Fórum de Discussão: o retorno a uma utopia realizável - a Universidade do Minho como projecto aberto, participado, ao serviço do engrandecimento dos seus agentes e do desenvolvimento da sua região

quinta-feira, dezembro 27, 2007

"I think, therefore I earn"

«Agora que quase todos os cursos universitários à bolonhesa lipo-aspiraram as disciplinas histórico-críticas e se converteram em licenciaturas meramente técnicas, e agora que o Ministério da Educação português decidiu, não por razões, mas por equívocos de natureza puramente administrativa, liquidar a Filosofia dos currículos pré-universitários chega-nos esta inspiradora notícia da velha Albion.

I think, therefore I earn
Philosophy graduates are suddenly all the rage with employers. What can they possibly have to offer?
Jessica Shepherd
Tuesday November 20, 2007
Guardian
"A degree in philosophy? What are you going to do with that then?"
Philosophy students will tell you they've been asked this question more times than they care to remember.
"The response people seem to want is a cheery shrug and a jokey 'don't know'," says Joe Cunningham, 20, a final-year philosophy undergraduate at Heythrop College, University of London.
A more accurate comeback, according to the latest statistics, is "just about anything I want".
Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency show philosophy graduates, once derided as unemployable layabouts, are in growing demand from employers. The number of all graduates in full-time and part-time work six months after graduation has risen by 9% between 2002-03 and 2005-06; for philosophy graduates it has gone up by 13%.
It is in the fields of finance, property development, health, social work and the nebulous category of "business" that those versed in Plato and Kant are most sought after. In "business", property development, renting and research, 76% more philosophy graduates were employed in 2005-06 than in 2002-03. In health and social work, 9% more.
The Higher Education Careers Services Unit (Hecsu), which also collates data of this kind, agrees philosophers are finding it easier to secure work. Its figures show that, in 2001, 9.9% of philosophy graduates were unemployed six months after graduation. In 2006, just 6.7% were. On average, 6% of all graduates were unemployed six months after graduation.
[...]
The popular philosopher Simon Blackburn, a professor at Cambridge University, sees the improving career prospects of philosophy graduates as part of a wider change of public perception. "I guess the public image of a philosopher has tended to concentrate on an ancient Greek in a toga, or some unwashed hippy lying around not doing very much," he says. "I do detect a change in the way the public sees philosophers. I have been pleasantly surprised by the number of people who come to philosophy events nowadays."
[...]
News that employers and the public hold philosophers in higher regard should presumably be cause for celebration? Not entirely, says Blackburn. "It is also slightly worrying, because people turn to philosophers when they feel less confident and more insecure."
EducationGuardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007»
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(reprodução parcial de extractos de mensagem, com distribuição universal na rede da UMinho, que me caiu na caixa de correio electrónico esta tarde, proveniente de João Carlos Mendes)

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