Imagine a small university where your professors include Richard Dawkins (Evolutionary Biology), Niall Ferguson (Economics), Lawrence Krauss (Cosmology), and Stephen Pinker (Philosophy/Psychology), with the role of Dumbledore played by AC Grayling.
That school is being formed right now and it plans to open in a year:
The New College of the Humanities in central London will offer degrees in English, philosophy, history, economics and law starting from fall 2012.
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“Our priorities at the college will be excellent teaching quality, excellent ratios of teachers to students, and a strongly supportive and responsive learning environment,” said Grayling.
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Courses will be taught in a staff-student ratio of better than 1:10 and students will receive one-on-one tutorials.
I know I love math and all, but that’s the first time I’ve drooled over a ratio.
The downside: it’s a for-profit university (with professors among the shareholders) and the tuition’s ridiculous by UK standards (approximately $29,384 USD):
“At £18,000 a go, it seems it won’t be the very brightest but those with the deepest pockets who are afforded the chance,” said Sally Hunt, general secretary of the lecturers’ association, the University and Colleges Union.
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Aaron Porter, president of the National Union of Students, said the move showed that “an education in humanities from some of the leading thinkers in the world will be restricted to the richest” and that academics would be removed from the public system.
The Guardian states that scholarships “will be granted to one in five of the first 200 students. An endowment fund is being established to try to increase that ratio to one in three.”
Either way, at least you know you’ll be getting a top notch education.
This is the new Ivy League, with the added bonus of being taught by masters in their respective fields and not just an assistant.
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Edit: KerouacCat points this out in the comments: the faculty looks to be a bunch of older white guys. Is that accurate?
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