Education: not a luxury item

The old adage about not discussing religion or politics with people is not to avoid arguments, it is because doing so makes one far too aware of how completely objectionable every other human being on the planet is. I found this out last week while responding to various opinions on the education sodomy I wrote about. People whom I had previously considered to be mildly disagreeable pieces of raw white onion in the otherwise tasty salad of life are suddenly revealed to be flecks of grated cat scrotum dipped in vomit. And the only seasonings available to mask the taste are blind ignorance and seething acceptance.

Although many people seem opposed to the notion that anyone should be able to bypass parts of the application process, others seem to have quite different opinions about what education is actually for. By wildly different I of course mean, wrong. This has surprised me when really it should not have, since most of you are so wrong we could start awarding honorary doctorates in it.

While discussing education reform with people, I came across a lot of opinions about what Universities are supposed to be doing, and some of the things I heard said that Universities were really part of the economy. Big technology University institutions, such as Imperial, are there to help keep the economy vibrant and full of educated people, and that arts and humanities courses were – and I am quoting one of you here – a luxury.

Anything can be treated as a luxury in life. You simply take it away from people or start charging for it, it becomes a luxury. Spotify – now a luxury. The NHS – presumably soon to become a luxury. Something is not a luxury just because you do not see the point in it, however. And this is precisely why protecting our Universities and undergraduate students is so important.

The purpose of education is not to serve the country, it is to serve everyone. It is to produce people who are capable of thinking twice before allowing their vote to be swayed by a photo of a sad baby in a helmet. People who thrive when challenged individually instead of wilting and looking for the nearest bandwagon. People who know that there is no point buying supermarket-brand cheese because you are only cheating yourself. In economics, education is one of the most precious and important services possible. Anyone can use an education once you have given it to them. They do not deprive people of the resource while they use it, and it neither depreciates nor runs out. There is no such thing as a luxury degree course; if people out there are passionate about golf course management, and willing to apply themselves to understand it, then so be it.

It is tempting to think of the University system as being one of those ‘government policy areas’ like the NHS or the armed forces, but it is important for everyone that we give it as much autonomy as possible, and that when we do interfere it is to make it more accessible, not less. If we start chopping up the education of our children based on what is going to make us money in the short term, we will find ourselves a soulless nation of fast-food chains, all staffed by PhD graduates.