The modern student existence is a far cry from the ‘fleapit’ one portrayed in the 1980s student sitcom The Young Ones and more like the spendthrift life enjoyed in Friends, according to Professor Kevin Sharpe, an expert in renaissance studies at Queen Mary, University of London.
Writing in the Times Higher Education magazine, the 60-year-old, who has toured campuses around the country, revealed he had been struck by the contrast between his own relatively frugal existence as an undergraduate at Oxford in the 1960s and modern student life.
Well of course you fool. The whole country’s twice, three times richer than it was 50 years ago!
5 responses so far ↓
1 Ian Bennett // Oct 9, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Plus, of course, today’s undergraduates all have student loans to fund their drinking.
2 dearieme // Oct 9, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Plus many undergraduates assume that they’ll inherit granny’s house and are spending it early.
3 Rumbold // Oct 9, 2009 at 9:20 pm
He knows his history though.
4 john malpas // Oct 9, 2009 at 11:59 pm
three times richer! So the wealth is evenly distributed now
Still
It was mighty chilly in the fifties and being employed was not much better.
$600 pound a year I had then.
5 So Much For Subtlety // Oct 10, 2009 at 4:04 am
I am not sure he means his words to be taken literally. I think what he means is that the younger generation of students is spoiled rotten and has way too much in the way of toys.
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