Degrees of failure: Ayaan Hirsi Ali and David Butterfield on the coddling of students

[@johnsmith1474]

"Tolerance will reach such a level that intelligent people will be banned from thinking so as not to offend the imbeciles." ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky.

[@robtkitto401]

Its a good quote but misattributed to FD. Source unknown.

[@amaryllisequistra]

Brilliant

[@EllaGreenn]

🎯

[@durianjaykin3576]

how could the man who have wrote the idiot come up this quote LOL

[@purpleflame334]

😂😂😂❤❤❤

[@jasongauthier8544]

I really appreciate Ayaan Hirsi Ali's point that this is NOT a generational problem. I am very tired of being told 'the kids are just too sensitive these days!' No - someone older coddled them. Someone older enabled it. And when a responsible adult tried to tell them to grow up, another adult told them they were being too harsh. Every generation had students like this. It used to be dealt with differently. What has changed is the response from leadership in our institutions.

[@drew6194]

True. This has been brewing since at least the 60s. However, kids today are too sensitive, and it's getting worse all the time with new parents who are themselves not much past childhood.

[@jamesmayo7980]

Very well said. You reap as you sow.

[@AllanHinde-mb2pr]

Take personal responsibility stop blaming other people

[@yogiyogesh-vh2zx]

Bravo 👏🏾 to David Butterfield , wishing you every good luck and successes in your new posting .

[@g.p616]

Crazy- You can’t be a pilot with poor eyesight, so why can’t Cambridge say “if you can’t write an essay every week you can’t have a place?” Problem solved.

[@chunkyazian]

@@g.p616 apples and orange Pilots provides their service based on their physical and mental ability in exchange for money Students exchange their money for a seal of approval. Where things go wrong is that university administrator are focusing on short term gain by merely selling that approval stamp. Eventually, that seal of approval will loose its value

[@petesmitt]

When I tried to join the police 40 years ago, you had to pass rigorous health and fitness standards, be at least average height and have excellent eyesight; now we have shortsighted obese dwarf cops..

[@DesCoutinho]

@@g.p616 the problem happens if they are accepted then have health problems. In the past the student would have been rusticated but I guess there is some attempt to provide assistance to meet the student half way. The problem then becomes will these accommodations be provided by employers. If the chap is brilliant but has disabilities should they be given disability benefits for life or should there be accommodations so they can become productive. An autistic editor for WAPO needed to sit exams in a darker room with one invigilator and argued his hypersensitivity made him a better journalist

[@mattn318]

I went to college 25yrs ago, if you couldn't write an essay you failed the class. I have horrible A.D.H.D but I had to work threw it or else I had to drop out.

[@petesmitt]

@@mattn318 I'm glad you were able to work through it..

[@gemox3225]

I have anxiety. Anxiety doesn't mean that you can't write essays. That's ridiculous. If they can't write an essay, this means that you shouldn't be able to graduate from Cambridge. On another note, all of these conversations about the corruption of Academia should have and could have taken place 30 or 40 years ago. All of these scholars are not as with it as they are claiming. They were probably a part of the corruption for many years. I remember the rampant corruption already being present in the 1980s when I entered graduate school.

[@iceman4660]

When we are all deemed special then none of us is special.

[@BobSmith-fx9sz]

Pushing more students through universities means less demands are put on those students.

[@cmmndrblu]

I went to university in the early 2000s. I went to regular state school, and managed to talk my way into a desireable uni studying classics, I changed my degree to languages- I had depression and nearly left but then came back and did the work I had outstanding. I did the work - but I had been given extended time to do so because I was not well- had I not been given that time I would have floundered. I am grateful for that element of compassion in the system. At the same time, in the classes of my final year, there were people complaining in one class about a topic which I had done the reading for. And I remember being astonished that the expectation from other students was that they could pass the course without reading or writing the essays. So I think there is an area of legitimate leniency, but the academic standards themselves should not be compromised.

[@secondchance6603]

“Alas, higher education is not necessarily a guarantee of higher virtue, or higher political wisdom.” - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

[@MatthewWM8]

If students cannot write essays, they shouldn't be allowed to continue the course. If they have a mental health issue that prevents them from from doing so, that is how it is.

[@marieparker3822]

It's actually a physical relief to hear Ayaan Hirsi Ali describing the situation so exactly.

