A wave of wailing has greeted the announcement of this new New College of the Humanities thing. “It’s creating a new elite, it’s a cash-in by academics who’ve been supported by the state for most of their careers, and it’s going to pour concrete around the foundations of an ethos that top-quality education is only there for the rich.”
Some of the objections are just plain silly–“it’ll be so small, there’ll be no sense of student life, y’know”. Yeah, I imagine a sense of student life might be quite hard to pin down if you’re young, have cash, and in Bloomsbury… And if we’re going to start on about the naughty self-seeking things that people might do on the back of a publicly-funded education… *cough (bonuses) cough*… we might end up with a fairly long to-hate list.
But the NCOTH is also disruptive, experimental and challenging. And there are a few upsides hidden in there, I suspect. After all, if we seem to strap so much superiority around vehicles that are getting on for 700 years old without acknowledging that there might just be scope for some newer models, is that entirely healthy?
While I smiled at some of the things Grayling claimed on the radio this morning–the ‘proof’ that humanities were relatively more important than other disciplines because they were inevitably the choice of those who progressed into important things like broadcasting and the civil service (with a circularity and not-getting-itness that was particularly joyful coming from a philosopher)–I did wonder if they’re not onto something.
The target market here is clearly Oxbridge candidates with bundles of cash. If you’ve ever been near the place (disclosure, I was there in the late 80s) you’ll know that there’s a huge swathe of students for whom the academic benefits of the university seem to be rather secondary to the benefits of merely getting in, adding it to the CV, hooking up with old school chums and making a bunch of new opportunity-advancing connections.
There’s another big cohort for whom their place is clearly the thing that their parents have told them will be the measure of their success (or even acceptability, in some cases) since they could walk.
And both of these overlapping groups also suffer with another pressing–and utterly self-inflicted–problem: going to a university which doesn’t make it look like they came second at something. Of course, there are a few options which mitigate the harrumphing in Old Snobland a little: Durham has proper colleges dontchaknow, London is very well-connected, and one can always look overseas should disaster strike and OX1 or CB2 not appear on the offer letterhead. But it still looks to all too many, for all the wrong reasons, like failure.
So, the NCOTH has the perfect positioning: it avoids the “coming second” problem by establishing a wholly new option, gilded with celebrity, a built-in poverty filter, and even some sort of degree awarded at the end of it. And it’s in London.
The toffs will flock in, won’t really mind about the academic bit, and there’ll be a few more spaces in places of learning for those who might be a little hungrier for it. Good luck to Grayling et al. They’re going to need it.
I am, however, reminded a little of the Golgafrincham Ark Fleet. Can’t think why. 😉
Only just found this – late to the party as usual.
I like the Golgafrincham analogy – spot on. But the real reason there is so much anger is the way NCoH tried to present itself as something it was not:
It will not be awarding degrees; the famous names will not be teaching but giving guest lectures (and they do that everywhere); it is not a charity; it copied the syllabus from someone else; it didn’t have permission to use the facilities it claimed; it was not going to have high admissions standards; and it had nothing to do with THE New College (where you were once wedded – good party that one!).
Basically, it was to be a crammer where rich kids who failed to get into a top Uni would be coached for the University of London External Degree by tutors who failed to get jobs at a top Uni. That is just applying to HE a model familiar in private A-level colleges. Nothing special there, and certainly not a saviour of quality Humanities teaching.
Interesting – I have just written about NCoH in the past tense. My suspicion is that Grayling will have three months to prove to his backers that he will enrol enough students to make it viable or they will pull the plug.