Bad Education
Why Our Universities Are Broken and How We Can Fix Them
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Narrated by:
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Matt Goodwin
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By:
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Matt Goodwin
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
THE EXPLOSIVE NEW BOOK FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF NATIONAL POPULISM AND VALUES, VOICE AND VIRTUE.
Depressed tutors and disillusioned students. Cheating parents, funding crises and faculty misconduct. Culture wars and campus protests. Welcome to the broken world of academia. Welcome to Bad Education.
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Our universities are broken. Established as sanctuaries of truth and higher learning, they are now decaying institutions that are failing a generation of young people. Consumed by funding and admissions crises, dominated by dogma and governed by self-interest, their founding principles have been corrupted. This explosive book shows us why, and what we must do to fix them.
Matt Goodwin spent decades working as an academic in some of the world’s leading universities, delivering underfunded courses to increasingly disengaged lecture theatres, sitting on rudderless committees, counselling depressed colleagues and concerned students, watching standards slip and academic integrity decline.
At the heart of this crisis is an increasingly politicised campus. Once bastions of free speech, forums for open debate and incubators of bold new ideas, our universities are increasingly becoming monocultures, ruled by an ideology that is silencing respected voices, stifling discussion and violently shutting down diverse opinion, betraying intellectual freedom.
Unflinching, shocking and urgent, this first-hand account provides an insider's view of how the founding principles of academia are in decline and why we should all consider what this means for the students of today, tomorrow and the world they will shape.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ed
- 12-02-25
A Tragedy well Told
Well presented, full of facts and revealing of the tragedy that has happened to British higher education.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Emily
- 15-02-25
The decline of critical thinking and balanced argument
An alarming exploration of how universities silence voices they disagree with in favour of pushing one approved modern narrative. Immature, fingers-in-their-ears students and staff promote cancel culture to protect the right people's feelings. Just don't go against the groupthink, or there'll be trouble. Students aren't learning how to weigh up different views, they are taught what to think, and to shout down anyone who disagrees. As with everything written by Matt Goodwin, it's well researched and full of interesting statistics and examples.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- steve
- 17-03-25
Honest and shocking
I knew, but I didn’t know how badly education has been infected with the woke mind virus. Goodwin is an accomplished plain talker with a clear insight into the problems and need for an assertive approach to solutions. I was shocked at how corrupt our Universities have become.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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- Przemyslaw
- 07-03-25
It’s bad politics not bad education
The title is misleading, It’s author’s political opinions. It’s not controversial, in some parts it’s just awkward, unless you like to discuss topics like vaccinations. The rest is just boring.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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- StuP
- 03-03-25
Misrepresents pro-peace campaigners as antisemitic
I’m guessing he may be of the age that believes the legacy media news? To be against Israeli apartheid currently being investigated as war crimes does not mean you are antisemitic. As last night’s Israeli/Palestinian Oscar win acceptance speech for No Other Land well articulated, it is brave and urgent to question oversimplification of a conflict that spans decades. FreePalestine when I say it means peace not war. When the author critiques lack of free speech on campus, but then condemns universities for allowing protest, he undercuts his own argument. I am seeking a refund.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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- C. Rosani-Allen
- 09-04-25
I wish I had never read this
I work in HE in the UK so this title caught my eye. I know that UK Universities are suffering and certainly not perfect. But this book was not at all what I expected - too many times I heard what the author was saying and can say categorically that this is not at all my experience or what is happening at my university. I don't deny that his story is true for him, but to take it and then use it as the basis to say that all university education in the UK, and to a large extent the US, is broken, is unfair.
I agree that I am perhaps one of those "woke liberals" that he seems to dislike so much, and he has his reasons, but as he made many, many statements on what those "woke liberals" think, believe and do I feel I can weigh in. I mostly disagree! I had not heard of the author before but did some research following my listen and sure enough, he has now moved to be a part of the conservative media who hates anyone not white, male and local-born so much. As I am none of those things, parts of this book were very hurtful and offensive - and not in a snowflake, triggering way but a real one, where I can't believe that someone would take others' good intentions and twist them to make them appear evil and devious.
I didn't want to finish this book, but I did anyway as I don't want to hide in my echo chamber. I wanted to take this unexpected opportunity to see how others think and even more, how others think that liberals think. I will acknowledge that the author made some valid points on UK universities (can't speak for those in the US, I don't work there) but his proposed solutions I feel would make things worse. I persevered with this book until the end - thank goodness it was relatively short! - and I felt terrible that some people think in this way. I wish I hadn't read it, as it contributed nothing to my life other than make me feel disappointed. There were no real solutions, just what felt like whipping up crowds into a frenzy and leading them with their torches and pitchforks to attack anything that doesn't agree with his worldview. This book feels like is advocating a huge step backwards in time to some mythical time when things were great, mostly because old white men were in charge. I can't agree with that.
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