[@nuqwestr]

American infection in UK. Started in the 1980s when kids sports stopped keeping score and giving trophies for just participation. 2nd Wave Feminism and "mommy talk" now all pervasive, even in our Presidential candidate, Kamala Harris.

[@ScruffyTubbles]

I'd say 1990s more really. More Blair all can have prizes.

[@AvaMann-q5u]

In the spirit of intellectual rigour, perhaps you could define second wave feminism and explain how it has contributed to the problems addressed in this video.

[@LondonMoneyCashEnterprise]

meanwhile the British right has become the puppets of the republican party

[@EllaGreenn]

It started in the late 90s, early 00s. The 80s were still highly competitive with rigorous comparison of scores and trophies only for winners.

[@amaryllisequistra]

@@nuqwestr I don’t think it was the second wavers… 🤔

[@claireevelyn3379]

The exact reasons why I decided to skip university all together. I has been told to think. And when our syllabus was cut in half as some people were finding it too difficult. I am sorry if you cant read a book in a week - you shouldn't be at uni.

[@stephfoxwell4620]

No. University now merely imparts sufficient self esteem for for young people to assert their ignorance with confidence.

[@rupatiwari5923]

KAMALA HARRIS COMES TO MIND!!!!!!!

[@terenceretter5049]

Ha ha, and there's me getting all riled up because I cannot order my thoughts and express them in an acceptable(modern) manner- relying instead on the 'call a spade a spade' method that has in general got me through since the 50's.

[@faustoferrari4303]

That's excellent, pithy and funny. I'm going to borrow it if that's okay.

[@AllanHinde-mb2pr]

No

[@stephfoxwell4620]

@@faustoferrari4303 Schools are Self Esteem Clinics. It is from the Hungarian academic Frank Furedi.

[@saunderspeter]

Unfortunately, I think David is right about impact of fees. I used to be a uni professor. I thought fees would make students press for better tuition, but all they did was make students press for higher grades.

[@peterweston1356]

I studied Chemistry at UCL about 150 years ago. I was way out of my depth most of the time. Anxious really did represent how I felt most of the time sh*t scared would be a better description. At the same time, and it sounds like a cliche, without that experience my whole life, I think would have been very dull, very mundane and altogether less fulfilled. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

[@purpleflame334]

Excellent discussion ❤ thank you to both ❤

[@rholmes6723]

I taught at a grammar school which is still rated as one of the best in the country and later in a public school also so rated. I then moved into a very innovative polytechic in 1973 which launched an applied language degree :Law , Economics and Politics taught in French, German ,Spanish or Russian. Another course was European Studies teaching Politics ,Economics, Law plus a foreign language. We were the first to use computer aided language learning. We recruited students who would otherwise chosen the standard universities. Our graduates secured very good jobs including in finance and the EU but then the universities took note and copied our courses so the students with the A, B, C Alevels disappeared and we were recruiting D ,E, C students .Result degree result inflation and the degrees worthless. Happily took early retirement and went back to teach Economics and French in excellent grammar schools. The university system is now a supermarket where the all that matters is sell the product even when rubbish

[@ChrisOgunlowo]

A necessary conversation. Brilliant!

[@roro-mm7cc]

The difference with China though is that their education really IS incredibly rigorous and hardcore. I visited a school where dorm rooms had a speaker that would alarm the students at 6am to start the school day and blare announcements in Chinese for 30mins. The academic competition there is off the scale.

[@mt030]

@@roro-mm7cc questionable if this is indicative of actual academics. I studied at a top university in China - I would say at least at the undergraduate level it is largely 'training'.

[@faustoferrari4303]

Yes, but there is the opposite problem in the Far East. I have taught at a Japanese university and it was just a mill for grinding out corporate employees. There is literally no creative or original thought and debate and even discussion are frowned upon as a potential threat to the established authority/thinking on the subject. However, you are right that the culture does instil a work ethic and pride in performance in the students (though not all of them by any means).

[@LondonMoneyCashEnterprise]

How much innovation is done at Chinese universities compared to oxbridge?

[@geometerfpv2804]

They do have discipline, but they still don't do well in original academic research. Of course that could change, but it's worth noting. Discipline isn't everything.

