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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Australia's conservative government announced plans Friday to double university fees for humanities students, in a bid to push people into more useful, "job-relevant" courses like maths and science.
Under the proposal—which critics panned as an "ideological assault"—the cost of degrees like history or cultural studies will rise up to 113 percent to around US$29,000, while other courses such as nursing and information technology will become cheaper.
Education Minister Dan Tehan—an arts graduate with two advanced degrees in international relations—said the government wanted to corral young people towards "jobs of the future" to boost the country's economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
"If you are wanting to do philosophy, which will be great for your critical thinking, also think about doing IT," Tehan said.
The plan would help pay for an additional 39,000 university places by 2023 and for cost cuts for courses like science, agriculture, maths and languages.
[...] "I'm an arts graduate and so is the minister for education so I'm not sure you can draw the conclusion that we're completely unemployable," said opposition lawmaker Tanya Plibersek.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Mykl on Monday June 22 2020, @12:14PM (1 child)
I did Philosophy as one of my courses through my IT Degree (Computer Science). It helped me to appreciate that there can be multiple 'correct' answers depending on the perspective of individuals, which as helped me in my career immensely (catering to a bunch of users who have a different set of priorities than I would have). The written language skills are also good if you want to rise above the level of code monkey.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @03:14PM
One thing that philosophy courses have unquestionably been proven to improve in their students is a sense of smug superiority.
"Socrates, you've got an irate customer on line 2!"