Curiouser and Curiouser! on public-funding http://matt.blogs.it/ RSS feed for topic public-funding Copyright 2006 Matt Mower Squib/0.1 self@mattmower.com self@mattmower.com en-gb Say no to funding tax parasites Mon, 05 Sep 2005 15:08:30 +0100 <p>I was reflecting today on how <a href="http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/">London Metropolitan University</a> is run. Anyone who has spent much time there knows that it is run by and for the benefit of University management. Staff come a poor second and students (if at all) a distant third.</p> <p>As an example of the level of incompetence you will find at London Metropolitan consider that today I still don't have confirmed results for either of the modules I sat exams for in May of this year! And we're already a week past the date of resits!</p> <p>I was told, when I asked, that I should take a day off work to make myself available for a resit <em>if I thought I might have to take one</em>. Pardon me? Besides my fury at getting such a glib response I thought one of the few things you could reasonably expect your University to do was grade you and tell you if you passed or failed. Clearly my mistake.</p> <p>You don't have to hang around long to get a feel for the shocking disregard in which students are held. Reading the following just brought it sharply into focus for me:<blockquote>The public sector succeeds at what its real aim is, which is to live off the bounty produced by those outside the public sector. The growth of the public sector in the U.S. and other countries shows just how successful tax parasites can be. Having worked for a public university that is somewhere between 25 and 50 percent funded by the State of New York, I can vouch for the parallel between working for the U.S. post office and working for a university. Those of you who have attended universities will have encountered the unresponsiveness of the professors to the students. Unfortunately, nearly all private universities also dip liberally into the public treasury via subsidies for research distributed by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health. [ <a href="http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff20.html">Privatize the Levees and the Public Sector -- Michael S. Rozeff</a> ]</blockquote></p> <p>I think public funding of Universities should end because it breeds institutions with no regard for their raison d'etre. As a first step I think we should give the money to students and let them pay the University, or not, as they see fit. If they don't spend it on a degree then maybe they'll use it to start a business or do something else worthwhile.</p> <p>I for one will enjoy watching as a lot of bad universities go to the wall. Good riddance to them and those who mismanage them for their own ends.</p> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00002882.html