In the UK, the American coffee bar chain Starbucks, is now offering to pay the fees for employees to pursue an online bachelor's degree. There are a few reasonable terms attached to the offer, including that you must remain an employee if you want to finish your degree. The university providing the online teaching and the degree is perfectly respectable.
Is this a good innovation?
The university is Arizona State.
If you leave Starbucks employment you can, of course, still finish your degree. But they will stop paying your fees. This seems fair enough.
Christopher NOCK
Well, I make no claim about it being new, neither do Starbucks. They have run the same programme in the US for quite a while now. As you suggest, there's similar programmes offered by other companies as well.
What's interesting about this one is not that it's unique. Rather, it's offering an education that's not directly related to the employment. It's offering general education that other citizens undertake as well. It also seems to be offering it to people who otherwise would miss out on a university education.
Not long ago no one in the UK would have expected the person serving them in a cafe to have a degree unless they working at holiday time, or doing it temporarily. This, however, changes the rules entirely. To that extent it maybe unusual, if not unique. ITT might even be considered exciting, especially for those taking part.
Thanks for your swift response.
NOCK
In the United States there is a tradition among the non-monied classes to work their way through the university. Education in the United States is a means to social advancement. On-line university programs grant access to those students who would not otherwise have it. Other programs exist, such as joining the army or air force national guard. They pay 100% of all books and tuition. In the US student loans are also available, but that can turn into a financial trap. Some students graduate with $100,000 in debt for an undergraduate degree. It can take decades to pay back. Many students are opting to seek alternative means to pay for their educations. Not all of our parents were born rich. My father worked his way through Oklahoma City University waiting tables. He graduated in 1940. It allowed him to get a good job. The GI bill allowed him to go to graduate school at the University of Kansas after WWII. Not much has changed since then. I finished my undergraduate degree using my GI bill in the mid-1970's. My employers paid for much of my graduate and post graduate work. My 4 son's education was paid for by the US military. Working your way through is a viable way to avoid the student loan trap.
The same is true in the UK these days. Generally for us it's a retrograde step. If everyone has a degree, poor quality ones are rendered useless in terms of careers. You then just might need a degree to serve coffee....
But still valuable for personal development. Better a learned coffee shlocker than Plato uneducated, or something like that.
While I agree that poor quality college degrees do not get you as far as Ivy league ones, in the US many of the state run universities offer on-line degrees(my own included). The degree doesn't say on-line. It says Indiana State University, University of Central Missouri or Arizona State University. By the way, last I looked Arizona State University was the primary educational outlet for the Starbuck's college program in the US. That is no slouch school!
Yes, I'm happy for you to make this known to those unfamiliar with American ways. I am fully aware of them having taught many Americans for many years enrolled in Oxford University Summer Schools. Some rich, some poor most middle class. But, of course, you claim not to have a "class system" imagining the British one to be imposed when it is merely a tool of explanation for inequality.
I have little faith in the notion that degrees for everyone is a good thing in terms of employment and betterment. I tend to think that, for the many, it's a path to misery. Failed to get a degree? Failure! Failed to get a job with a degree? Failure! No doubt they help in some lives, but not as much as daddy buying you a Harvard degree and putting you in contact with Donald, or Ronald, or whoever....
The American faith in something like equal opportunities quite shocks me. You live in an society with so little over it, as car as we can tell.
NOCK
Sorry! "You live in a society with so little of it, as far as we can tell."
NOCK
Don't kid yourself, America has a class system.It is primarily based around power and money. Although I think money dominates. It just seems more fluid than the European one. However, that works both ways. You can go down too. The idea of a degree for everyone is unworkable. We need plumbers, electricians, and welders too. Many of the "skilled trades" actually pay more than some of the "white collar" jobs.
I'm not kidding myself, I'm saying many Americans kid themselves, not you apparently. Good.
But American propaganda is very powerful, some people here believe it. They voted Brexit and think we'll be better off in Donnie's wonderland!we won't.
I think there's more socio-economic movement here than in America. Americans I know who choose to live here feel the same. Still, I'm sure Brits living there feel the opposite. On another thread about "socialism" and healthcare I have given my personal opinion on why I couldn't live in America. It's an interesting thread that has turned into a pro social medicine cabal (Europe and Cuba) hanging up a little on the US. Unfortunate, but it's heartfelt....
NOCK
I love my country. I fought for it. I still believe in America. However, there are over 320 million of us here. We are not all alike in every aspect. We have different talents, strengths and desires. Before I became a professor, I was a cop for 30 years in an urban law enforcement agency. I was a soldier before that. This gave me a little different view of humanity. The propaganda says we are the melting pot. In reality, we are the stew pot. In the stew pot a potato does not become a carrot. But they instead flavor each other as a part of the stew. Each group that comes here adds to the stew and we all eat. By working together we make the country work and have for over two and a half centuries. As to Breixit, I don't know. That issue is up to you folks over there. We have a problem here at our own southern border.
Interesting article in the Chicago Tribune asking does where you go to college really matter.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-ceos-illinois-where-went-to-college-20190327-story.html#nws=true
- Badges
- Science method
- Similar topics
- Teaching