From the time the American child reaches the sixth grade they are taught the key to success in life is to do well in high school so they can get accepted to the best possible college. The College Conspiracy, 2013
Most Americans today have an expectation of future economic success simply by obtaining a college degree. ibid.
The annual cost to attend the average private four-year college in America today is $27,293 … This does not include the cost of textbooks. ibid.
Colleges are getting kickbacks from publishers. ibid.
‘Not only will you not pay us back, you’re not going to get a job.’ ibid.
There is an epidemic in America of students using their student loan money for non-education purposes. ibid.
College education is the largest scam in American history. ibid.
They’re losing out on valuable income they could have been earning in those four years. ibid.
Corporatization of the universities … cheap labour without rights: what are called graduate students. Noam Chomsky, lecture 8th July 2017, ‘The Corporatization of the Universities’, Youtube 1.39.35
By now in most states Tuition covers more than half the costs in state colleges, sometimes far more – up to 80% … Costs are going out of sight … Student debt is exceptionally punishing: it’s designed that way. ibid.
May I suggest that you marry her off before she actually tries to practice medicine. The Comic Strip Presents s4e4: Oxford, Leslie Phillips as Dean, Channel 4 1990
I’ve got to get her off poetry. I’ve got to get her away from this whole sick Oxford thing before she becomes a hopeless academic. ibid. Lenny Henry
The university sector is in turmoil. The question of how they are funded is now at the top of the news agenda. Financed in part by students facing a lifetime of debt. While some vice-chancellor’s salaries have rocketed. Tonight, Dispatches investigates the university spending not always made public. We reveal the millions spent by university bosses on first-class travel, five-star hotels and fine dining. And how vice-chancellors and their teams receive extra benefits. Dispatches: Britain’s University Spending Scandal, Channel 4 2018
‘The level of fees charged do not relate to the cost or quality of the course, so we now have one of the most expensive systems of university tuition in the world.’ ibid. Theresa May
We’re sold a story about how to do well in life. If you get a good degree from one of the best universities, you can make it to the top. Turns out that’s a bit of a lie. New research is revealing the subtle ways young people from poorer background are excluded from Britain’s top professions. You need something else to break into the elite, something they don’t teach you about in school. So what are the rules of the game? How to Break into the Elite, Amol Rajan reporting, BBC 2019
Just how easy is it for today’s kids to make the journey I did? [Oxbridge] ibid.
10% of working class people will make it into elite occupations. ibid.
‘When we look at those who went to Russell Group universities, those from a privileged background who get 2:2 degrees, second class degrees, are still more likely to go into a top occupation than those from working class backgrounds who got to the same universities and got a First.’ ibid. researcher
The dashed hopes of an entire generation. ibid.
‘If you have a parent who works in film or television, you are twelve times more likely to go into film or television.’ ibid. researcher
‘I don’t think the elite will ever give way.’ ibid. Matthew Wright
In a lot of elite professions, prejudice about class goes completely unchallenged. ibid.
Sometimes it’s fun to just go wild and rape a hundred girls. The Warwick Uni Rape Chat Scandal, social media, BBC 2019
Which girl at Uni would you like to pin down the most? ibid.
The pure unadulterated misogyny that runs through that I would never class as banter. ibid. Dianne Whitfield, Coventry Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre
11 Warwick students temporarily suspended after group chat exposed. ibid. The Boar 8th May 2019, Warwick uni newspaper
Two of the most extraordinary men in the history of science worked here in the Physics Department of Manchester University between 1911 and 1916: they were Ernest Rutherford and Niels Bohr. Jim Al-Khalili, Atom: The Clash of the Titans, BBC 2007
Lowell High: It’s tangible in some of those classes. You can feel how worried people are about college. Storyville: Try Harder! student, BBC 2022
Over the past 15 years, acceptance rates for top colleges have dropped 50% or more. ibid. caption
Stanford is one of 150 colleges that visit Lowell High School annually to recruit its students. Stanford is the most selective university in the United States. Acceptance rate of 4.4%. ibid.
Slovenia is one of dozens of countries where it is essentially free to go to university. Michael Moore, Where to Invade Next, 2016
We are students of words: we are shut up in schools, and colleges, and recitation rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a thing. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays