A Beurocratic Education

Today has been a struggle, trying to fight my way through a mess of red tape in an attempt to earn a decent mark for an assignment.  It is times like this that I can almost sympathise with the student protests, why the fuck am I paying so much for such a waist of time?  Whilst most establishments would consider assessing a students work a straight forward part of the education process, my university (which shall remain nameless for now) seems to struggle with this most essential of academic tasks.

It would seem pretty stupid to ask a student to do one thing, whilst on the other hand mark him for another.  A clear definition of expectations is essential in achieving a desired outcome, punishing a student for failing to achieve an outcome which was never specified is just fucking moronic.

However, today I became a victim of such idiotic thinking, my work did not match the undisclosed expectations of my tutor and in an attempt to defend myself I have no doubt done myself even more of a disservice.  I won't bore anyone with the details of the assessment, but this whole experience has made me wonder why the fuck am I accumulating £22,000 worth of debt just for tutors to hinder my progress?

This leads me on to a seldom mentioned benefit of a market based university system, varying prices for differing qualities of education.  If I went shopping for a Tv, car or even a mortgage, I could think about how much I wanted to spend, compare the pros and cons of everything in my price range and purchase the good which best suited my needs.  The same should apply for university education; with varying prices based upon the quality of teaching, demand for the course and the job prospects as a graduate.  Under the current system I pay the same price as an Oxford or Cambridge student yet receive a substantially poorer quality of education.  Does it make any sense that some universities are charging £3200 a year for almost one on one mentoring, yet the same cost is applied to me for a class of 30?  The protesting student should be more concerned as to whether their education is actually worth the cost and whether there should be varying prices for different qualities of education.