Sometimes Ciro Santilli regrets not having done a PhD. But this section makes him feel better about himself. To be fair, part of the merit is on him, part of the reason he didn't move on was the strong odour of bullshit oozing down to Masters level. A good PhH might have opened interesting job opportunities however, given that you don't really learn anything useful before that point in your education.
twitter.com/togelius/status/1584611702691483648:
The "real world" is full of people who couldn't make it in academia.
I failed in academia by Andy Stapleton (2021)
Source. 6 Dirty Tactics Found In Academia & Universities by Andy Stapleton (2022)
Source. Rise to the Top: The Habits and Mindset of Top 0.1% PhD Students by Andy Stapleton (2023)
Source. 
Profzi scheme by PhD Comics
. A Ponzi scheme that trains people in new skills is not necessarily a terrible thing. It is a somewhat more useful version than standard exam based education.
Perhaps the problem is "forcing" 35 year olds to go down that path when they might also want to have boring stuff like families and security.
If people could get to the PhD level much, much sooner, it wouldn't be as obscene: Section "Students must be allowed to progress as fast as they want".
My dream died, and now I'm here by Sabine Hossenfelder (2024)
Source. This is a version of free gifted education but more focused on university.
This is Ciro Santilli's ideal university system. It is a system that actually lives up to the name "Open University":
- no enrolment, no prerequisites. Exam as a service examination style, likely free to anyone who wants to take them, only to determine:
- who gets to use physical facilities, notably laboratories
- which students do you want to pick as apprentices/workers/PhDs
- no tuition fees: free gifted education
- school must offer free accommodation for students
- force teachers to publish their teaching material with an open license
- how to teach
Related:
- reallyopenuniversity.wordpress.com/what-is-the-rou/
Apparently Leeds based. Focused only on student fees seemingly, not how to solve it with tech/efficiency:
So far as of the early 2020's, the university that comes closest to some but not all of these principles is the University of the People. It's sad that it's such a crappy unknown thing, but it is what it is.
You just have to spend a few minutes with students until they complain about the courses or teachers. And you just have to spend a few hours with teachers until they complain about the students or broader system.
University is broken, and everyone knows it. The only question now is finding a viable, "political cash flow positive" path, into something better.
Bibliography:
- academeblog.org/2022/10/05/american-universities-are-going-to-implode/ American Universities Are Going to Implode (2022) by www.linkedin.com/in/jsgabin/
- theimaginativeconservative.org/2020/04/higher-education-implode-alexander-zubatov.html Higher Education Is About to Implode by Alexander Zubatov (2020)
- 2024-05-28 www.theguardian.com/education/article/2024/may/28/i-see-little-point-uk-university-students-on-why-attendance-has-plummeted ‘I see little point’: UK university students on why attendance has plummetedGive it to me, baby. OurBigBook incoming.
"There’s a bit of a feeling that there is just box-ticking going on [among students], and getting a degree at the end of it."