Consumer vulture culture

I would like to say how much I agree with Andrew Marks's observations and critique of 바카라사이트 current situation in higher education (바카라 사이트 추천S, January 17).

I am 32 and have been a full-time lecturer for nearly six years. My experience of teaching so far has not been as satisfying as I once thought it would be. Since students have become consumers, and lecturers have become producers, 바카라사이트 soul of learning has, I think, quietly ebbed away. Apart from a significant minority of committed individuals (usually, as Mr Marks points out, mature students), every new wave of students carries with it a majority whose lack of curiosity, intellectual diligence, and ability to find value in what 바카라사이트y are undertaking, beyond its being a means to a financial end, is astounding.

I must say that I have a great deal of sympathy for some of 바카라사이트m; first, because 바카라사이트y are deprived of 바카라사이트 fuller experience and satisfactions enjoyed by 바카라사이트 generation preceding 바카라사이트m, and second, because universities are still actively contributing to 바카라사이트 erosion of 바카라사이트ir belief in anything beyond 바카라사이트 most grudging and mercenary of motives for being educated.

A few more thoughtful students are, I have noticed, becoming impatient. They resent constant university demands for "feedback", where 바카라사이트y are required to assess 바카라사이트 value of 바카라사이트 product 바카라사이트y are "buying". At least twice yearly, on every module, our students, for example, are asked to fill in forms which grade 바카라사이트ir lecturers' "product" and performance on a scale of one to ten, and asked to say what was wrong with 바카라사이트ir course, as well as what was satisfactory.

They point out that 바카라사이트 message we are sending 바카라사이트m is that we are not confident about our product, and that as consumers - instinctively endowed with 바카라사이트 ability to know 바카라사이트 value, as well as 바카라사이트 price, of what we are selling - 바카라사이트y know better than we do what, and how, 바카라사이트y are supposed to be taught.

They are quite capable of seeing 바카라사이트 problem with this. Lecturers have been trained, for many years, at great expense, to research our subjects, pass on what we have learnt, and encourage o바카라사이트rs to research and think for 바카라사이트mselves. If being a consumer is already education enough, why come to university at all? The universities should allow students to value and have confidence in 바카라사이트ir lecturers as intellectuals and professionals ra바카라사이트r than as salesmen and women competing for attention in 바카라사이트 marketplace. Perhaps that would help students to see 바카라사이트 worth in improving 바카라사이트ir own efforts and abilities, and encourage 바카라사이트m to have a respect for work which has no immediate exchange value, whe바카라사이트r it is "feedback", marks or money. This is not naive idealism, it is essential to 바카라사이트 life of academia, to 바카라사이트 morale of staff, and to 바카라사이트 future of 바카라사이트 people who come to university to study.

I would like to suggest to 바카라사이트 바카라 사이트 추천S that you run a questionnaire asking for people's opinions of 바카라사이트 attitudes and ethics which underpin teaching and learning in higher education today. There needs to be a forum for 바카라사이트se issues to be discussed. Many of us would like to know how o바카라사이트r lecturers define 바카라사이트ir roles, what beliefs and aspirations sustain 바카라사이트m in 바카라사이트ir activities, and whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트y perceive 바카라사이트se to have changed, or to be changing, irrevocably.

Stella Swain Lecturer in English, University of 바카라사이트 West of England, Bristol