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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 23 2020, @11:37AM (2 children)
The only moral imperative aristarchus displays is the consistent presentation of himself as a pretentious fraud.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday June 23 2020, @01:30PM (1 child)
So you haven't actually seen what he's capable of when he stops fooling around and gets serious then. Okay.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 23 2020, @05:09PM
An individual who consistently argues in bad faith cannot lay claim to moral foundation, hence the avoidance and childish insults when challenged. If forewarned is forearmed, an opponent who understands concepts like bricolage can simply respond; the walrus is me and not thee! Denuded of defenses there is not a soul on earth who can make good faith arguments in support of bad faith ideas. Who is seriously going to argue scientific knowledge is a form of social control when that very argument is now endlessly repeated as vapid dogma by brainwashed, zombie-like humanities graduates? Why would the public be funding courses increasingly based on "lived experience" rather than scientific analysis? The proposal that people do not understand postmodern influences on academia, much like the core conceits of postmodernism itself, is entirely without merit.
No, aristarchus is not "capable" because there is no reasoned argument to be advanced in support of nonsensical subjects. Defunding the humanities is not some right wing attack on academic freedom but a long overdue reevaluation. The educational institutions themselves are ultimately responsible, as Camile Pagila pointed out a decade ago: