'AC Grayling's private university is odious' - Terry Eagleton

[Filuwaúrdjan]

'The money-grubbing dons signing up at the £18k a year New College of the Humanities are the thin edge of an ugly wedge'

Eagleton nails it, methinks. It's worth reading the whole piece in full as it's an absolutely glorious rant and is so true.

Anyways, most of the names involved in this dubious project come as no particular surprise, though one or two really ought to know better.

[Gustaf]

I've read a bit of AC Grayling in the Prospect and I've always been a bit skeptical of the guy.

[Linus Van Pelt]

According to the list on the college's website the "professoriate" whose names are being used to sell the college consists of fourteen famous people, most of whom have not resigned from their current positions This other Guardian article, meanwhile, reports:

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Dividing 110 by 14, we get that the average professor will teach ... fewer than 8 lectures per year. Nice work if you can get it. So the vaunted "one-on-one tutorials" will be taught by yet-unknown staff of uncertain contract status of whom there is no reason to believe that they will be more distinguished than the average normally-priced British university.

Also, to be filed under "you mean you shouldn't start a competitor to your current employer without authorization?", Birkbeck yesterday issued the following hilariously short-and-sweet press release:

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[Insula Dei]

Hahahaha AC Grayling hahahaha

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Good piece over at Crooked Timber: http://crookedtimber.org/2011/06/06/if-youre-an-egalitarian-how-come-youre-trying-to-sell-an-undergraduate-arts-degree-that-costs-more-than-an-mba/