Universities in Crisis (part 1)

In this episode, Alan and Jem discuss the crisis in the university sector, mainly in the UK, but in a transatlantic context. We talk about the history of the universities since the mid 20th century and how they have ended up in the current situation, with tens of thousands of staff having been made redundant since 2020 despite astronomical levels of student debt. *A correction on a historical point here: at some point Jem repeats the assertion that the John Major cabinet had fewer graduates of ancient elite universities than Tony Blair’s. This is one of those things that used to get said by journalists or commentators in the 90s that I never bothered to go and check, but after listening back to the episode, I thought to myself ‘that can’t be right’, and it turns out, on checking, that it wasn’t. I think there was this vibe around that this might be true because Major didn’t go to university whereas Blair himself went to private school and Oxford, but the claim as such was completely inaccurate. For more information about Culture, Power, Politics, including information about live events, see culturepowerpolitics.org If you can support us with a small regular donation, please do so here: https://patreon.com/culturepowerpolitics. If you’d like to make a one-time donation, please do so here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/xu2grba5tt Btc donations: bc1q64590fsdzxe7rmfgp7f2jc97v7rp8fr4n0lspf