The ruination of Sheffield - St Vincents

[Dannyno 19]

David Beckham studies surely, and a Master of Arts in surfing.

 

"David Beckham Studies" never existed as a degree. It was Staffordshire University which offered a module about the sociological significance of football (not just David Beckham) to sociology, sports science and media students.

 

Plymouth University has a Surf Science foundation degree in partnership with Cornwall College. The reason for that is pretty obvious: i.e. surfing is big business in the area. So far from being a "Mickey Mouse" course with no connection to the real world, it's precisely designed for a specific industry which employs a lot of people in the local economy.

 

Pretty much all media reports about "Mickey Mouse" courses turn out to be nonsense like this.

 

---------- Post added 14-11-2016 at 00:16 ----------

 

These are Tony Blairs' students - from lower class families who fell for the socialist line just to make them feel 'equal', who were persuaded to go to university (getting into vast amounts of debt) and do courses dreamed up by the levellers in obscure subjects that no employer wants. Hence a lot of students can't get jobs, and official figures show 25% drop out anyway.

 

"Vast amounts of debt"? The loans system is really a kind of tax, because students don't have to pay it back until they are earning a sufficient amount. There are legitimate arguments about funding higher education, but let's at least understand the current system correction.

 

What "obscure" subjects are you talking about?

 

"A lot of students can't get jobs"? The DLHE survey of graduate employment finds about 5% of students not working after graduation. And that could be because at the time of the survey, they were without a job, not necessarily that they had been unemployed the whole time.

 

"official figures show 25% drop out anyway." What official figures? The most recent stats I've found suggest that the number dropping out after their first year is less than 6%, which is the lowest figure "since records began": https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/drop-out-rate-remains-at-record-low/2019319.article

 

There are, admittedly, some universities with drop out rates in the 20%s, the worst being London Met at 29%. The best is Cambridge at 1.4%.

see: http://www.independent.co.uk/student/student-life/Studies/london-metropolitan-and-bolton-university-have-highest-expected-rate-of-student-dropouts-a7011491.html

[Cyclone 10]

I think you might have failed to notice the point of my post before dismissing the made up qualifications as made up.

[AngryLocal 10]

Bang on dannyno.

[Jeddo 10]

"David Beckham Studies" never existed as a degree. It was Staffordshire University which offered a module about the sociological significance of football (not just David Beckham) to sociology, sports science and media students.

 

Plymouth University has a Surf Science foundation degree in partnership with Cornwall College. The reason for that is pretty obvious: i.e. surfing is big business in the area. So far from being a "Mickey Mouse" course with no connection to the real world, it's precisely designed for a specific industry which employs a lot of people in the local economy.

 

Pretty much all media reports about "Mickey Mouse" courses turn out to be nonsense like this.

 

---------- Post added 14-11-2016 at 00:16 ----------

 

 

"Vast amounts of debt"? The loans system is really a kind of tax, because students don't have to pay it back until they are earning a sufficient amount. There are legitimate arguments about funding higher education, but let's at least understand the current system correction.

 

What "obscure" subjects are you talking about?

 

"A lot of students can't get jobs"? The DLHE survey of graduate employment finds about 5% of students not working after graduation. And that could be because at the time of the survey, they were without a job, not necessarily that they had been unemployed the whole time.

 

"official figures show 25% drop out anyway." What official figures? The most recent stats I've found suggest that the number dropping out after their first year is less than 6%, which is the lowest figure "since records began": https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/drop-out-rate-remains-at-record-low/2019319.article

 

There are, admittedly, some universities with drop out rates in the 20%s, the worst being London Met at 29%. The best is Cambridge at 1.4%.

see: http://www.independent.co.uk/student/student-life/Studies/london-metropolitan-and-bolton-university-have-highest-expected-rate-of-student-dropouts-a7011491.html

 

I was quoting drop-out figures quoted by the leftist BBC that very same evening.

 

Mickey Mouse degrees are any courses that cover subjects/jobs you don't need a degree to do, just six months at work would do it, and a bit of common sense. The kind of jobs that featured on the TV show 'Faking It' a few years ago. Where they took people from the street and intensively trained them for a week to fool experts in that field.

.

[nikki-red 307]

Back on topic please.

