[jknz]

> The loss of arts and social sciences would be a catastrophe for the academic world.

But a blessing for most students who need a job to pay their student debts after graduation. Sacrificing art students by taking their tuition knowing no or too few jobs exist is unacceptable. Keeping social sciences and art departments alive should require a source of money that does not create non-dischargeanle student debts and jobless students.

[alpha_squared]

That, to me, sounds like an argument for funding trade schools and raising their status in society so they're considered more often. As I understand it, a university education was never intended to be a gateway to employment, yet it became one as a byproduct of how we as a society talked about it. I was told countless times in adolescence how much of an income gap existed between those with a college degree and those that didn't have one.

Software development, for example, very much falls under a trade, else there wouldn't be so many bootcamps that both feed into the industry and simultaneously take advantage of those who don't know better. There's no prestigious trade school that I'm aware of that produces consistently competent software developers. That's just one example, but I'd love to see more trade schools supported and elevated as a path to career employment.

[nemo44x]

> As I understand it, a university education was never intended to be a gateway to employment

It also wasn't intended for middle class people of average intelligence. Consider, before WW2 only about 10% of people attended college. You either came from money or you were a rather bright person. Today it is an employment gateway. People mainly attend to "get a good job", not for the pursuit of higher knowledge and "finishing". For those of humble origins that want to use it to discover themselves or become an "intellectual", well enjoy the 100k debt while slinging lattes.

[seanmcdirmid]

> There's no prestigious trade school that I'm aware of that produces consistently competent software developers.

MIT? At least, it was accused of being a trade school toward the beginning of its history:

> These reforms were largely a response to Walker's on-going defense of the Institute and its curriculum from outside accusations of overwork, poor writing, unapplicable skills, and status as a "mere" trade school.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Massachusetts_I...

These days, one might think of U Waterloo as filling the role of a prestigious trade school given the focus they put on their co-op program. Which I mean in a positive light, of course.