In Finland they outlawed private schools. If rich people want to send their kids to good schools, they can invest in the public school system that benefits every student.
Comment on Np fam
MNByChoice@midwest.social 2 days ago
Bringing in “business experts” has been eroding Colleges and Universities for decades. Too much money is going to leadership and not enough to professors (depending on school), postdoctorals, and graduate students.
Universities shouldn’t be businesses.
WuceBrillis@lemm.ee 2 days ago
chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 2 days ago
They’re kinda screwed if they don’t. Universities compete for students. Schools that can’t attract loads of students end up shutting down programs, laying off staff, shrinking, and even closing completely.
Students are applying to a lot of different schools these days. Reach schools and safe schools. There’s all kinds of advice about what schools a student should apply to based on their skills and interests.
Ultimately, once a student gets offers from their applied schools, the final choice can come down to many non-academic factors. How nice is the school’s campus landscaping? How’s student life? How many extracurricular programs are there? How good are the school’s sports teams and facilities?
Education advocates often say none of that stuff should matter, yet if the choice is up to the student it absolutely does matter.
The university I went to is one of the top in my country for the programs I was interested in. It’s long had a reputation for having an ugly, minimalist campus without much to do. The rigour of its academic programs and competitive student body has been reflected in numerous cases of students taking their own lives.
Since I started there (now since graduated but visit often), the school has spent a ton on landscaping and beautifying, constructing beautiful new buildings and renovating old ones. The school now has new gyms, rock climbing walls, and a new food court / study area with lots of tall windows looking onto a green space. There’s also a brand new building for student housing being built as we speak.
And here’s the thing. All the new buildings and programs have new administrative staff. There are more staff than ever running open houses and prospective student tour programs and summer camps for kids. The school is open year round yet through all of these additions and upgrades, enrolment hasn’t increased very much.
And that’s the bottom line. Schools have to spend loads of money just to tread water. Many other schools are losing students outright despite all their spending on upgrades and new staff. These are publicly funded schools, by the way, not private schools.
MisterOwl@lemmy.world 2 days ago
How good are the school’s sports teams
It’s utterly enraging that this has actually become a thing.
chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 2 days ago
These are extremely separate bubbles. Just like Republicans and Democrats, people who are all-in on college sports are practically on a different planet from people who don’t care for college sports. They pretty much don’t associate at all, except perhaps at the dinner table on holidays (such as the infamous Thanksgiving).
I suspect there’s some strong correlations between political affiliation and college sports preferences, but it’s only a hunch, not something I’ve researched.
tamal3@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Vassar football has been undefeated since like 1861!
psud@aussie.zone 1 day ago
Did the new changes affect the suicide rate?
chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I’m not sure exactly. The suicides happened a few times when I was there. I don’t pay as much attention to it now but there have been some cases that made the news.
When I was there and someone took their own life, people protested for better mental health services. I don’t know if they hired more therapists or not since then. My own experience with counselling at school was very positive!
skittle07crusher@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
chronicle.com/…/business-schools-have-no-business…
Sorry, I tried 12ft.io and archive.org but couldn’t find a non-paywalled link
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 2 days ago
this is just like, 96% of organizations
TeddE@lemmy.world 1 day ago
This is correct, for at least the scope of my life - business likes to treat other non-business organizations as simply inferior businesses.