Gregory's Server@cstross <Reads article. Looks at how UK politics keeps trying to pull power away from experts and back to central Government. Rereads article>
Ooooohhhh. Let’s ban teaching MBAs.
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@cstross Back in the day, I did a HR qualification and I felt almost exactly the same: the people who needed to know this stuff were the staff and their managers, not people like me who exclusively got flown in when someone had severely fucked up because they didn’t know it. The more this knowledge gets spread around, the more people will be aware of what’s happening when things go South and be able to act appropriately. @cstross (As an aside, the best thing I learned on my course was that pregnant people can do whatever they want in the workplace because no-one can prove their behaviour isn’t linked to the pregnancy, and firing people for being pregnant is an instant loss at a tribunal) @cstross @mrdalesmith That will never happen because the business schools at universities rely on this mystique to get huge tuition fees from students. It's not in their interest to devalue it. @mrdalesmith @cstross There's a business school shaped carbuncle attached to the place I work, so my dreams are very much tempered by reality.  @davecl42 @mrdalesmith Yeah: so to add to my to-do list is, nationalize higher education (and private fee-paying schools at every level). @cstross @mrdalesmith Not sure that a nationalised university system is what you want. You really don't want Johnson or Truss (or Trump!) setting curricula! @davecl42 @mrdalesmith Indeed, but it should be possible to design circuit-breakers to prevent political meddling. The NHS is a case in point: despite *decades* of trying to corrode it, the Torie haven't quite succeeded in breaking it. @cstross @mrdalesmith This was true of universities too, but the combination of REF, TEF and capped tuition fees have done it, so we now have the rise of business school bollocks and the fall of modern languages, english, history etc.  |
@mrdalesmith Those folks with MBAs I know (who aren't shitheads) say it's really basic stuff, the magic you get from it is the interpersonal networking with other MBAs. So look at Rishi Sunak as the type specimen.
I think we could do better by crunching the MBA down to the absolute basics of management theory and making it an elective extra course available with any other degree. In other words, dilute and devalue it by making it part of what everyone knows, rather than mystical executive shit.