By Kieran Jones
Staffs University has been criticised by a top scientist for offering “Mickey Mouse” degrees.
The head of the royal society of chemistry, Dr Richard Pike, said that the government should not be paying for people to start course such as Celebrity Journalism and that the money should be spent on science instead.
Celebrity Journalism is a new degree that will be offered within the University from next autumn.
Dr Pike said courses such as this need to be kicked into touch and that: “We need a population with an enduring set of skills, such as an understanding of the physical world around us, literacy and communication, numeracy, how to function and continue to learn in a complex society, and above all creativity, rather than an ability to satisfy some ephemeral demand that in 10 years' time will be viewed as a curiosity.”
However Professor Ellis Cashmore defended the University saying the courses take years on planning and are, “not designed on a back of an envelope”.
He also said, “they don't all want to study those kind of classical subjects, which are really not going to get them jobs.”