New DCU Masters tackle ICT Skills Gap

by another concerned reader Sat Jun 09, 2012 11:41

Yes by all means go into post graduate courses with your eyes open. However just because you end up in a university department which also accepts funding from BAE does not mean your own personal beliefs are necessarily compromised. For example, Yassamine Mather is a respected activist who manages to continue her campaign for the people of Iran against both foreign imperialist attacks on Iranian people and the repressive regime itself, whilst holdng down a position in Glagsgow university which happens to accept some funding from BAE.

Indeed most universities accept dubious corporate funding, be it from weapons companies, chemical sociopathic giants like Dow, responsible for bhopal, GM companies like monsanto or syngenta, or nasty oil companies like shell. It's hard to find a university that actually doesn't these days. So working in a university is, by it's very nature an exercise in putting up with unpleasant bedfellows trying to get some of their research paid for by the state as externalities. It's a creeping insidious phenomenon.

Often it's a case of tolerating this creeping influence or starting a totally new career from scratch outside academia. A very difficult choice indeed, having studied your subject for so long to get a position in the first place.

by concerned reader Sat Jun 09, 2012 11:15

A lot of young people starting university later this year will not be aware of the fact that arms giants such as British Aerospace Engineering (BAe) control the syllabuses and courses set by certain university departments - particularly so-called “aerospace engineering” departments . The term “aerospace engineering” is a euphemism that is frequently used by merchant-of -death companies like BAe , Augusta-Westland etc to hide the fact that they are arms manufacturers and arms designers.

BAe doesn’t want the general public to know that it is an arms manufacturer , and actively seeks to discourage those wishing to expose the source of the billions in profits it makes from its filthy business . The arms giant exerts considerable pressure on the media to this end ,as a result of which , prospective students will rarely be aware of the fact that British Aerospace Engineers is in fact an arms manufacturer - and was listed two years ago as the world’s largest arms manufacturer.
Corporate funding of education ,as the last comment points out, leads to “universities as externalities to our businesses instead of institutes of learning “ When the business is the arms business it’s important to be exceptionally vigilant . Youngsters thinking about studying third-level this year need to be warned about university departments that are being funded by arms manufacturers such as BAe . People who like the idea of space exploration but don’t want to find themselves designing drones and military helicopters should carefully check out syllabuses for BAe code words like “aerospace engineering” before applying for places at university. Once a student has accepted a place at a college and enrolled , it can become very difficult for them to turn back from their chosen course - even when they find out the true purpose of the work they will be training for .
The exchange below (with spelling mistakes in original) took place recently between a graduate of a large UK university and a prospective student who has been offered a place at that university and is wondering which course to choose. The graduate congratulates the student on winning a place at the university and offers this advice .“ Congrats on the unconditional place, Glasgow was my 2nd choice for uni, its a good place!! but you will BLATENTLY end up work for BAE Systems!” see:http://www.pprune.org/engineers-technicians/318320-avio...
Here is the full exchange between the graduate and the student:
The prospective student writes
:Hi,I recently got an unconditional offer to study either Avionics or Aeronautical Engineering at Glasgow. Just got to make my final decision! Im quite set on avionics but don't want to write of Aeronautical just yet.Has anyone else done either of the courses? Did you enjoy it? Would having a PPL be of much help?What are the job prospects? Is the work interesting? Is there much/any further training required post graduation?Sorry for all the questions!Any replies much appreciated.Thanks,Go...............
The graduate replies :I Just Graduated last summer from Univeristy in Aeronautical Engineering. I know work for a major aero company. I would recomend you do Avionics. There is a big shortage of people across the industry, so it increases your employability after graduation.Aero Eng is a very broad degree, it touches upon all aspecs of engineering, from structures, aerodynamics, materials through to some ( i only did 3 modules out of 36) avionics. I believe i was only just made it into the avionics job im in now from my disertation. However, avionics is only focusing on one aspect of aviation and could get tiresome after a while? but personally in reto-spect, i woulda gone for avionics!!Congrats on the unconditional place, Glasgow was my 2nd choice for uni, its a good place!! but you will BLATENTLY end up work for BAE Systems"

by CyberKuntaKinte Fri Jun 08, 2012 12:21

lets use your universities as externalities to our businesses instead of institutes of learning.

Then they can become conveyor belts to produce skilled slaves for our business largely funded by the taxpayer.

If you need to save money to put into these business friendly externality departments in your underfunded univerities, you can always close useless departments that don't serve business such as the medievil Irish one.

While we're there we'll install a pro capitalist ethos in every child that passes through the place and we'll give no context for the polluting corrupt industries they are preparing for years to work for.

Since the financially engineered Austerity has frightened everybody and damaged social safety nets and unions as we always wanted to, wages are down and people will be so so grateful for jobs and so will make wonderfully obedient workers. Cuts to education will mean their student debts will chain them to their slave job for many years to come, almost like in America. Nice!

Thank you financial terrorists of Goldman Sachs for preparing the ground so well for us in Ireland for our exploitation. Cheap but skilled labour on a nice big corporate tax write off island with some resources we can steal and some state utilities we can buy up at firesale prices and put the squeeze on from their naive neo con politicians. Plus an education system we can easily commandeer to produce skilled obedient pro capitalist slaves for our corporate facilities. Reminds me of south America before it all went sour on us and the game was up. Still recovering 20 years later.

And If it doesn't work out here, well, there's always India, where much software development has moved years ago. Overpopulation, desperation, hunger, low wages, english speaking, intelligent people with little or no social support to speak of, where people drink out of dirty puddles in the street. That's still the perfect capitalist dream for us.