[@lightsabre87]

This problem is not restricted to Cambridge alone. I work at another major UK university and “student experience” is pretty much the only thing that we in the faculty keep hearing about day in and day out. I work in a STEM faculty and I have seen projects being watered down, exams becoming easier, and students coming up with nonsensical excuses for not turning in assignments or showing up for exams which the Uni readily accepts. All in the name of “student experience” and mental well-being.

[@jokesmakelifebetter]

The problem is that there is no longer a love of learning. People used to study because they had a genuine interest in a subject and/or career and were naturally curious. Now, education is just used as a way to create compliant workers. ‘Don’t think critically. Don’t think all! Just pay your money and do as we say’. It’s really sad. As for EDI and reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities, these are incredibly important but these areas have been hijacked by the worst kinds of people.

[@kingclover1395]

We've lowered the standards so much in order to accommodate certain groups of people that the universities are adopting all the characteristics of those people.

[@tensaijuusan4653]

"Woke" and diversity hiring in teaching staff and of undergraduates will do this.

[@martynsimpson510]

Excellent episode, and Gove free too.

[@geriatricprogrammer4364]

Infantalization of universities feeds into the Infantalization of corporations and work in general. At 58 I still walk into an office that looks more like a primary school than a place of work.

[@proudatheist2042]

@@geriatricprogrammer4364 how does your workplace look more like a primary school classroom than a work place?

[@frankyyaggabot6222]

@@proudatheist2042 Boys and girls fighting over who sits where (or parks where). My workplace was pretty much the same (big (failing) US Corporation ... which got in trouble because the parking places they were squabbling over included multiple large corporate jets).

[@joseph_donovan]

Looking forward to David providing inspiring, enlightening and entertaining educational videos on YT and his own channel. Please! I salute him! Bravo! Please have him back in 3/12. PS Just purchased his Latin Dictionary!

[@jasminealixandranorth]

Wonderful to see Ayann. It's been a long time. Too long.

[@nickjung7394]

One only has to look at the intellectual power of Cambridge and Oxford "graduates" in our government to see the academic rigour of the place!

[@lks6248]

And you’ll notice that they’re tackling ‘inequality’ at school level and not at the level of universities that feed real life long privilege

[@faustoferrari4303]

This is a good point, and has been true for decades, though I'm not sure the sharpest academic minds from Oxbridge ever went into politics.

[@lks6248]

@@faustoferrari4303 , but they do end up running everything…. Oxford and Cambridge and the like should be made to recruit students in a way that reflects our society, ie mainly from comprehensive schools.

[@faustoferrari4303]

@@lks6248 Nah, that's nonsense, the same as having racial quotas. All it would do is further erode standards that have already plummeted. Your suggestion would be absolutely valid if you could get all comprehensives to perform like the Michaela school in London. I would also add that being a university graduate should not be a prerequisite for entering politics. In fact the track of PPE from Oxbridge through to think tank and then becoming a SPAD has been a disaster. In the old days Labour and Liberal politicians at least had always had life experience and proper jobs (trade unions, the professions) before entering the political arena. Even the Tories had John Major, and Churchill never went to university.

[@lks6248]

@@faustoferrari4303 , equity quotas based on race is not what I meant. In the university system in Scotland we already have an SIMD quota system that works. This has nothing to do with race. It should not be the case that parents can ‘buy’ their way into life long privilege for their children because their fee paying school gets children into the elite universities. These kids are not cleverer, neither do they have more potential intellectually. A ‘B’ grade earned by a kid from a background of deprivation is equivalent to an ‘A’ grade gained by the one who went to an expensive school and had all the trappings of privilege and academic support around to support them. Their potential need not be one iota different. Oxford and Cambridge need to sort themselves out. The idea of a ruling elite that’s bought its way to the top is archaic.

[@AllanHinde-mb2pr]

I miss British people fighting for British values

[@anynimus1617]

Why does Spectator TV only have 396K Subscribers? It always offers topnotch content.

[@petesmitt]

They don't use clickbait titles or flashy thumbnails..

[@elliec4154]

Unless your doing a very vocational degree e.g. nursing, degrees nowadays are essentially worthless.

[@penfro]

My mother was a nurse. She didn’t need a degree to become one. One can attend courses and learn on the job simultaneously. Many thousands did it quite successfully.

