Jonathan Finch
An unpromising university premise in Cambodia gives me yet another chance to ride one of my favourite hobby-horses.
You just scoot along the road out of town and you see the building next to a school, and you think, “That’s odd. I wouldn’t fancy getting my degree there.” I imagine it’s a small admin office, not a university, but nevertheless it makes you think. What does it make you think? It makes me think that higher education is better structured and financed in the developed world. It makes me think that all those developed-world graduates should be fine people. It makes me think that Oxbridge should get to Cambodia and give a helping hand. Those green, fenny lawns are wasted in Cambridge. Those bronzen turrets are wasted in Oxford. Let’s get just one lawn to Koh Kong, one turret, and then we can stand and have a good laugh…just as they’re doing at this moment – in Oxford and Cambridge, all those highly educated and educating people, laughing at Koh Kong, laughing at humble beginnings, laughing at humility itself, a cardinal virtue which the academic world chooses not to study. At its peril? Of course, NOT!!!
<a href="https://he.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%91%D7%A5:Girton_College,_Cambridge,_England,_1890s.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Source</a>
It makes me think that the appearance is why the tuitions are so high!
Talking of Oxbridge, they’re amongst the richest universities in the world, and not all the gold is good gold. Agreed about appearance, and if you owned one turret you’d be made for life.