South China Morning Post: Taking 'the Mickey' Lightweight degrees allow students to study anything, writes Yojana Sharma

Spending three or four years watching Hollywood movies to obtain a Bachelor of Arts degree sounds like a fun way to get a "qualification", but media and film studies is not alone. These days almost anything can be studied as an "academic" degree course in Britain.

Universities are cashing in on student demand, outdoing each other to offer the most "attractive" degree courses - some of them of dubious academic merit.

An equine psychology degree offered by a Welsh college is derided as a "horse-whispering degree"; Manchester Metropolitan University's BA in retail-fashion buying has been dubbed a "shopping" degree; and degrees in science fiction and culture (University of Glamorgan) and golf management (University of Swansea) have raised eyebrows.

All figure in the first comprehensive list of "non-degrees" offered by British universities released by London-based pressure group the Taxpayers Alliance this summer. According to the group, more than 400 "non-degrees" are available, costing £40 million (HK$632.68 million) to run, often heavily subsidised by taxpayers.

"By offering 'non-courses' and blurring the distinction between learning that demands serious scholarship and that which requires none, universities put at risk academic credibility," the group's Corin Taylor said.

Two years ago, the Swansea Institute in Wales withdrew its BA in surf and beach management because it was threatening the reputation of its more mainstream degrees.

"It is not fair on our other students to be tarred with the same brush," institute principal David Warner said at the time. But Swansea was an exception and the number of "non-degrees" had grown, Mr Taylor said. More than 2,500 students were enrolled last year on degree programmes identified as "non-courses".

Lightweight degrees, particularly "hobby and lifestyle" courses, were labelled "Mickey Mouse" degrees by former British higher education minister Margaret Hodge, who said they might not have much relevance in the labour market.

"Despite its professed efforts to end what it calls 'Mickey Mouse' degrees, the government is demanding that universities increase admissions dramatically," Mr Taylor said.

Among the new degree courses are floral design (flower arrangement) and a BA in lifestyle management offered by Leeds Metropolitan University.

Britain is not alone. Australia's former education minister Brendan Nelson recently mocked degrees in surfing and aromatherapy. In the United States, a BA in astrology (including Chinese astrology) has been offered for some years. Physical education degrees are routinely handed out to US college athletes who would not normally gain a place on an academically rigorous degree programme.

Featuring strongly on the TPA list are large numbers of Bachelor of Science degrees in complementary therapies which David Colquhoun, professor of pharmacology at the University of London, says are not science subjects at all.

TPA lists some 60 "non-degrees" in aromatherapy, traditional Chinese medicine, reflexology and acupuncture. These were better taught as "part of a cultural history or sociology course," said Dr Colquhoun, who wants the universities' Quality Assurance Agency to prevent such courses being classified as science degrees, which can attract extra government subsidies.

There is undeniable public demand for qualifications in alternative therapies, and unlike many other "hobby" degrees, graduates are able to make a living as independent practitioners, once qualified.

The same may not be true for graduates in "equine studies" (some 80 degree courses listed) and "adventure travel" (more than 30 degree courses).

So what drives students to spend good money on flakey degrees? Academics blame the expansion of higher education, which has meant a degree is an essential basic qualification for a decent job.

"The idea of many students is to just get a degree because many employers recruit on a generic basis. The whole society is pushing the idea of university as a good thing," said Phillip Brown, a professor at the University of Cardiff and author of The Opportunity Trap.

The book argues that despite the rhetoric about knowledge economies and the need for more graduates, the British economy is unable to cope with the huge expansion in higher education and its accompanying "rising tide of individual, social and political expectations".

The vice-chancellors group Universities UK strongly defends the courses as "based on demand from employers and developed in association with them".

But only a few "non-courses" fit that description. Most "are a bit remote from what would enhance students lives and enhance the economy", said Alan Smithers, professor of education and employment at Buckingham University.

"The trouble is the government is assuming this will improve the country's economic competitiveness and that is not the case," he said.

Computer gaming courses are one example where an apparent "hobby" degree has developed according to employer demand and propelled Britain to world-class status in that industry. But with so many universities jumping on the gaming bandwagon, supply of graduates now far outstrips demand.

"The new degrees that are popping up are the latest fad." said John Sears of the University of Derby's computer gaming course. "If you put 'game' in the course title, it can attract students."

Recently Jeffrey Matthews, recruitment head of UA - one of the largest computer gaming employers - put the cat among the pigeons when he said gaming students would be better off with a degree in physics.

Academics blame a proliferation of TV crime series for the rise in student numbers wanting to study glamorous forensic science, even though the normal route into forensics is a chemistry degree.

"We saw a huge rise in interest in forensics at the same time as we saw a decline in interest in subjects like chemical engineering," said Matthew Holton, assistant dean at Teesside University's School of Computing.

This year the number of students wanting to study Japanese has grown for the first time in a decade, but even professors of Japanese acknowledge that the popularity of Japanese manga and animated films has partly fuelled that growth.

"If we offered a degree in 'manga studies', we might find we would have few takers for Japanese language, and would fill the course many times over," one lecturer said.

Although sports studies' degrees have been around for some time, the latest trend is degrees in specific sports, including cricket and martial arts.

Charles Springer, who runs the martial arts degree at Derby University, pointed to Beijing Sports University and Japan's National Institute for Sports, which have degrees in wushu and karate, respectively.

"A lot of our students want to become coaches, but this is more than a coaching qualification, it includes anthropology, sociology, culture," he said.

Andreas Schleicher, head of education analysis and indicators at the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, said the challenge for higher education in the future would not simply be to produce more graduates but to retain a balance between academically oriented qualifications and those more closely linked to occupational orientations.

But for now, as long as students just want to have fun, universities are happy to accommodate them.   

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