I've always said them that vote Conservative are a stupid l

I think he meant a degree in being a plumb.

The REAL problem is the “university”’s charter

For the past hundred, maybe two hundred years, having a degree in the ‘professions’ was not enough. Doctors cannot practice medicine without a certificate of fitness to practice. Same for dentists. Snd i could go on. Why is this ? Because under a University’s charter, the right to set course syllabi, set and mark exams and award degrees lies purely with the university.

And they are free to teach whatever bollix they like, and award grades in the degree according to whatever rules they set.

Nowhere is this more prevalent or ridiculous than the ‘life sciences’ my own stomping ground. Now some of this is down to pure bigotry but some is simple greed.

As a graduate biochemist i could have entered a number of occupations. My degree entitles me to apply for a licence to make, but not dispense, pharmaceuticals, for example. But only because the course was externally audited by the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry. To DISPENSE pharmaceuticals i need to pass an examination set by the Pharmaceutical Society who externally audit the Pharmacy and Pharmacology degrees offered by various UK institutions and readily accept graduates of those accredited courses without requiring the society’s exam be passed

I take it you see where this is going

About twenty years ago my youngest showed a hankering for forensic science. Knowing from dad’s old school pal what a scam this often is, i told her to go to a specific ‘university’ open day

About fifty years ago now dad’s pal, unimpressed with the idiots turning up to work for him, called a mate at the Royal Society of Chemistry, took him to Treforest Polytechnic and collared the Principal over lunch. He asked that the Poly design a course in Criminal Forensics, to standards he would set himself, and that his RSC mate be given sight of the whole thing. In exchange he would send his wannabe scientists there and no one would get a job in his lab without passing that course.

He did actually make an exception for me and about fifty others whose specialist skills and knowledge he needed from time to time

Twenty years ago a total of thirty eight ‘universities’ offered a forensic science course but only Treforest, UWE Bristol, Plymouth and i think Southampton, awarded degrees with the RSC accreditation and dozens of applicants for jobs at Bernard’s place found out the hard way their degree certificates were yseful only to wipe their arse…..

But the issue here is too many people are still being conned.

One very small point i would make is some of the more lunatic sounding courses are actually MBA’s in some aspect of Business Administration. The degree in ‘surf beach management’ is one such. Whether one NEEDS an MBA in business administration to manage a business us perhaps a different question

What do you want me to do about it?

'University of Bradford' had me confused, not something I had ever heard of before. Apparently it is just the renamed Bradford Institute of Technology - an august organisation I am sure that educates the world business leaders.

And of course at 3am you're quaffing fruit juice, pillock.