For $30,000 a year, you too could be tutored by self-important blowhards

[Cain]

I don't see this as remotely appealing, as an academic.  But then, given I could go to Oxford or Cambridge for half the price and get much the same level of support and prestige, I probably wouldn't.

A new British university aiming to rival Oxford and Cambridge has been launched by leading academics.

New College of the Humanities (NCH) will offer the "highest-quality" education to "gifted" undergraduates, its creators say.

The privately-owned London-based college will open in September 2012 and is planning to charge fees of £18,000.

The 14 professors involved include biologist Richard Dawkins and historian Sir David Cannadine.

Professor Dawkins is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, as well as being the author of The God Delusion, and Sir David is a professor at Princeton University in the United States.

Based in Bloomsbury, central London, the new college will offer eight undergraduate humanities degrees taught by some of the world's most prominent intellectuals, officials said.

Professor AC Grayling, the philosopher who will be the college's first Master, secured millions of pounds of funding from investors to set up the institution.

He said: "Our priorities at the college will be excellent teaching quality, excellent ratios of teachers to students, and a strongly supportive and responsive learning environment.

"Our students will be challenged to develop as skilled, informed and reflective thinkers, and will receive an education to match that aspiration."

I know Oxbridge students, and I know they got one-to-one tutoring every week.  How are they going to match that?  I mean, apart from the fact it is so expensive that virtually no-one will be able to afford to go?

[Cainad (dec.)]

18k in pounds comes out to just shy of $30k...

God you Brits have it cheap

Also, this sounds like the most incredibly pretentious thing I can imagine.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Richard Dawkins...  So it's going to be the DOUCHIEST school in the UK?

Seriously, how do they hope to compete for prestige with the second oldest university in the world? I mean, it would be one thing is Oxford was a mediocre school, but it's not, PLUS it gets automatic srsns points by being like a thousand years old.

[Suu]

Um...

30k a year is FUCKING STANDARD here in the United States for like a 2nd tier private school, not even an Ivy League. Stop your bitching. Thanks.

[Cain]

Fine then.

[Cain]

Fine then.

Actually, no, I've changed my mind.  Shut your fucking pieholes Suu and Cainad, its my damn country and its twice what any other University charges and I'll damn well bitch if I feel like it, and you'll just have to live with it, you stuck-up pricks.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Damn, last time I checked a good private school here was like $22k/year.

I checked again and $35k is high-end tuition. At least according to this website, average for a state school is about $8k. http://www.collegeboard.com/student/pay/add-it-up/4494.html

These figures include room and board: http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=76

Not that the education situation in the US isn't still pretty fucked, but in no way is $30k average.

[Scribbly]

Living in London is basically an invitation to burn money, too. Oxford IIRC charged £15/week room and board when I looked at it. Fees are high, but living expenses are incredibly low. My friend who went to university in London, lived above a fried chicken restaurant, and paid £250 a week for the privilege.

Personally, I hope this project crashes, burns, and Dawkins is strung up by embittered undergrad students who can't find work after saddling themselves with even more debt than most other students. I doubt it'll happen, though. There is no justice in the world. 

[Suu]

Fine then.

Actually, no, I've changed my mind.  Shut your fucking pieholes Suu and Cainad, its my damn country and its twice what any other University charges and I'll damn well bitch if I feel like it, and you'll just have to live with it, you stuck-up pricks.

I laughed. It's okay.


Nigel, my state university costs me *sigh* 12k a year now, as an in-state resident. OOS I think they're paying close to 25k.   It's sickening.

I'm fucking jealous of the UK system. I could, in theory, fly over there, and get a world-class education at Oxford for a fraction of what it would cost me at Brown.

This is why education reform will NEVER HAPPEN in the United States, it's about making money, not making educated bipeds.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Fine then.

Actually, no, I've changed my mind.  Shut your fucking pieholes Suu and Cainad, its my damn country and its twice what any other University charges and I'll damn well bitch if I feel like it, and you'll just have to live with it, you stuck-up pricks.

I laughed. It's okay.


Nigel, my state university costs me *sigh* 12k a year now, as an in-state resident. OOS I think they're paying close to 25k.   It's sickening.

