Dr Peter Moore: 'Mickey Mouse' degrees - there's a difference between education and training

Dr Peter Moore, former Torbay GP:

My greatest academic achievement must be passing O-level English literature without having read the book.

We also had a Shakespeare play and poetry. I enjoyed the battles of Henry V and the poetry of Dylan Thomas but I couldn’t cope with Pride and Prejudice.

I hate to offend the thousands of Jane Austin fans but, as a teenage boy, I really did not care whether Elizabeth loved Darcy.

And now I hear that several universities such as Sheffield Hallam are stopping English literature degrees. Roehampton University is scrapping classics, philosophy and some English and arts degrees.

There is Government pressure to encourage students to study ‘useful’ subjects such as engineering or medicine.

Some degrees have even been branded ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees, an expression coined by the Labour minister for higher education Margaret Hodge in the early 2000s.

The aim seems to be to prioritise degrees which led to the biggest income.

The ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees include performing arts and humanities as they do not usually lead to large salaries.

Although most art students do not make a fortune, John Lennon, Ray Davies, Eric Clapton, Ron Wood, Keith Richards Jeff Back, David Bowie, Dave Gilmour, Pete Townsend and Freddy Mercury all went to art college before becoming famous.

These courses were not degrees but that was before the vast expansion of universities when many polytechnics and other colleges became universities.

The performing arts is one of our strengths in the UK.

As Netflix, Disney and Sky all build new studios here, Britain will overtake Hollywood as a producer of movies.

In 2008, our music industry contributed £5.2 billion to the UK economy. Films and TV contributed about £13.48 billion but that does not mean that an individual student will make a fortune.

Students now leave university with a large debt and so it is understandable that they want a career which would pay well but surely there is more to education than earnings.

A satisfying career is not the same as a lucrative career.

The origin of the quote ‘Education is the attitude left when the facts have been forgotten’ is unknown but it remains important.

Many of the drugs and treatments I learnt at medical school are no longer used but hopefully the training helped me to understand and adopt new ideas.

During my course I took time out to study for a biochemistry BSc. Anything I learnt in biochemistry in the 1970s is now hopelessly out of date and I would not pretend to be a biochemist but looking back it was an important part of my education.

I became involved in pure research and learnt how to critically read research papers.

A good university education should leave students with the ability to debate and look at evidence, whether it is in the arts, history or science.

These skills are transferable. And today the idea of joining a job after university at 23 and retiring from the same job at 65 has gone. People will build up a career over time.

Specific skills learnt at university may not be helpful throughout their career but the attitude and approach may be vital.

We need leaders who can critically evaluate information, look at the evidence and bring people with them.

Learning these skills should be an important part of university education.

There is a difference between education and training.

If your daughter came home from school saying that she had sex education most people would be happy. If she came home saying she had sex training you would be concerned.

Apprenticeships are an important training for a specific job and are a great way to kick start a career.

There should not be any snobbery suggesting that university is superior to an apprenticeship, but should not most university courses be offering education rather than training?

Perhaps I was learning an important skill in my O-level when I wrote about a book I had not read.

It taught me to write persuasively on a subject about which I knew nothing, a skill I still use every week when writing this column.