Posted on 04/22/2011 12:08:44 AM PDT by Niuhuru
Students face a £50,000 bill for a three-year degree from next year because of increased tuition fees and the rising cost of living.
Current undergraduates pay £31,373 at an elite Russell Group university, which will increase by 55 per cent to an average £48,503 in 2012.
The most expensive courses – because of costly university accommodation – are those in London.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
You don’t even have to do that.
Essentially all our knowledge is in books and online.
If you want to know about something, you can teach yourself.
When your business gets big enough, you can hire others with the needed talents where you direct and delegate the overall work.
The problem is, that like it or not, we have created a society where one must pay admission to play the game at a certain level.
And the price of that admission is a college degree. More often than not any degree will do, you just have the sheepskin...
There are far too many jobs that just require a degree, any degree... even though 99% of what you need to know to do the job will be taught to you after you are hired.
But its just that way, you want that job you’ll pay for admission, by getting a degree.
Personally I think college is completely unnecessary for 75% of those who are going.
This guy started his own business.
He doesn’t need a degree to do so.
If you really want to succeed, you do it yourself. It is very rare to do so as an employee.
I’ve been a successful engineer for nearly 30 years. I’ve not spent a day in college.
Nobody questions the rising cost of higher education. The private university my husband attended has raised tuition 100% in 13 years. Even state schools are way up. You’d be investigated for price gouging in any other industry.
Then we have a financial aid system that takes our money and gives it to those that didn’t plan or save for school. We’re going to have to come up with all the cash to pay for my children’s education, but my neighbor saved nothing, spent everything and her daughter gets full aid. The girls want to be roommates at a certain school, but I don’t know if we can afford it.
If you're not good enough to get a scholarship, you'd better be good enough to go to a trade school.
If you're not good enough or have the money to get into trade school, you better be physically fit.
Time to take responsibility and......
Deal with it.
In Canada, you would not be legally allowed to call yourself an "engineer", nor would you be legally allowed to practice as one. Each province in Canada has an official government sanctioned body (Associations or Orders) controlling the profession of engineering. The primary requirement is to have an engineering degree (an "Iron Ring")from an accredited university, and to pass the various requirements and exams of, for example, The Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario, or the Order of Engineers of Quebec, etc. The rules are stringently applied, and for good reason....it all boils down to the protection of the public.
I don't know your particulars and cannot comment, but I do know how I spent my 35-year engineering career under the laws of Canada.
My son went to his last class last night for his Bachelor in Business.
The best gift my wife and I could have ever given him is for him to graduate college and not owe a dime.
It’s called Florida’s prepaid college program.
About 48 dollars a month from the time he was one.
The cost of Administrative overhead and professors’ salaries needs to be visited as we have visited the cost of government.
These ivory tower elitists need to be brought into line with the rest of society.
These costs are outrageous.
I paid $400 per semester for full courses back in the 1960s.
A good reason not to live in Canada then.
The Wright brothers were engineers by any standard of the word but Canada would deny them calling themselves engineers or doing the work of an engineer?
Was Thomas Edison and engineer?
There are many other examples in history...
Has Bill Gates ever acted as a software engineer? No degree... They would stop him from doing it?
A degree does not make the engineer nor even prove competence. The individual does.
I’ll assume you are speaking of civil engineering which is different than many other fields of engineering.
I’ll add that I own my own business with two other partners in San Jose where we design, manufacture and sell high tech communications equipment all over the world. Neither partner nor I live in San Jose as we are free to live where we want.
The costs are outrages because people pay them and government often subsidizes them.
Stop paying those prices and stop the government from subsidizing them and prices will come down to compete for your business.
I read an article once on the amount of money these Universities make and it’s absolutely mind boggling. Multi-multi BILLIONS every single year. And the reason they make that money is because they can! It’s as simple as that. There is no lack of customers, so they will charge that $50,000 tution. No skin off their nose. And that’s if they LET you attend their school!
In Canada, it's quite simple. You must have a professional engineer sign and stamp all engineering drawings. It's a legal requirement, just as similar requirements apply for an architect, or a chemical engineer, or a mechanical engineer. It's the way it is.
I didn't make the laws, but many years ago I wanted to be an Electrical Engineer. The quickest way was to get my BScEE (in Canada, 5 years), then spend the apprenticeship, and only then be allowed to claim yourself an Engineer, be allowed to write "P.Eng." or "ing." after your name, and work as an Engineer.
It's a grueling process. In my first year, there were 350 students; when I graduated, there were 46 EE's. The process is an attempt to filter out incompetance and produce engineers as efficiently and effectively as possible. On rare occasions a rotten apple will slip through, but they won't last long, because it's even more grueling in industry than it is in school.
I don't know if it should be like this, but it is. So I buckled down and went through it, because I wanted to be a Professional Engineer and perform significant work. And I did. I'm retired now, but would do it all over again in an instant.
God bless!
“The problem is, that like it or not, we have created a society where one must pay admission to play the game at a certain level.”
That is so true and many people pay a major price for that. Student loan debt, years of dull schoolwork, the artificial prolonging of childhood.
It is "just that way" for a reason. Political correctness.
That is a ridiculous statement. You cannot be a certified professional engineer in ANY state without a BS degree and passing the EIT exam. You may be doing technical work but please don't call yourself an engineer.
“In Canada, all Engineering comes under the umbrella of a “profession”, likewise medicine, nursing, architects, etc. Similarly, you can’t call yourself a “doctor” or a “nurse” in Canada if you don’t have the credentials. “
It is the same in the US. The problem, particularly in engineering, is that it is regulated by individual states. There is no smooth mechanism for reciprocity between states - and it is really just a fee-extracting exercise.
Engineering boards do not care about the profession in the US - and so they do not enforce standards consistently and do not keep up with technological developments.
Try hanging out your shingle as a doctor or a lawyer or CPA - you won’t last two weeks before you are fined and threatened with criminal prosecution if you do not stop.
Unfortunately, the engineering profession, while covered by statute and law like other professions, we are not respected because many people think they can “prove themselves” without experiencing the academic rigor required to become an engineer. They point to Bill Gates, or whomever - very successful people and businessmen, but they do not get to call themselves “Engineer” - because they are not Engineers.
This is the way it is done - for no other reason than to know who is responsible when something goes wrong. Some one has to say “I’m responsible”.
If we want to build bridges, buildings, machines, and power plants without consideration for how it is done, then we can dispense with the title. If we don’t, the various state regulatory entities should take the profession seriously, make it easier for truly qualified folks to cross state lines, and adapt the profession to fast-growing technology.
Right now we’re in a sort of professional limbo as engineers. If someone objects that it is unreasonable that they cannot legally be called an “engineer” - they may have a point, because those that regulate the profession, through their actions (or inaction), show they do not care to do anything but collect fees for licensing.
Right now the legal term “engineer” lacks the prestige of other professions (but still has some prestige or unqualified people would not seek out the title) and stands to identify who gets sued if something goes wrong.
I still recommend engineers pursue the professional credentials, but I increasingly ask “why”?
Think before you speak.
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