Next Tuesday, 13 January, the Department of Innovation, Universities & Skills was to be hosting a big conference titled the FUTURE OF HIGHER EDUCATION at the prestigious One Whitehall Place. Ministers from the DCFS, DWP and BERR were listed as speaking.
However, it has emerged that the whole event has now been cancelled due to the "non availability of Ministers". Very odd. And I wonder how much in cancellation fees the taxpayer will be forking out to One Whitehall Place, A good few thousand, I suspect.
Merely an indication (as if any more were needed...) that under this government, higher education has no future....
ReplyDeleteI expect they all managed to turn up for their free Christmas and New Year bashes though!
ReplyDeleteAll ministers needed urgently to review their departmental budgets in the wake of Badger's realisation that his growth forecasts were a work of fiction?
ReplyDeleteThree points:
ReplyDelete1 Don't Ministers have diary secretaries to sort out their availability?
2 Why wasn't the QEII Conference Centre used instead?
3 Did hiring the old National Liberal Club send a signal to the media that a coalition with the Libdims was still under consideration?
Sceptical Steve: Spot on!
ReplyDeleteI `v been there a few times good bar.
ReplyDeleteCould this have anything to do with the cancellation of funding that is likely to hit higher education ?
Maybe our esteemed Ministers now recognise there is no such thing any more as higher education after having successfully demolished the high educational standards this country had good reason to be proud of in the past.
ReplyDeleteCertainly I see lots of evidence of this when I compare my daughter's A level syllabus, text books and exam papers to the time I did my A levels (early 70s). And this from one of the countries top comprehensives where 'pushy parents' spend inordinate amounts of money to purchase property in the catchment area.
Maybe the conference should have been titled "Reimplementing Higher Education"? Honesty here would definitely be the best policy.
Perhaps David Lammy is still in hiding after his embarrassing performance on "Celebrity Mastermind"?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMaybe none of them could remember what their departmental abbreviations stand for any more ?
ReplyDeletePlease somebody tell me that an incoming Conservative Govt reverse all these Orwellian departmental names.
PS They wouldn't be needed for an Election launch would they ?
ReplyDeleteIt does rather stink of flap or panic, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteI'm with Man in Shed's Postscript. Wonder if we see other events postponed or canceled? That said, I can't see ZaNuLab being any better off in the polls following a good start to the New Year. Interesting Times, what.
ReplyDeleteEG
There's little point in having a Higher Education Conference - little point in having a Higher Education, for that matter. With industry and commerce in total meltdown who needs education? What for? As a means of selection for a vocation or job? Anyway, who is going to pay for all these educationalistas?
ReplyDelete"who needs education? "
ReplyDeleteToo easy Unsworth, too easy.