A.C. Grayling, Dawkins and more Launch Private University

[maiforpeace]

Academics to Launch Private University

Leading academics are to launch a private university aimed at rivaling Oxford and Cambridge that will charge tuition fees of £18,000 ($30,000) a year, a report said Sunday.
New College of the Humanities, in London, will be modelled on elite liberal arts colleges in the US, The Sunday Times reported.
The university, which will begin its first undergraduate courses in 2012, is reportedly being funded by millions of pounds from private investors secured by eminent philosopher A. C. Grayling.
Fourteen leading academics are backing the project and will teach at the university, including evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and historians David Cannadine, Linda Colley and Niall Ferguson, said the report.
Grayling will become full-time master of the college, which will initially offer around 200 places to undergraduate students to study English, history, philosophy, economics and law degrees, it said.
He told the paper that the university would offer weekly one-to-one tutorials that other institutions were struggling to maintain due to cuts to government funding.
"Top universities are desperate to maintain the model as much as they can, but it is under pressure because it is so expensive and time-consuming," he said.
The introduction of a new university comes after the government last year pushed through a massive hike in tuition fees at English state-run universities, allowing them to treble what they charge to a maximum of £9,000 annually.
New College would not be subject to the cap as it is outside the state-funded system.

[JimC]

Wonderful to see such a magnificent range of educational opportunities open to the sons and daughters of the working man...

Elitist?

Moi?

[Atheist-Lite]

Wonderful to see such a magnificent range of educational opportunities open to the sons and daughters of the working man...

Elitist?

Moi?

It's about the humanities (*cough* benjamins). Don't you see?

[floppit]

I wonder if RD will teach science or sociology?

From the minute the maga fees were stated I wanted the next line to be about scholarships... If they do have a solid scholarship system I'm all for it, if the don't - MEH!

[charlou]

I wonder if RD will teach science or sociology?

From the minute the maga fees were stated I wanted the next line to be about scholarships... If they do have a solid scholarship system I'm all for it, if the don't - MEH!

This ... both points.

[Clinton Huxley]

Wonder if LP has signed up

[Feck]

Humanities ..so nothing Useful at all then .

[HomerJay]

Fourteen leading academics are backing the project and will teach at the university, including historian David Cannadine...

Ah, Grasshopper...

[Clinton Huxley]

I'm really excited about all this

[Atheist-Lite]

Humanities ..so nothing Useful at all then .

Uber-humanities for the wealthy elites.

[Ronja]

I don't know in how many minds I am about this (more than two, though, it seems). Maybe I need to finish my first...

[Rum]

All universities are required to follow certain principles in their 'admissions code' which help (in some very minimal way in my view) with social mobility and access to the best higher education for some of the poorest. So they can't be totally 'outside' the system, though I am sure it is perfectly possible to minimise the impact of the rules.

[PsychoSerenity]

Well that's odd. Not sure I really understand what the point of it is. There are other universities for keeping things traditional - and I'm not convinced that one-to-one tuition would even match up to the everyone-to-everyone possibilities of internet education, if that was properly structured and invested in. There's probably more to the story, but they're going in the wrong direction if you ask me.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Well that's odd. Not sure I really understand what the point of it is. There are other universities for keeping things traditional - and I'm not convinced that one-to-one tuition would even match up to the everyone-to-everyone possibilities of internet education, if that was properly structured and invested in. There's probably more to the story, but they're going in the wrong direction if you ask me.

It's obviously an attempt to force science teaching into the catechism classroom.

[Svartalf]

Humanities ..so nothing Useful at all then .

half of me wants to berate you for the contempt you show for one of the main tools that help make the difference between a real human and a base bipedal brute.

My bank account and lifestyle want me to approve your stance wholeheartedly.