The demise of our universities

Yes and no.

I agree with many of his statements about the softening of Academia’s ‘teeth’ in being able to critically analyse and shape public opinion for the better. And to churn out strong, independent and bold young leaders to tackle the world’s problems.

But. He is guilty of the same crime he accuses others of. He fails to deliver any answers to the fundamentals of performance and explain with his own uni (AUT) is ranked a pathetic #250 in the world. Why the hell should any student part with their cash to come to his lowly institution? And he fails to explain why other NZ universities have dropped in world rankings to such pitiful levels and how they could climb back into the top positions compared to their global peers.

Look at the results below. No surprise, the top 3 world universities include Oxford and Cambridge which have always been political hot-beds of ‘roaring red’ leftie students - the bloody KGB used to recruit all their newest young spies from their campuses (checkout the “Cambridge Five” for just one example).

But despite being strongly left-leaning establishments, they still deliver world class performance.

So his explanation and excuses are a big fat fail to me.

4 / 10. Try again.

And even more specifically, the fundamental problem with the Professor’s assertions are as follows:

This comments:

“We are no longer centrists. We have drifted to the political left, way left. And that leftist view which has many merits, and many downfalls cannot be debated with impunity.”

This has been true of Oxford & Cambridge for literally decades. But they still achieve 1st and 3rd place in the world. So that is not a credible explanation for the problem.

And this comment:

“We are strong on virtue signaling. We are strong on stating opinions rather than facts. We are weak on confrontation, but strong on behind the scene bullying.”

Yes this is a relatively new development - the arrival of the so-called ‘woke’ culture - but the same is true of every other academic institution around the world. And many other institutions for that matter including workplaces and govt departments. So again, NZ universities are not alone is suffering this problem. And so this also fails to explain why AUT is #250th in the world compared to other similar establishments.

AUT is not and never will be a university in the true form of one.
As Auckland Technical Institute (ATI) it was a fine organisation training the tradies and intermediate level technical personnel - in my world that was all the people with NZCE's (even Peter Blake had one).
All went downhill when they were rebranded as a uni and have people such as the pink haired freak show fronting for them.

I graduated from Auckland University School of Engineering in 1983, at that time it was turning out world class graduates who went onto many great things, especially in the application of engineering concepts to yacht design, structures, masts and sails

My Mummy rates me as No1
A dude who I pissed of greatly today (by telling him the truth) I'm probably rated 7 billionth
Rated by 59 bovines in Northland I come a close 2nd just behind nice grass

A question screaming to be asked, yet very rarely is with all these comparisons these days. Who rates Unis and based on what?

There’s a few different ratings systems around all with slightly different but similar rating methods (a bit like different pilling methodologies). The one I cited above is from the The Times Higher Education division. They use a range of measures including stuff like:

1. Reputation (international and domestic)
2. Staff / self-identify ratios
3. Seniority & success of staff eg number of citations awarded
4. Amount of research / budgets / impact of research on real world
5. Diversity of students
6. Student outcomes
7. Funding / wealth of uni
Etc etc

Most importantly, the biggest employers (as well as some country’s immigration visa departments) look at these ratings to form an opinion on the ‘quality’ of the graduates. For example, during the so-called ‘milk round’ season, the biggest and most attractive (to students) employers go around the unis enticing the best students to apply - but they restrict their search to the top 5-10 because they obviously can’t cover them all.

So like it or not, not all degrees are the same - a 2nd Class degree from Oxford would be rated way higher than a 1st Class from AUT (in fact the kid from AUT probably wouldn’t even pass the initial screening process which these days is done mostly by AI).

Plunkett has an interview with the good professor.

I laughed out loud near the end when he said he's stopped going to university meetings and why.

theplatform.kiwi/podcasts/episode/prof-grant-schofield-sean-plunket-our-universities-are-shutting-down

He has some nice words about the pink haired one as well.