The UK university system keeps changing as the current government seeks to open it up to competition, that chimera. My concern is with the idea that university education should always be about "giving students the skills they need for a good job in the marketplace". Sure, college skills are always going to be important for gainful employ, but some things are goods in themselves, not least, knowledge.
THAT HANDSOME MAN A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought. Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that
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I am so glad that I went to university when I did. I received a first class education (with one on one tutorials!) and it didn't cost me a copper penny. I feel really sorry for kids like my nephew and niece who are going up to university in the next couple of years and will probably be saddled with debt for the rest of their lives.
Best wishes from Simon