British universities. Are they really so good?

Chapter 7. British universities. Are they really so great?. Hello, my name is Tomasz Uliński and you're listening to yet another chapter of Your Not-So-Great Britain. Our guest today is professor Jan Culić, who is a lecturer in Czech at the School of Modern Languages and Cultures in Glasgow University. Hello. Hello. Chciałbym porozmawiać z wami o brytyjskich uniwersytetach, ponieważ mają takie wspaniałe, legendarne opinie o tym, że są najlepsi.

So this is one important thing. However, there is a major problem, which is some years ago already British politicians Introduced probably under the influence of the situation in the United States, student fees I w innych europejskich krajach, pomyślmy o Niemczech na przykład, ale nawet w różnych krajach Nowej Europy, krajach jak Czechia czy nawet Polska, gdzie uniwersytety są fundowane przez państwa, ale w rzeczywistości USA

And the universities are basically forced in the United Kingdom to shape whatever they are doing to attract as large as possible influx of money. And so basically, I could even say maybe provocatively, Names mentioned, that the universities in the United Kingdom are not really free, because they are kind of enslaved by this commercial aspect. Primarily they are doing basically what is sort of determined by money. That's what I wanted to ask, because as you look at the universities, Tak jak powiedziałeś, są to prywatne firmy, które muszą znaleźć się w tej ekonomii rynku.

We also know that Poland and Hungary and to a lesser extent post communist countries like the Czech Republic are suffering with populism and kind of incipient authoritarianism maybe. Podczas komunizmu, przed 1989, british universities knew full well, and of course commercialism still didn't run these universities, that it was strategically important for the United Kingdom to Names mentioned, Names mentioned, Names mentioned, Names mentioned,

Dealing with Central and Eastern European Europe at British universities on an equal footing seems to be missing. But of course all this commercialism isn't affecting only East European languages, but of course there are universities, some of the universities in England, Have really financial problems, because the collection of student fees does not always work properly. And there are some universities that are kind of in the red, quite substantially. And what happens is that there are tendencies in some universities to close down humanity subjects.

Now I don't know Wielu ludzi w Anglii jest świadomy, że w Szkocji, gdzie edukacja jest rozwinięta, studenci nie płacą pieniędzy studentów. Tylko studenci postgradujący płacą pieniądze studentów. Mówię o lokalnych uczelniach, takich jak szkocki, prawda? Było takie prawo, przed tym, jak Zjednoczenie Zjednoczonej Brytanii opuściło Unię Europejską. Students from the European Union had to study both in England and in Scotland under exactly the same conditions that home students. So while universities of England charged students from the European Union

It is absolutely outrageous because this is one of the things which is really, really important for students throughout the European Union that they go and spend time at other universities in other countries and that has been deprived Studenci w UK są absolutnie odzyskani od tego. Mężczyźni oczywiście są odzyskani z powodu Brexitu, odzyskani od prawa do pracy w europejskich krajach. To jest wyjątkowe, tak. Ale to też prowadzi do tego, że akademickie społeczeństwo brytyjskie staje się bardziej izolowane. Niemiecki Uniwersytet Europejski. Studenci nie przychodzą tutaj. Studenci nie wychodzą na Erasmus.

Now, as you said, the universities are commercialized and the funds are being tightened. There is this problem, especially with younger academics, like on PhD level or slightly above, that they are really struggling to survive, because they cannot get long-term contracts, they are constantly struggling. Nie są dobrze zapłaceni i nie wiedzą, czy będą pracować w następnym semestrze. To bardzo wpływa na jakość nauczania. Nie mówię o strachach w Glasgow i innych uniwersytetach z tego powodu. I would say that this commercialization of the academia not only impacted the teaching quality in the ways we discussed already, but also in that the lower paid academics have no longer that much time to

Wśród innych rzeczy, są odbywające się strzały przez Unię Zjednoczonego, ponieważ Unia wymaga, aby to się ulepszyło. Muszę powiedzieć, że brytyjskie uniwersytety są przeciwko Brexitu. Brexit for the UK universities is a really, really serious problem. Now, this of course concerns maybe, well, it concerns the international cooperation in research Research programs. There is this problem that the Horizon program, which exists to enable European and it used to be also UK academics to cooperate on international grants.

Ponieważ dokładnie salariusz tego czeskiego dyrektora jest zapłacony przez rząd czeski, to jest powodem, dlaczego oficja domowa brytyjskiego nie pozwala tym dyrektorom przyjechać do tego kraju, a oni nie będą im dawać permitu pracy. Więc nie będę zaskoczył słuchaczom o tym. To był niesamowity problem. We really spent a lot of time to overcome this and similarly there have been problems with lecturers from Spain, from France, from other countries. This is just one issue which Brexit has created insurmountable problems for UK universities and it is a source of incredible frustration and wasting a lot of energy and time on trying to solve these problems.

Brexit has created serious problems and has basically thrown British universities into isolation. Of course, supporters of Brexit kind of think that middle classes in the United Kingdom are the sort of W tej konspiracji przeciwko Brexitu są ludzie, którzy nie rozumieją zwykłych ludzi, takich jak w wschodniej Anglii, którzy głosowali za Brexitu. Oczywiście, tak jak mówię i powtarzam, niektóre uniwersytety brytyjskie wiedziały, że Brexitu byłoby dla nich zniszczeniem. Chciałbym troszkę zmienić temat i do końca zapytać Cię o coś z perspektywy studentów, ponieważ jest powiedziane, że jeśli wygradujesz z Oxfordu, będziesz miał problemy w znalezieniu dobrej pracy itd.

To wygląda na to, że to działa, ale oczywiście niektórzy studenci nie są świadomi tego. Britain is a class-ridden society, so it may well be that some people will be more successful when getting a job because of, say, the connections of their parents or whatever, but I have no experience of this. On the whole our graduates have been quite successful in getting sort of employment and they come from all walks of life. Ok, so in general Możemy powiedzieć, że british universities had problems even before Brexit and they were mostly due to the commercializations, but now the Brexit is really making everything harder for them.

Would that be the right assessment? Well, it has contributed to the isolation of the whole country and of course universities should be a major kind of, I don't know, Names mentioned, Names mentioned, Names mentioned, Names mentioned. Names mentioned.

Names mentioned, Names mentioned, For free in German universities, even if you are a foreigner from abroad. The Germans know very well how important Names mentioned, Names mentioned, Names mentioned,

Names mentioned, Names mentioned, By inviting foreigners to study. But just really to finish, we try to finish every chapter of our podcast with some advice for Britons what can be done to improve the subject of each chapter. And you already mentioned that in your opinion basing universities on fee paying students maybe not the greatest idea. Can you think of anything else that would make British universities greater, better?