[@LondonMoneyCashEnterprise]

Statistically that’s not true

[@alexedgar6539]

Turns out that allowing failure is not a bug. It's an essential feature.

[@ayethegreat4997]

Wow. I would love to contact the professor and have a discussion with him about the impact we see here at corporates. The employees we are getting have the same approach.

[@jemgeach4066]

If students cannot write essays, then they shoukd not be at Cambridge or sny other university. When i was at university, my MINIMUM requirement was an essay a week. Most terms I was writing TWO.

[@LondonMoneyCashEnterprise]

There is no student at Cambridge that can’t write essays

[@jemgeach4066]

@@LondonMoneyCashEnterprise Did you not see the video??

[@LondonMoneyCashEnterprise]

@@jemgeach4066 im talking about what I see in real life don’t believe everyone u hear on the internet

[@geometerfpv2804]

I see this at my school. They just hand out PhDs. It makes this degree that once meant so much to me feel silly.

[@Zantorc]

Students have been taught their entire life to be fragile.

[@amaryllisequistra]

If *they* really believed in diversity they’d make sure the University professors were at least 50% Republican/centrist-right/ conservative in their thinking.

[@brocktoon8]

They don't though. They only believe in their own clique having all the power. It's really quite transparent.

[@LondonMoneyCashEnterprise]

No one is stopping republicans from becoming professors, they are the ones that shit on academia

[@-murray-]

Nobody is stopping people with conservative views from entering academia. Perhaps, though, a lack of conservative-thinking people in academic fields is indicative of a different problem to the one you're thinking...

[@amaryllisequistra]

@@-murray- You have to be hired in order to enter academia. They are not being hired. And if they are already part a university, they are fired for wrongthink.

[@brocktoon8]

@@-murray- You clearly don't work in academia. You have zero idea of what is going on or what you are talking about.

[@GrahamLaight]

The case for eschewing university, starting a business, and mastering the art of making money is looking stronger by the day.

[@Frank-bn9eg]

It's an interesting tactic to blame this on students who are 'conspiring to lower standards'. These people are 'mentally ill' if they think that argument stands to any scrutiny. It's such weak tea from people with seemingly little critical thinking.

[@JohnJones-k9d]

It’s about laziness and narcissistic people.

[@capri4682]

I’m first year civil engineering student and we are bing taught basic differentiation 🤦 that should been taught at A level, foundation year or at college.

[@ileanamuntean7338]

"The long march through the institutions".

[@Scriptorsilentum]

exactly. i began in sept of 1983. by the mid 80s i was defeated and left. even then we knew what was the issue yet administration just kept it rolling in...

[@simonling1005]

Hi, you remember the Australian break dancer at the Olympics? It’s like that.

[@penfro]

Anxiety was pervasive throughout my university experience. I was at university because the standards were lowered. In no way was I academic at secondary school. I had a C average upon leaving secondary school, yet I was given a place at a university. Crazy.

[@bill8784]

I was very anxious at my Oxbridge college when I tried to prepare for a week of finals exams in 10 days.

[@johnmartin4650]

Well said……thank you .

[@splinterbyrd]

FYI in the archaeological record we find evidence of conflict (defensive structures, weaponry) in various prehistoric periods when we know that there was also pressure on scant resources (food and shelter)

[@realjohn4064]

Very interesting video

[@constantined9015]

Unburdened of what has been!!!

[@AlbertRequejo]

Kudos to Dr. Butterfield for supporting the study of Greek and Latin! As l i v i n g languages!

[@tonysherwood9619]

I've recently seen objective journalists leave the bbc to replaced with complient activists - for managerial reasons as we have learnt!

[@ScruffyTubbles]

They're about to remove Stephen Sacker now of course.

[@secondchance6603]

The BBC hate the first 'B' in BBC.

[@offshoretomorrow3346]

Yes. This Marxian academic disease burst out from the Universities years ago and is in all our institutions now. The supply must be cut off at source though or a fightback is hopeless.

[@paulgdlmx]

The country is doomed.

[@borderlord]

Cambrisge has: "been unburdened by what had been!"

[@sarral2008]

This is so sad, but true.

[@CalBruin]

Example of the success of the Frankfurt School plan.

[@gemox3225]

Professors are too terrified? Ayaan Ali is not touching on the main point. If they are so terrified and cowed, maybe they don't have the courage to be professors. Why are they so cowardly? That's the main point.

