coreypolis wrote in post #2359837
even the courses inside most universities are amateurish, though I'm a bit biased haivng attended Brooks. But I can't see it worth any ones time to major in photography at a typical state school, and even most photo school. They just don't teach the whole industry, just the techniques and some creativity.
It depends on which courses. The academic courses such as physics, history, English, engineering etc are usually all pretty good. I quite enjoyed the degree I obtained. The problem comes with some lecturers on degree courses. I recall one module entitled "The Rennaisance" which looked fascinating as it covered the Borgas etc and I thought would go nicely with The Crusades, The Zenith of the Meidieval Papacy etc. How wrong I was! The lecturer was so bad that a class of 35 whittled down to 15 by the end of the 3rd week. At the end of the 3rd week even I left, joining another module (and doing rather well in the replacement module). By the time the exams came, two people of that class of 35 sat the exam and of those only one passed.
Other courses run by universities can be dodgy. The problem is that they are not actually run by the universities but rather by individuals that have put together course-like handbooks and who've hired a lecture room in the university. The universities don't care - it's all income for them.
Then we move onto courses run by other groups. I can't speak for America as I have not taken any courses in America yet. I can speak for Britain though. In Britain the current confidence trick is the ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence) which takes money from people that think they've had training and from companies that think their staff are receiving training. The course content varies and the quality is usually apallingly low. Needless to say it's a course run by the British Computer Society. When I enquired about joining them I was given some spiel about different levels of membership dependent entirely upon academic qualifications and how one could not join but had to be selected by other members to join. At that point I knew the BCS was a pile of B####C#S. Most computer professionals have a low opinion of the ECDL as do many of the BCS. At that point I refused to join any professional organisations for fear they all be tarred with the same brush.
Now let's talk about the worst courses of all - those run by the British Department of Employment. They recruit the unemployed to follow various "courses" and those courses really take taxpayers money under flase pretences. Again people go expecting training, receive nothing and the DoE can rub its hands and say "we put X unemployed people through training courses. Now there's no reason for them to be unemployed". They fact the poor souls receive no worthwhile training doesn't seem to enter into the argument.