 

Thank you.

[Ridgewalk 95]

Hi

 

I don't want to get too deep as I'm watching the US elections, but I'll make the following separate comments on what I've read on here so far from various posters:

 

Someone uninformed on here said that there were not people queuing up to look at churches like St Vincent's. You just cannot make such a sweeping assumption! just because you don't know about them. I organised a reunion of my oober large Irish family from all around the world to come to Sheffield, after doing my family tree and tracing all the branches who were thrilled. We're talking a good few hundred people, all bringing money to spend in the city, who were coming to see, amongst other things, St Vincent's church, where all our rellies were baptized and married. We were going to Liverpool too, to see the church there that the earlier rellies were baptized and married at. But that L'pool church HAS BEEN DEMOLISHED for no other reason than progress. This family reunion will go ahead, but was delayed due to a close bereavement of mine. Just because the poster on here doesn't know about the hordes of people who go to visit old churches for whatever reason, doesn't mean these visits don't happen. There are literally thousands of people who visit churches for family historical reasons alone, never mind architectural interest. It brings money to the city and therefore Councils have this in mind when deciding to help save them by whatever means. St Vincent's is part of this city's heritage. I'm not religious myself, so am not arguing from that standpoint, just the heritage standpoint. I'm glad St George's too has been saved because my Gt grandmother married there, and I can still visit it. (Only because she married a Jew and St Vincent's wouldn't marry her!!!) It's sad when people come to their family history late, and find the old buildings that meant so much in their own history have gone because of younger folk with no interest in history when they are young.

 

On student accommodation. I own a property blighted by being next door to two houses and two lots of students packed in like rats by private landlords. You can only stand up at one side of the tiny half attic rooms. These are Tony Blairs' students - from lower class families who fell for the socialist line just to make them feel 'equal', who were persuaded to go to university (getting into vast amounts of debt) and do courses dreamed up by the levellers in obscure subjects that no employer wants. Hence a lot of students can't get jobs, and official figures show 25% drop out anyway. The owner occupiers at either side of them can't sleep because of the noise every night through the walls, have rats invading their homes because of the piles of rubbish in the students' back yards because the bins aren't sufficient to hold the amount created (even with extra bins). Burglars come every October, and every night after, because the rental signs go up in October for the following academic year, telling the burglars what they need to know, and the students leave their curtains open and back doors open. Complaints made to the Council departments take longer than an academic year to process through to completion, due to several 'warnings' given, which the students ignore, and they escape scot free every year, and it all starts again come June. We never get any respite, and if we complain to the students, they make our lives hell when they are drunk, by breaking our security lights, and anything else they can throw stones at. We are thrilled that the students are moving into purpose-built private accommodation in town, and while ever there are private landlords letting to students in between owner-occupied dwellings, there will always be a need for more purpose built accommodation. I was pleased to hear lately on the news that fewer people are applying for university courses in these tin pot, Mickey Mouse subjects, choosing apprenticeships instead. Nothing wrong with a good apprenticeship, we need electricians, plumbers, builders etc

 

For those on here who pontificate about things they actually know nothing about down on the ground, I would say walk a mile in our shoes before commenting.

 

On Sheffield City Council decisions, what can you expect from a bunch of numpties who just want power who have not done anything particularly important in life beforehand. Their view is =if it aint broke - Fix IT

 

 

God forbid that young people from "lower class families" should aspire to a university education, the worlds gone mad don't they realise that Universities are for the higher orders, they should know their place.

 

I was going to observe that the fewer Catholic Churches the better, but I take your point about historical connections and families.

 

I was a pupil at De La Salle college, which was demolished around 1980, I can't believe I wasn't there cheering the demolition people on

[bulldog D 10]

I was a pupil at De La Salle college, which was demolished around 1980, I can't believe I wasn't there cheering the demolition people on

 

 

If my memory serves me correctly the staff and pupils of De La Salle were transferred down to the newly renamed All Saints in 76. Just for the record some of us don't share your opinions. One of the benefits of this was that All Saints inherited some first class staff and on the whole the pupils education benefited. Ingrained into me via this system was fairness, integrity, respect and belief in a universal inclusion, maybe I was one of the lucky ones.