[@drew6194]

Are they cowardly or are they up against a five-headed monster? Anyone who opposes this madness is cancelled, fired, blackballed, and are beginning to be criminally charged. In the meantime, people need to support themselves and their families. Perhaps it's a little too simple to chalk it up to cowardice.

[@lancevance60]

They're not firefighters; bravery isn't really part of the job description.

[@LondonMoneyCashEnterprise]

They are cowardly, they’d rather shit on students on podcasts than face us

[@technicalboy1816]

If they pay, they are customers. An elite university should be one that can take a low performing student and turn them into a high performing student. You only select those that have top marks and then say you are the best.

[@hugolindum7728]

You can’t take an IQ of 100 and make a great mind. You need very bright people to start with. What you want to do, is take average runners and you think you’ll make them run under 10 second 100 metres.

[@technicalboy1816]

@hugolindum7728 Nonsense

[@hugolindum7728]

@@technicalboy1816 Ok. I understand. You have never been anywhere near a decent university, which explains your lack of logic and your inability to understand debate. I’ll explain the rules for you. If you disagree with something here, you have to explain why. Just shouting “nonsense” or “rubbish” doesn’t count as logical argument once you pass third grade. So, now you explain why my argument is false. Go on - try. It’ll be good for your brain.

[@technicalboy1816]

@hugolindum7728 lol, why are you so triggered? 😂 Why are you resorting to ad hominem attacks? Some of us have more important things to do than have a debate by text. I do not have to do anything I do not want to do, on here, and I did not shout, I wrote! Undergraduate degrees just demonstrate that you are able to do your homework and produce answers from provided materials that the lecturers are looking for. The difference between 1st class and 2nd class is discipline and interest. Do you think that learning to program in Java or C at Oxford is somehow different from learning it at other universities, or even books? Do you think that there is some secret knowledge to be gained at these universities?

[@proudatheist2042]

No one in this world has the capability to raise a person's IQ. If a person has low marks, chances are they have a below average IQ.

[@lewislee9201]

Having just read David Butterfield's article in the Spectator, it seems to me that Cambridge is broken beyond repair. At any rate fixing it and the rest of education is a generational project which will probably take until the Millenials retire and a younger more conservative generation takes charge. I can only hope that doesn't come too late for the West.

[@Mitjitsu]

The issue is those employed by universities combined with them pandering to problem students.

[@ekszentrik]

He ia wrong 19:00 it’s an Anglosohere problem. This plain just isn’t happening in continental Europe. I have studied in Germany and Switzerland. If you brought up the topic to staff or right-leaning students here, they would react confusion and ask what you mean.

[@mumblerinc.6660]

@@ekszentrik I don’t think it’s become an issue in countries where you don’t pay tuition. The idea of cancelling a professor or outside lecturer, or scaling down academic requirements here (Scandinavian university) is a wholly alien concept. No one would entertain that notion. Academic development is what’s favoured, not the “student experience”. If you claim a disability, you need written confirmation to that effect from a healthcare professional; and the university accommodates those students with tailor made assistance or longer submission deadlines, not by lowering the academic requirements for the student.

[@elena-g9f]

It isn't an Anglosphere problem. It's the same in Italy. I teach at uni and have come to realise it's becoming easier and easier for students to pass exams and graduate. Precisely because Italy wanted to copy the Anglo system it first started by dividing its once 5-year degrees into 2. This means that now you are a "doctor" (any graduate is a doctor in Italy) once you finish your bachelor's degree after 3 years, which my students say is generally a continuation of what they were doing at high school. Exams that in my day took months to prepare and included several books, are now 30-40 pages long. What used to be individual exams have now been split into 3-4 parts to help students go through those 30 pages (with less trauma, I suppose). Many exams are multiple choice, as students can no longer come up with full sentences that make sense. The infantilisation journey starts well before university. All school levels are so easy I think you must have severe learning difficulties not to go on. High school books are not written anymore. They contain large pictures and a caption that explains, say, World War I. Literature is name of author, one -two examples of work (a poem or an abstract) and a fill-in-the-gap text to explain who the author is. When students read, most of them don't understand what they've just read. But most importantly, they don't care.

