scholars have to find fund themselves and they have to wait... Some universities have no choice to send their teachers to reputable universities though other schools are more specialized in specific subject. Marketing reason is strong and no one can refuse it. If not, they might die.
Next, the article about social mobility. UK society investigates this change closely. People are afraid of negative impact and other organizations and charity groups are going to get involved. In Thailand, public and state's organization like Commission of Higher Education tries to examine educational standard. "If you pay all, you graduate" is the saying for some programmes like a scandal in Esan University recently. I do not want to hear this saying in my country and I think government and public must not allow this situation occur. In some cases, universities sell degree, or in better cases, they just produce students in mass. Education became business in some countries besides tourism and other business. From now on, how can we be sure about educational standard?
Finally, the author raises very interesting topic about life style of students. Students would expect to have better experience as they pay three times more than students in the past. It's time for university to provide good information about their programmes with public relation (or advertisement). Moreover, they must give life style and leisure experience that students want. Considering a university whose students are from rich family, they have lots of facilities for this reasons such as big buildings, gym, department store in or near university. I like those nice service they provide for their students, but that also means students have to pay more for what is not "education".
Everything has to chage at some points, universities too. Now, this dramatic change leads to instability in universities, concerns in society, and changes of students life style. Universities have to listen more to their customer's demand. We must adapt ourselves to the world (of capitalism and so on). I agree with that, but do not forget that educational institutions have different objectives from companies: to educate people and to provide knowledge to develop the country.
References
Sean Coughlan. Is the student customer always right? (2011 June 28). BBC News. Retrieved August 12, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13942401
The story of Pim and current situations in UK remind me of the students' protest in Wesminster last November (2010). The tuition fee rise made students frustrated. Though the situation about England's education has already calmed down. The future of education, not only in England but in many countries, is still questionable. The article in BBC News Is the student customer always right? shows that after the fee has risen, universities themselves are in awkward situations as well as in doubt about their academic progress because students became customers who are always right.
The article talks about instability in institutions. When universities have to adjust their system to respond economic system, they must handle financial problems themselves. Furthermore, universities are out of government's system, that means no subsidy from state. (Thailand's universities are the same.) Running their business as a company, they must offer products that consumers needs. Well, marketing strategies will be needed. The courses that can attract students will survive successfully but, how about the courses that have little demand? Won't department of philosophy, section of pali, and section of comparative literature be closed? These subjects are not popular, but it does not mean that they are not important. Business company can also easily forget that researches are essential for academic progress. Scholars have to find fund themselves and they have to wait... Some universities have no choice to send their teachers to reputable universities though other schools are more specialized in specific subject. Marketing reason is strong and no one can refuse it. If not, they might die.
Next, the article about social mobility. UK society investigates this change closely. People are afraid of negative impact and other organizations and charity groups are going to get involved. In Thailand, public and state's organization like Commission of Higher Education tries to examine educational standard. "If you pay all, you graduate" is the saying for some programmes like a scandal in Esan University recently. I do not want to hear this saying in my country and I think government and public must not allow this situation occur. In some cases, universities sell degree, or in better cases, they just produce students in mass. Education became business in some countries besides tourism and other business. From now on, how can we be sure about educational standard?
Finally, the author raises very interesting topic about life style of students. Students would expect to have better experience as they pay three times more than students in the past. It's time for university to provide good information about their programmes with public relation (or advertisement). Moreover, they must give life style and leisure experience that students want. Considering a university whose students are from rich family, they have lots of facilities for this reasons such as big buildings, gym, department store in or near university. I like those nice service they provide for their students, but that also means students have to pay more for what is not "education".
Everything has to chage at some points, universities too. Now, this dramatic change leads to instability in universities, concerns in society, and changes of students life style. Universities have to listen more to their customer's demand. We must adapt ourselves to the world (of capitalism and so on). I agree with that, but do not forget that educational institutions have different objectives from companies: to educate people and to provide knowledge to develop the country.
References
Sean Coughlan. Is the student customer always right? (2011 June 28). BBC News. Retrieved August 12, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13942401
Comparing educational institution with commercial company is very interesting topic. Usually, not all department of company can make profit, some give lower amount of their investment back. But company has to keep such department because they are still needed by customers or they are for social responsibility purposes. For this reason, university has to keep unpopular departments or support some studies or researches, which are not directly give back profit, because the profit will go to society and serve educational objective.
ReplyDeletePaying more money can make students feel like they are checking in five star hotel, which cannot avoid serving customers' request. It can't help that students may want to have more back, even if they might not related with educational purpose.
Anyway, I feel like I am reading your academic writing, Naya, except there is no thesis statement. Your ideas are expressed fluently. I like it.
Thank you P'Dig for your comment. What happened to both universities and students are comprehensible. The unpopular departments must find their strong point and find the way to survive. It is also the duties of five stars hotel (university)to satisfy their students, to keep standard, and to work for society.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for reading my long article! I have not planned much but I think this topic os still interesting for researchers, teachers, and students.
Both Naya's response and the source she is responding to raise a whole host of complex issues. So, what do I think? The less government interference and control there is, the better for students, the universities (escept the worthless ones that deserve to close) and society.
ReplyDeleteI think it's good that students, or willing supporters, pay the full cost of their education - it's something they value, either because they expect it to help them get a job or for some other reason (and there are more reasons than getting a job that motivate people to study), so tax payers should not be paying for it. If the students think they are getting value for money, they will pay, if not, they won't. I don't think governments should support universities. And the best universities do not need government support - Harvard does very well because it offers an excellent product which a lot of people are very happy to pay a lot of money to get.
Interestingly, Harvard has an excellent, and very popular, philosophy department. Again, this is because a lot of people realise that philosophy is a very useful, and important, subject to study. If you would like to see just how popular just one Harvard first year philosophy course is, have a look at Professor Michael Sandel lecturing on moral philosophy at "Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?". How many students do you count in the lecture hall? Do they look bored? Do they look like brilliant young people (Harvard students are generally pretty smart) who think they are being forced to waste their time? (Do you think that they are wasting their time listening to Sandel introduce, expalin and argue concepts about justice and injustice, moral right and wrong, the nature of the good life and so on?) You might also notice at the start where the money came from: nothing came from the government - it was all freely given by eager and willing supporters, both individual and corporate, and since it was given freely, not forced by a communist-like government stealing from tax payers to give a free education to people who do not want to pay for it themselves, they presumably gave because they think that philosophy is important. And Harvard, and it's supporters, also provide a lot of scholarships to ensure that poor but brilliant and deserving students get a chance to study there, too - in every academic area, from engineering to ancient Greek (Harvard's classics dept. is also pretty famous).
If universities provide an excellent service and maintain high standards, like failing students who should be failed, and having a zero tolerance for cheating, plagiarism and other crimes (murder is OK, but not stealing other people's ideas or words), then potential students will realise that the fees are worth paying, and they will happily (or at least freely) pay them.
By the way, Professor Sandel's lecture series is great listening practice - and there are twelve full hours of them. If you take a peak at a later one, you will notice that the number of students has not declined, nor has their level or interest.