@KorvinStarmast I wouldn't be surprised that the class disparity is growing

@V2Blast To me, the first sentence is the one that's a kicker. that is not just a pay disparity but it is also a sign that they are over charging students.

If students have to go into debt to get an education yeah, they are being extremely overcharged

The fact that student loan debt is just a thing means there is something wrong

I Know it's a huge problem in America, I'm not surprised to hear there's possibly an issue with it in the UK

@KorvinStarmast I'm not in UK academia anymore but I don't think those values are distorted at all

I was lucky enough to start my university education at a time when the tuition fee cap was "only" £3k/year

two years later the cap got bumped to £9k

between tuition fees and maintenance loans I graduated with student debt of about £35k

of course it wasn't that long ago that tuition was free and it was all subsidised by the government

@Carcer OK, thanks for the feedback, I was trying get a sense of it and that helped. :)

@KorvinStarmast Depends on the institution. Tuition and fees cover less than 18% of budget at my institution. If there is a research hospital attached or associated with the university, it's likely that it accounts for the largest portion of the institutions budget.

@KorvinStarmast The tuition problem is usually related to the falling support from the state entities. As the tuition and fees don't cover the cost of running the education and supporting infrastructure. That difference used to be covered by state or federal support at public institutions. Since that funding has been decreasing over time, tuition at public institutions has been rising.

@GcL Thanks!

I concur that academia has a problem with compensation for staff and then has the resulting problem of retention. I also share the view that the administration compensation does not seem to scale linearly with the staff... such as the nice people making sure the steam power keeps the lights on.

(to be clear the cost of tuition fees for UK citizens attending UK universities is legally capped at a certain amount, but UK universities do charge foreign students a hell of a lot more)

Here universities charge students from a different state a substantially higher rate.

and foreign even more than that.

hi

'Ello.

@Derpy Weeeeee, Labyrinth!

@Gwideon /me waves.

how is everyone doing

working with SharePoint.

okay

let's just say.. it is not very fun

oof

oh, don't worry

I am quite used to it

it is just that... well, let's just put it this way. It is not the best product Microsoft ever did.

and probably is not the worse only because Windows ME existed

okay

but... it has "evolved" from Frontpage

in the meantime, I am keeping an eye on meta to see how the WB announcement will evolve

@Derpy WB? Is this some Nth spin of the loop?

Ah, Winter Bash.

Whew, I guess.

i don't see any winter bash anouncement

I see it now

How's it going?

It's going well

@Gwideon winterbash2019.stackexchange.com

countdown site.

Will reuse same design as last year.

Apparently at least (some?) of the hats should be new

The announcement also mentioned "missions"

it is unclear if they meant "hat triggers" or something different.

hmmm

no idea what hat's are

@Gwideon never heard about Winter Bash before?

if that's the case, have a look here

contests.stackoverflow.com/promos/12/winter-bash-2012

should give you a quick idea of what this is about.

okay

And now I see you have been an user for just three months. So yep, my bad

It is just normal you don't know about Winter Bash

it is a yearly event

but you weren't here last year.

Short version: for about three weeks you can get "hats" by performing specific action on the sites.

Hats can be "worn" on your user avatar (only one at time)

@Derpy We used sharepoints sites for managing client/deliverables at an old job. PITA.

@NautArch I am sorry to hear that. I suggest consulting a good voodoo shaman to try and remove the hex.

@Derpy Heh. took some getting used to, but worked well enough. No longer at that job, so no longer my problem :P

@NautArch worked....?!? Weird... are you sure it was SharePoint?

@Derpy I'm just that good :P

lol