[@ekszentrik]

@@elena-g9f I am ready to believe you, but the fact that I hear this the very first time in my life and the fact that Italy having vastly easier standards than the rest of Europe while adhering to the same Bologna principles (which dictate that stuff should be mostly transferrable) and handing out similarly received degrees as a comparable school in say Germany or Belgium, means I am doubtful if what you said isn't just one individual person's anecdote.

[@elena-g9f]

@@ekszentrik I'm Italian and 54 years old. I've been teaching at various levels since I was 20. I've never heard of these Bologna principles you're talking about. Do you teach in Italy, too? Have you been a student here and if so, how long ago? I never said that Italy has easier standards than the rest of Europe. I said that what happens in UK and US universities is happening in Italy too.

[@waynemcauliffe-fv5yf]

I`m glad i`m old,Aussie,working class and never went to Uni

[@N_Loco_Parenthesis]

Don't be too glad. Your text is full of errors. I doubt you finished high school.

[@waynemcauliffe-fv5yf]

@@N_Loco_ParenthesisProves my point matey

[@jenniferbate9682]

Help! Where do we stay now? It sounds like our education system has gone to the dogs!

[@funvideos7906]

You have somehow managed to speak for 20 minutes without specifying what you are dissatisfied with. Universities should be free, there should be fewer, but more suitable people at them. There should be a stronger vocational alternative for those not suited to university. Universities should focus on quality of learning, critical thinking, exploration on new ideas, and life skill development of the individual. They should also focus quality of research and not on volume.

[@maureenboost1533]

@ MicromoYou have made some very valid points. Universities previously only admitted a small percentage of the population. A levels were tough enough to identify those capable of writing essays and debating complex topics. There were other routes to gaining qualifications especially in STEM subjects. If 50 percent of the population attend a Uni then inevitably the standards need to fall. Obviously, the admission of students from a wider range of backgrounds was necessary, but they must have the ability to meet the requirements i.e. to be able to produce the coursework and pass the exams. Not produce AI generated rubbish, appeal and be granted a pass for a fail grade and be able to just "attend" lectures on Zoom.

[@ReiGunn]

how much of this is to do with the nepotism rampant in ivy league Universities? Underqualified legacy drafts from 'the right family' needing the playing field made unlevel to ensure their cultural, political and economic dominance. The consequences of a new aristocracy. I think this has to be a part of the story.

[@JohnJones-k9d]

We need to reduce university places by 70%, make stem subjects cheaper to study and non stem crazy expensive. More young people, into proper apprenticeships, but the issue is no one wants to get hands dirty.

[@costaldevomito]

@JohnJones-k9d if these students can't write essays, I don't think we need to be excluding non-stem subjects. You need to be able to read and write and communicate, languages studies are important tools in the human cognitive space. We should all have a good balance of them, regardless of what we choose to specialize in.

[@ileanamuntean7338]

In US they let them bring in their dogs.

[@dr.wianmeintjes9028]

Alan Bloom. The Closing of the American Mind.

[@GuspachoGuadalupe]

I'm not gonna respond to this video but his article, which does raise some valid concerns, especially around this consumer oriented approach many students now expect but I have a problem with its overall tone and missed conclusions. It's basically a whole back in my day yap accompanied by a meltdown because Cambridge isn't exclusively catering to perfect posh white boys anymore? This nostalgia for traditional academic models comes across as thinly veiled elitism. Supporting mental health of students isn't "infantilising" universities, yes many abuse this but largely it is all in attempt at leveling the playing field and adapting to serve a broader evolving population that hold emotional intelligence to a high regard all while maintaining this still very real academic rigor. This academic excellence is still very much achievable but just through a different more evolved path. In relation to his views on diversity, it is rather ironic that someone who mourns the decline of sanskrit clases and well versed in Indo European literature appears so resistant to diversity in academia, like having more non white students and state school kids is somehow diluting Cambridge's precious "excellence" as if talent only comes in one color and class. What is his solution? reverting to an exclusionary model that primarily served a privileged few?? If anything, his resignation is a win for Cambridge, that's one less gatekeeper trying to preserve an outdated, exclusionary version of academia. The future of education isn't about maintaining some posh boys club but allowing for these high standards to coexist and evolve with thse inclusive practices he so fears

[@LondonMoneyCashEnterprise]

Exactly

[@-murray-]

You've hit the nail on the head. The article was such elitist crap. He's deliberately stirring the pot, making it seem like universities are going downhill, and blaming it on these soft kids. Tale as old as time, kids these days are little babies who won't make it anywhere...

