Friday 29 April 2011

I'VE BEEN AMAZONED

Yesterday my daughter was walking through Oxford town centre when she received a call on her mobile from Amazon. (US? UK? Germany? France? We do not know.) The caller, with an Irish accent, demanded she give him my mobile number.

'We've sent him two emails - we need a reply,' the caller said.

My daughter, a little fazed by this bizarre contact and its timing, refused to give them my number. She doesn't know my mobile number by heart (and neither do I), and didn't see it was her business to help other, unidentified, persons meddle in mine.

Today she hands in her thesis. You can imagine her state of heightened sensibilities. Three years of intense study - collections imminent and finals looming. And there was Amazon hassling her - on the High Street - as she enjoyed a rare few carefree moments.

How did Amazon get her mobile number? I have never given it to them. I have never given them my mobile number (which is why, the caller said, they were asking her for it).

And, then I remembered. Two years ago I ordered a book for her from Amazon France - I must have given her number as a contact in case ... in case. Hang on ... she's changed her phone and number at least three times since then.

'Tell yer da' to contact us,' the caller said.
'Give me your number and I'll tell him to contact you,' my daughter replied.
'I can't give out our number ...'
 
To be continued .....

Tuesday 5 April 2011

Let's Eat Art

Called into an exhibition at La Pedrera, you know, as you do, on the way home from work, the other day.

Really glad I did.

As I say,  just turned up - no expectations - and woah!

When you have chance you must go see this exhibition.

There's work by Picasso, Dalí, Juan Gris, Ben Nicholson, Joan Brossa, Joseph Beuys, Piero Manzoni, Richard Hamilton, Daniel Spoerri, Sarah Lucas, Sam Taylor-Wood, Gordon Matta-Clark, Martin Parr, Miquel Barceló, and that Belgian surrealist whose name always slips me (Marcel Broodthaers), and short films by Chantal Akerman, Werner Herzog and Marina Abramović.

However, for me, turning up off the street, not knowing nothing, the section comprised of still-lifes was a revelation. Incredible. So vivid - so full of life. One of the works - Kitchen Corner by Spanish artist Vicente Victoria (1650-1709) - is so fresh it would not look out of place on the cover of a contemporary culinary or gourmet magazine.

I was so taken by the exhibition I've since re-visited it four times - each time finding something new, something worth lingering over.

Though the whole exhibition builds to a premature celebration - or artistic endorsement - of the much lauded chef, Ferran Adrià -  it is a fascinating show.

I'll be going back.

The exhibition runs until June 26th. The exhibition is open from 10am to 8pm EVERY DAY. Admission is FREE.

The image of pomegrantes above is called Epitaph, created in 1996 by Antonio Girbés, born in Valencia in 1952. Click on his name and check out four amazing photo galleries of his work.

Friday 1 April 2011

English University Funding: A simple, workable all-round win-win solution

Undergraduates who have had the benefit of a private or independent secondary education should pay FULL market-rate fees (i.e. cost plus margin) plus a contribution to a bursary fund.

Cambridge £60,000 per annum. That'll do nicely, thank you, sir.

Oxford £72,000 per annum. Thanks, m'lord.



Undergraduates who go to University via a state education, i.e. five consecutive years attendance at a publicly funded secondary school, should pay NOTHING (and receive a stipend).
Yasta.
Problem solved.

Why should the State subsidise the academic aspirations of the wealthy?
If members of Oxford's dining club, the Bullingdon, can afford to spray fellow students with £400 bottles of French champagne then I'm sure they (or their parents) can find the wherewithal to properly pay their way.

The real-life consequences of this policy could prompt a rush of middle-class parents to enrol their kids into middling along secondary schools, thus dragging up standards in classrooms, and also prompt prospective undergrads from wealthy backgrounds to look to ensconce themselves in U.S. Ivy League universities or at comparable, distinguished European universities. This, of course, would in turn prompt the press to howl about a brain-drain.

In fact, there is already something of a brain-drain in process. Last year more than 22,000 UK nationals signed up to universities in Europe. The UK press seems remarkably quiet about the phenomenon. Why? Well, it's mainly students from working-class backgrounds taking the initiative. Courses are cheaper, accommodation is cheaper, public transport cheaper, health and welfare services more efficient, and the quality of life generally much better. And, they get to graduate without a debt the size of a mortgage hanging over them.

An unanticipated consequence of the new fees regime has been to stimulate a rise in the number of european universities offering a range of undergraduate and post-graduate courses delivered wholly in English and targetting English learners. I know, I teach on such a course. The students I teach each pay €5,400 (£4,750 give or take a few quid) for an MA.

You may think this solution a product of old style class-warrior thinking -- but think it through -- it's a win-win solution.
Over the medium to long-term such a policy would probably kickstart a few private universities into being - allowing middle-class undergrads to maintain their distance from the oiks. Teachers will have a choice of employer and terms and conditions (and avoid the ridiculous national requirements for teachers to have qualifications in unrelated disciplines). Recruiters will be able to target more clearly.

Some will call this educational apartheid, others will welcome this as a sign of maturity of the market in higher education. Even Portugal, the so-called economic basket-case of Europe, has more than 10 private universities and Spain, 20. The UK, France, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands could be said to be over-dependant on an exclusively public higher education system. While in Poland (the 6th largest higher education system in the European Union, with 1.9 million students) the rise of the private university sector has been dramatic - there are now more than 330 private institutions in the higher education sector.

And, in the UK? The singular instance of the University of Buckingham does not comprise a sector.

So, what do you think? Am I barking mad, or misinformed? Is my logic faulty? Is my analysis, and prognosis, misguided?

In the interests of disclosure - Between 1980 and 1983 the local authority paid my tuition fees and paid me a full maintenance grant for my first degree. In 1984 I paid  £3,000 for an MA from a publicly funded university - approximately £8,000 in today's money, and received no assistance whatsoever from the State. My daughter is currently studying PPE at Oxford, and my son is studying Anthropology and Philosophy at Manchester. I am occasionally employed by a private university and a public-private teaching foundation.

BTW the image is of Glasgow University - by pixelsandpaper