Where I disagree is with your solution, which I consider to be over simplified. I might find film studies, gender studies, etc a bit ludicrous overall, but I wouldn’t entirely rule out the possibility that genuine research in such fields might be a useful contribution to the store of human knowledge. I’d certainly cut out any public funding to training anyone as osteopaths, chiropractors and other pseudo-sciences; but that’s a little off-topic.

I am sure your solution would be for a complete state withdrawal from funding or direct provision of any education and training. That ain’t going to happen. The best course is to push for achievable changes, such as using existing mechanisms to encourage institutions to educate (or train) people in useful areas. It is always going to be the students that are likely to have the most informed view of what they should study.

During my time as a student, the science faculty (Physics & Chemistry) had to share one scanning tunneling microscope with the School of Engineering (Chemical Engineering Department) and this machine is/was housed at the School of Engineering. It was very expensive then, at a price ~ 1/2 million. The University couldn’t afford to buy 3 different machines for those respective faculties (it made sense). Students had to book the lab hours to use the STM in advance since there are 3 Departments using it. Again, during my time, the University had one super-computer only that the science faculty had to share with the School of Engineering and this $2 million dollar machine is/was housed at the School of Engineering. The people (Phd candidates, post-docs & academic staffs) who were doing particle/nuclear physics research from the Physics Department at the now demolished AURA-2 (University of Auckland Particle Linear Accelerator) needed to do high speed simulation & analysis of their data but had complained that the Engineering School had monopolized the use of the super-computer for themselves and less time allocated for researchers from other departments to use it. They said (at the time) that both the Electrical & Mechanical Engineering Departments always say that their researchers need to run long simulations (both in engineering electromagnetics & fluid dynamics) before the super-computer can be made available to researchers from other departments at certain times. Again, the reason for having only one super-computer to be shared is because the University couldn’t afford to buy more than 3 different machines for each department that needs to run high speed simulations & analysis.

Now back to my point. If you chop half of the useless courses & departments that don’t belong at University, then expensive machineries for Engineering & Science become affordable.

And as your question of concept of University, I say, that’s a meaningless question. What’s the difference in running Unversity courses in Psychics/Paranormal and running courses in gay/lesbian/queer theory? Yep, according to you, it is education. I say it is fucking useless education. If a private institution is doing it, then that’s fine. A publicly funded institution should not do that. You must be aware that there are universities around the world that teaches paranormal, don’t you? So, if to apply your concept of what a University should be, then why not teach paranormal? It is after all education. Right? Wrong.

Steven Joyce is right on the mark that Universities should increase funding for science & engineering but chop useless courses.

(damn thi ediy buttim)

And they ignored your recommendations, as though you were just some internet blowhard? Astonishing!

…it just so improved. Psycho Milt; made of funny.

The entire spectrum of current right wing philosophies have withered under the heat of cross-examination, reality and 29 dead men at Pike River.

Nothing they say actually stacks up anymore. It is time to acknowledge that right wing limitations have been surpassed and need to be re-assessed, adjusted and set at new parameters so they can be useful once again. This will happen, but it will be gradual as heads with fallen out brains take a while to realise these things… take it from one whose brain often leaves its head…

It may come as a shock, but universities aren’t a branch of the public service. Joyce doesn’t get to tell Stuart McCutcheon what courses will be taught in what numbers at the University of Auckland, any more than the Minister of Justice gets to instruct judges how to interpret the law. McCutcheon was commendably polite in his response.

I have been advocated for a long time that it is time that University of Auckland should downsize its Arts Faculty and up-size Science/Engineering

And they ignored your recommendations, as though you were just some internet blowhard? Astonishing!

Rev (Rev Uesifili UNasa) Asshole must be told to go fuck himself. I have been advocated for a long time that it is time that University of Auckland should downsize its Arts Faculty and up-size Science/Engineering. There are too many useless Departments at the Arts faculties, such as the Maori Department, Pacific Studies Department, Film & Television Department, etc,…

The tide is well out and receding fast

People who are prepared to take a loan, work for a better future for themselves and their families, and far from whining about their lot, actually try to do something proactive about it. Of course, they deserve your scorn, after all, you think hard work and ambition is only any use if the ‘right kind of person’ has it, evidently, like they can seriously predict that the economy might tank, and the jobs will disappear after being promised they can all get jobs helping to build the cycleway only a couple of years ago.

But that’s not the only thing, the ‘taxpayer dollars’ you are so keen to earmark, are now going increasingly into PTE. Private Training Enterprises. Yes, your tax is now being funnelled into the pockets of those entrepreneurs who set up their PTE’s and provide substandard Mac-education quals, pay ‘competitive’ rates to educators and then ring the bell for the next round of taxpayer cash (your cash, mind) and under-educated kids to line their retirement portfolios.

So the net result is perhaps 900 tertiary sector jobs are likely to go, and investment into foundation education re-allocated to the above, and away from the ‘quality’ institutions. The tall poppy kneejerkers will applaud this of course..

So really this spin about engineers and scientists is bullshit, when you look at the big picture. Because as our neoliberal creed is so often likely to remind us, no one will invest, borrow, and train for jobs that aren’t there, and guess what? can you or anyone point to the kinds of quality jobs that have been produced under this government that are likely to be crying out for these bright young things?

In essence kids will borrow, take the education and run, far far away where the jobs are. Meanwhile you’ll get older, join the superannuated still wondering where your tax-paying dollars went. Until one day, when. of course, the guy who will be wiping your arse in the old peoples’ home turns out to be – wait for it – more likely be qualified with an arts or humanities education than a scientific or engineering one. That is, of course, if you can find any willing to wipe your arse, after they endured your withering scorn for so long.