[@frednerk8366]

While I fully agree with both the guests, I was hoping for a a counter argument in order to make a proper debate.

[@LondonMoneyCashEnterprise]

Exactly, this guy is heavily exaggerating the situation here

[@adrianthomas1473]

Revolutions are created by organised minorities who push through what the majority do not want - look at the American Revolution, French Revolution, Russian Revolution and Cultural Chinese Revolution. The same process is happening here.

[@briangarrett2427]

David, old boy, could you stop using the trendy word 'holistically'? thanks

[@notheotherklaus]

It doesn’t seem these necessary changes will come to English universities soon?

[@arthurday4547]

I just got catfished😢

[@hugolindum7728]

Turner’s claim disability because they get extra time in exams.

[@JoanLeclerc-u4x]

Once grammar schools were done away with students began being accepted to university who were not really prepared for the old rigorous demands. In the USA there are still some very demanding colleges but they are not necessarily part of the big universities. Harvard may be hard to get into,but once in it may not be a doddle but it certainly isn’t necessarily rigorous . Graduate school is a different story.

[@Remember1977]

The irony of the fact that people like Ayan are perfect example of the decadence of academics institution where her only qualifications is equal opportunity and diversity quota and here she is testifying 🤔😏

[@brookewalford6428]

Why are there no books on the shelf at head hight behind Ali?

[@lesleydickson7746]

@@brookewalford6428 Because anyone who loves books wouldn’t store them above an open fire?

[@linmorell1813]

Because she has style . Books also come electronically!

[@Creality.R.Crooks]

"Managed decline, which is in the interests of 'certain' groups within the university." Aha, certain groups all of the same kind, even, but I can't say it on YT or someone might label me a misogynist..

[@williambranch4283]

Professors spend their whole life around 20 something students. They can never grow up ;-)

[@nickwalsworth7650]

Post-modern gotcha

[@lancevance60]

Mental health is worse nowadays than in the past. That's hardly controversial. Of course, the coddling creates a feedback loop.

[@BazColne]

Brill

[@drstevej2527]

What does HA know about this topic?

[@nicholasjohnfranklin7397]

Subtext for Americans: save American intellectual life... by voting for Donald Trump, the standard-bearer of anti-intellectualism. And these are the great promotors of critical thinking? The idea that Butterfield faced a hotbed of political correctness in the Classics department of Queens' is, frankly, laughable.

[@muckymedway3309]

All this crap about people’s mental health makes me anxious.

[@res_gestae]

sound

[@TobiasStarling]

Socrates moaned at young people but trained plato, plato moaned at young people then trained aristotle. This is just more grumpy old hasbeens moaning about the youth who supparst them. Ever was. By agreeing with this you are agreeing you are old and weak.

[@Pieguts123]

You really believe that?? Ha-ha-ha-ha-hah!!! Oh - go on; say it again.

[@alisonwren3624]

Those of us who have been involved in education since the 1960s might actually have more awareness of what has happened.......Having obtained a first class degree in Biology when only 1% of the population had one, and only 5% went to university, you did need to be both clver and industrious unless you had some other skill like sport and got treated preferentially. Having taught GCE 'A' level for 50 years, the content has definitely been dumbed down- I had to write 5 essays in 3 hours, with NO diagrams, supplied words or anything, you really needed to know your subject very deeply to be able to do that. The 16+ exam also involved essays. Now even 'A' level papers dont even require one essay, no wonder they get to university unable to coherently organise their thoughts and knowledge!!! Blair had the idea that half of all adolescents should go to university, which is ridiculous. Intelligence, as far as most studies show, is 50% nature and 50% nurture, and imo the nurture side has sadly declined due to change in parenting, expectations etc.

[@andrewmiles3378]

What errant nonsense! Since you're talking about Greeks, remember this one? "If he hadn't spoken, we might have thought he was clever".

[@Sifar_Secure]

Your spelling of "supparst" signals to me that you would benefit from the reintroduction of higher standards.

[@TobiasStarling]

@@andrewmiles3378 cry more boomer, remember your care home will be picked by the young