Anglia Polytechnic University

Britannia waives the rules...

Ministers to examine pilot project of 'study-while-you-work' degrees

 

Soccer fans will be able to get their BA in fighting!

 

Snip:..

"In each case after three years remaining in work, or looking after the baby, they will be able to have done enough work to graduate...."
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In a way it's a kind of dumbing down university eduction. Almost like they are picking few tips from not so wonderfull schools.

 

Snip:..

"In each case after three years remaining in work, or looking after the baby, they will be able to have done enough work to graduate...."
====

In a way it's a kind of dumbing down university eduction. Almost like they are picking few tips from not so wonderfull schools.

 

Bachelor of Blood Sport
Master of Sports Disasters
Doctor of Bench Clearing Brawls

 

"OI! IT'S RESEARCH!" said Dr Colin Thumpp as he hurled a smallish Tunisian football fan through a shop window in Brussels. Thumpp, whose latest book "World Peace through Hooliganism" has created quite a stir in the academic world since its publication just before this year's World Cup finals, was on his way to deliver a guest lectureship at the University of Louvain.
Upon learning that the damaged shop was Jewish-owned, Tunisian Ahmed Ibidaba declined to press charges against Thumpp. Ibidaba, a doctoral student at Syrtis Polytechnic Institute of Tunisia in suburban Tunis, said that his own studies in pogrom promotion would be "greatly enhanced" by his tutorial with Dr Thumpp. "This is the sort of thing that will impress the Americans--now they'll HAVE to say that SPIT is RA-equivalent," exulted Ibidaba.

 

I'm curious about why our Degreeinfo education authorities are frantically ridiculing this thing like a pack of crazed poodles.

Isn't this the basic principle of DL? To study remotely while continuing in one's job, while hopefuly incorporating that work into the academic program as practical experience or research opportunities?

 

I don't think anyone is frantic. We are just having some fun at the expense of someone else! Actually I have had a look at Anglia Poly's website to see if I can swing myself another degree, perhaps in machine shop practice!
Roy Maybery

 

OK, upon looking at some of the websites associated with this thing, I'm definitely starting to share the concern.

Here's the announcement on APU's website:

http://www.anglia.ac.uk/marketing/n160403.shtml

Apparently this is an undergraduate program:

On April 14th Ultralab (a research team at APU with a worldwide reputation for developing online learning resources) anounced a radical new approach to undergraduate degrees. They have started from a clean sheet of paper, and a lot of experience...

Here's a somewhat more descriptive website, with vague stuff about what hypothetical students might study and a cryptic explanation of how the program is structured.

http://degree.ultralab.net/

Moira is 20 and works in an art gallery. She left school straight into a full time job which she enjoys, and studied ?A? levels at evening classes... Ultraversity would provide an on-line support for Moira, using her art gallery context as the focus for her graduate level qualification, offering her both a cohort of other students with similar contexts and access to a group of experts world-wide to progress her understanding. Her final year presentation project, itself showcased to the public in ?her? art gallery, engages the viewing public to understand some of the insights that Moira has gained as she completed her undergraduate studies course. Through Ultraversity Moira helps the UK government meet its targets on participation rates but without a complete rethink for existing university provision or a dilution of what is provided.

"Graduate level qualification"? And what is the subject of the degree, precisely? Studio art? Gallery management?

Amy is a rebellious 19. She neither suited school nor university. Her experience of school was characterised by exclusion and disruption, both to her and to the various schools where she was briefly on roll. Through the Notschool.net project, a DfES funded virtual school for those that school didn?t fit, Amy has rebuilt her self esteem as a learner. Now, as a teenage mum, Amy wants to continue to advance her knowledge and understanding particularly, in the absence of any extended family, of child development and parenting. Amy wants to be a good mother but more than that she is anxious not to waste her years as a mum and seeks to emerge qualified and employable as her daughter settles to school. Ultraversity offers Amy a long path, but one that suits her timetable and needs well. Her final exhibition will be staged in her daughter?s infant school for mothers...

This one is going to need a lot of explanation, I think. I'm inclined to agree with Shabs, and fear the possibility that there might be a great deal of well-intentioned "dumbing down" here. I realize that Britons think that they are above general ed, but a kid whose previous school career consisted of brief periods of schooling punctuated by disruption? She is going to need some basic school-level skills as a prerequisite to anything. What's more, university-level child development has a whole body of its own material to learn.

Here's the structure of what I take it is a 3-year undergraduate degree:

http://degree.ultralab.net/degree.html

Where is the content expected of a normal undergraduate degree? An awful lot hangs on whatever this "action research" thing is supposed to be, since it apparently is replacing an entire bachelors-level curriculum in whatever it is that these degrees are supposed to be in.

Is everyone going to earn a BA in 'Whatever It Is That You Are Doing Now'? Why not a Ph.D., since each of us obviously the world's greatest authority on that ultra-specialized subject. The FT articles did mention doctorates... scary.

OK, I apologize. Now I definitely do see where the football hooligan jokes are coming from.

 

I am wondering whether "Ultraversity" is an April Fools joke that emerged late?