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Thought Cages: The Case Against Education

The Case Against Education

BBC Radio 4 - Thought Cages, The Case Against Education

Should we have less, not more, education? Rory Sutherland challenges received ideas. 

Rory Sutherland pokes a stick at received wisdom, beginning with an exploration of whether society should aim to have less, not more, higher education

Education is often seen as a panacea for a liberal civilised society: the more, the better. But what if we’re wrong? What if the desire to deliver higher education to as many people as possible is actually making society less fair?

Economist Bryan Caplan poked a hornet’s nest recently with his book “The Case Against Education”. It argued passionately that higher education has become a mere signalling exercise for employers – one which rewarded rote-learning conformism and threw anyone with less than a 2:1 on the scrapheap.

Much admired – and much criticised – Caplan’s book was a call-to-arms for an end to a futile, economically-crippling education arms-race. His solution? Simply pull funding for almost all higher education until its social worth was fully proven.

Advertising guru and behaviourist Rory Sutherland is joined in studio by the Executive Director of the Education Policy Institute Natalie Perera - and down the line by Bryan Caplan himself – to assess one of liberal society’s most sacred cows.

Produced by Steven Rajam for BBC Wales

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