I'm fucking jealous of the UK system. I could, in theory, fly over there, and get a world-class education at Oxford for a fraction of what it would cost me at Brown.

This is why education reform will NEVER HAPPEN in the United States, it's about making money, not making educated bipeds.

That's what my friend did. Ended up with a PhD from Oxford. Nice gig if you can get in!

As for people paying out of state tuition, that's a choice and I assume they wouldn't have opted to go to school in a different state if they couldn't afford it on some level. I know I wouldn't do it.

[Jasper]

Sometimes the state you're in doesn't have any grad programs that suit your interest.  I know Oregon doesn't.

[Suu]

URI gets a surprising amount of out of state attendees for the pharmacy and engineering programs as well as basketball. Not as much, as say, Florida State does for the chance at playing pro ball. At FSU, I paid 8k for the whole YEAR, with room and board, which was covered entirely by my state scholarship and I didn't even have to touch federal loans or my NCAA money for volleyball, but, if you were coming from OOS to play football or basketball, get ready to shell out 28k at least. But, if you are THAT GOOD, the NCAA pays your way ANYWAY so, what's the point?!

If I could afford to fly across the Pond for school, I would. I don't know if I could get into Oxford, but it's not like the other universities in the UK are shit.

Sometimes the state you're in doesn't have any grad programs that suit your interest.  I know Oregon doesn't.

Grad school is an entirely different animal. Even when it comes to funding.

[Payne]

I don't see this as remotely appealing, as an academic.  But then, given I could go to Oxford or Cambridge for half the price and get much the same level of support and prestige, I probably wouldn't.

A new British university aiming to rival Oxford and Cambridge has been launched by leading academics.

New College of the Humanities (NCH) will offer the "highest-quality" education to "gifted" undergraduates, its creators say.

The privately-owned London-based college will open in September 2012 and is planning to charge fees of £18,000.

The 14 professors involved include biologist Richard Dawkins and historian Sir David Cannadine.

Professor Dawkins is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, as well as being the author of The God Delusion, and Sir David is a professor at Princeton University in the United States.

Based in Bloomsbury, central London, the new college will offer eight undergraduate humanities degrees taught by some of the world's most prominent intellectuals, officials said.

Professor AC Grayling, the philosopher who will be the college's first Master, secured millions of pounds of funding from investors to set up the institution.

He said: "Our priorities at the college will be excellent teaching quality, excellent ratios of teachers to students, and a strongly supportive and responsive learning environment.

"Our students will be challenged to develop as skilled, informed and reflective thinkers, and will receive an education to match that aspiration."

I know Oxbridge students, and I know they got one-to-one tutoring every week.  How are they going to match that?  I mean, apart from the fact it is so expensive that virtually no-one will be able to afford to go?

If I stopped eating, living in a place I had to pay for, and paying money for anything, ever, at all for a year and a half, I could go to this school?

Sign me up! I'll the brokest assed, thinnest (most emaciated) and most deeply soulless person there. In perfect shape to confront Dawkins....

But yeah, way overpriced for what they're aiming for, and targetted at exactly the wrong "market".

[Cainad (dec.)]

Fine then.

Actually, no, I've changed my mind.  Shut your fucking pieholes Suu and Cainad, its my damn country and its twice what any other University charges and I'll damn well bitch if I feel like it, and you'll just have to live with it, you stuck-up pricks.

I didn't say anything about it being inappropriate to bitch about it. Just amused that what is prohibitively expensive education there is something that loads of people pay here on a regular basis (not me, since I attend a state school, but still).

If that really is twice the typical cost of going to a university over there, I'm sure they'll have a LOVELY time educating a miniscule number of entitled rich prats. And then they'll have a lovely time going under, because how do you keep something like that afloat? Sheer pomposity?

[Cainad (dec.)]

Oh! Does Dawkins get to teach a class on how Islam is "an unmitigated evil" and how to blatantly compromise one's supposed opposition to religious wars by saying it's better to fight on the Christian side of things?


That could be "Intellectual Dishonesty 101"


COURSES TO BE TAUGHT AT NEW COLLEGE OF THE HUMANITIES, ITT.   GO!