[Margarita Ma 10]

I was a pupil at De La Salle college, which was demolished around 1980, I can't believe I wasn't there cheering the demolition people on

 

 

If my memory serves me correctly the staff and pupils of De La Salle were transferred down to the newly renamed All Saints in 76. Just for the record some of us don't share your opinions. One of the benefits of this was that All Saints inherited some first class staff and on the whole the pupils education benefited. Ingrained into me via this system was fairness, integrity, respect and belief in a universal inclusion, maybe I was one of the lucky ones.

 

You certainly were. I was one of the first intake at All Saints( which was then St Paul's) The school was then streamed which meant Pupils could move from one subject to another according to their ability. However the Teacher in charge of my main class did nothing to encourage us Lower Orders to take the offered GCE, if I remember correctly only one girl put up her hand when we were asked who would like to take the exam. The System(the grammar school 11 plus) had told most of us that we were no hopers. I finally got to university in my late 40s. I do wonder what I would have been doing if I had taken the exams proper and not just the mocks that we were all later forced to do. I got a pass in everything but maths.

To stay on topic. St Vincent's church in my opinion was never a thing of beauty from the outside. I never went inside it myself but used the nearby youth club. The pictures on the internet, of the inside, do not seem to say that it was remarkably different to any other Catholic church. Preserving something that has no function does not seem to make sense if it has no particular architectural interest. Having said that the one objection that I have read is from an Architect's business and they object on the grounds of the proposed height of the buildings surrounding the present one presenting a Right to Light issue for their business which is a technical point. Also there seems to be some discrepancy in the stated heights of other buildings in the area, which is a conservation area and by rights should have buildings "in Keeping" which seems reasonable enough if the character of an area is worth preserving. The question is, Is it worth preserving?

Edited May 14, 2017 by Margarita Ma
Lost internet connection

[SkylinePhoto 10]

If it wasnt for the Universities this city (large town) would be about as vibrant as Rotherham.

 

They have invested hundreds of millions of pounds to make Sheffield attractive to students from the Uk and abroad.

 

Stop moaning

[property4u 10]

You started by saying the university has bought the building and are now saying it's a private company.

 

 

 

The respective football clubs would have to sell their grounds for that to happen. And they'd have to have somewhere to move to first.

 

 

 

Those high rise blocks were hard to let and basically slums. The new blocks being built are infinitely more habitable and aimed at different residents.

 

 

The new blocks being built are infinitely more habitable - really?

 

Those different residents: mainly students

 

As a society, we are unable to stop the tide of developing mass accommodation for students that absolutely must have their own en-suite, a concierge to open the door to collect their takeaways, tiny boxes that are made to look bigger than they are with 'clever' interior design and poorly built. Students who leave mass litter at festivals for someone else to pickup, students who must have the latest trainers, phones, tvs.

Developers know this and they build vastly over-priced boxes. It allows the economy to grow with no regard for the environment, longevity, a richness of life. It is all a big con that simply isn't sustainable, but let's all have it while we can!

 

---------- Post added 28-05-2017 at 11:57 ----------

 

If it wasnt for the Universities this city (large town) would be about as vibrant as Rotherham.

 

They have invested hundreds of millions of pounds to make Sheffield attractive to students from the Uk and abroad.

 

Stop moaning

 

Well, the university and the council have sold out to the Chinese, watch this space.

[Cyclone 10]

In what way have they "sold out"?

[Bargepole23 337]

The new blocks being built are infinitely more habitable - really?

 

Those different residents: mainly students

 

As a society, we are unable to stop the tide of developing mass accommodation for students that absolutely must have their own en-suite, a concierge to open the door to collect their takeaways, tiny boxes that are made to look bigger than they are with 'clever' interior design and poorly built. Students who leave mass litter at festivals for someone else to pickup, students who must have the latest trainers, phones, tvs.

Developers know this and they build vastly over-priced boxes. It allows the economy to grow with no regard for the environment, longevity, a richness of life. It is all a big con that simply isn't sustainable, but let's all have it while we can!

 

---------- Post added 28-05-2017 at 11:57 ----------

 

 

Well, the university and the council have sold out to the Chinese, watch this space.

 

You seem very anti towards students, why is that?