Prince William has come under fire AGAIN for his 10-week course at Cambridge University. First he was slammed by the student paper for lack of proper grades—typical students need an AAA, and William had an ABC (I went to school in the US so I have no idea what that means, or how it relates to our system). Which is a fair criticism; unfortunately they backtracked after people blasted the paper for their criticism—lame. Now William is coming under fire for getting a discount on his tuitions fees.
He is paying around £10,000, but sources admitted they had expected the cost to be much higher since the course was specially tailored for him. People are annoyed because obviously he’s a royal and could pay any amount of tuition and not bat an eyelash, whereas most students leave Cambridge with £25,000 of debt.
Kensington Palace isn’t commenting because it’s being “funded privately” and therefore they don’t have to talk about it. But it’s not like the royals stop being royal and/or stop being publicly funded when they’re not “on duty”. So that is a total cop out.
I don’t know what to say. Part of me thinks that if William really is taking this course seriously to become more prepared for when/if he takes over the Duchy of Cornwall, then more power to him; but then part of me thinks this is just a way for him to put off actually doing more royal duties during his second “gap year”, so I’m not sure. Either way, he didn’t really deserve to be allowed in Cambridge in the first place, since his grades weren’t up to snuff, and taking a discount is tacky and utterly stupid. The university may have offered him a discount, but they never should have taken it. It is tacky because clearly the royals don’t need help paying for their crap, and also they had to have known people would be pissed when they learned of the discount, and they can’t afford to lose any more good will with the people—they’ve already lost enough. I get what they were going for—Will going back to school for a course to help him run the Duchy is great PR—but, like with all their PR stunts, they really dropped the ball with this one.
waste of money and time, he and his haggard wife will never change, life is one big vacation for those two.
I’ll cut him some slack on the grades as this appears to be more of a continuing ed thing, rather than matriculated studies. However, if Charles is taking a discount (or the Duchy), that’s poor form.
I agree; this does resemble the continuing ed type of course where all you need is the time and money to take it, not qualifying grades, and if it can benefit William in running the Duchy of Cornwall in future that’s fine. But if it’s true that the course was discounted when the royals can well afford to pay full price, that was a mistake indeed.
give me princes charlene and albert anytime they are exciting waity and wimpo are boring zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I am not sure why anyone should be surprised about these new revelations. I don’t know that anyone born into the RF is all that intelligent and it has been clear for years they are all “on the make” as we would say here in the US. Willy-Boy can also afford to pay full price for his vehicles and pay for his own housing, etc. on the millions he inherited, but of course he does not do that either.
@Adam: I’m hoping he’s really wanting to learn to be better at running the Duchy eventually, but I’m not expecting this course to be any more than an excuse not to to royal duties.
@BitchyShoes & Feeshalori: That’s true, his classes are designed for business people to gain skills, not for the typical graduate student. But the discounted tuition (if true) is a dick move on his part.
@Lynn: The Cambs are boring, because they don’t do much. I don’t think I’ve covered Albert and Charlene on this blog, but I could.
@Fairygodmon: The main problem is they are hypocrites. They have been pushing this “down-to earth/just like you” PR image, and then they do something that goes against that image, while still pushing the image. If they didn’t try to fake an image and instead came out and said they take full use of their celebrity on perks and discounts, while it would not endear them to the public, at least they wouldn’t suffer from the backlash when their image is proven false.
(This is the first example to come to mind) It’s like when celeb men claim their ideal woman is intelligent, witty, etc. and that they value good conversation over beauty and want a wife and kids, and then date a slew of bimbo models. It’s the hypocrisy that has people crying foul. George Clooney and Leo DiCaprio date bimbo models all the time, on rotation, but no one really gives a crap because neither George nor Leo are out there saying they want an intelligent woman and a wife and kids. George and Leo are honest about only wanting pretty arm candy and not settling down, so no one minds. People only mind when the image they’ve been sold is proven to be fake.
I think it would be a bit different with the royals, since they can’t spend too much money without doing anything or else the public will be mad since everyone is still in an economic recession. But if Will and Kate were honest about having servants and taking discounts the backlash wouldn’t be so severe. The problem is they claim to be dedicated to serving their country, but they don’t do anything. They claim to not have help, but they do. They claim to pay for their own things, but they get discounts. If they worked more (which is a huge part–people could forgive a lot if they worked more), and were honest about their vacations and servants and discounts and everything else, then they wouldn’t suffer the backlash from the cracks in their image. It’s the lies, more than anything, I think, that have people upset.
**Sorry about the super long post, I just can’t help myself.
Please report on the Prince & Princess of Monaco.
I think Charlene is very hardworking!
I think the final sentence of your post is quite interesting. While I agree that this news about whether or not he deserved a discount or even admittance to the school has come to cast a shadow on the whole undertaking, I cannot comprehend why William sitting this course would be (and is!!!) viewed so positively from a PR perspective. I nearly always agree with your thoughts on the Monarchy, but take exception with your remark from earlier in the same paragraph, when you say that “if William really is taking this course seriously to become more prepared for when/if he takes over the Duchy of Cornwall, then more power to him”. I have observed something of this sentiment across the media coverage of Will going to school, and find it baffling. William is going to school specifically to learn how to run a huge and very profitable company so that he can make it even bigger and more profitable when it is his. This doesn’t seem like something noble or particularly worthy of admiration. He is merely picking up some new money-making tips to make himself even wealthier, because the palaces and other endless riches furnished by the public just aren’t enough.
I know the standard response–and I’m not saying that it’s yours as well–is that Charles has made the Duchy into a showpiece of a financially viable company that is committed to a green model of business. Demonstrating that economic success and environmentally ethical conduct can co-exist is important and does, I’m sure, inspire other companies to follow suit. This is a good consequence, but it’s not really the reason Charles or William would run this corporation! Let’s not forget that the Duchy of Cornwall is, first and foremost, intended to generate an income for the immediate heir to the throne.
People of the United Kingdom, I, too, am willing to accept a vast estate from the public. I have the grades from my previous university degree that would make me a competitive candidate for admission to a special program at Cambridge, and I would be delighted to pay full price to enroll and learn how to make my estate a paradigm of environmentally sustainable and progressive agricultural practices. I will inspire people the world over to adopt my ecologically sound approach to industrialized farming. I will receive so much praise for being so hard-working and selfless. And then, if I absolutely must, I will reluctantly accept the millions of pounds of annual profits from my estate so that I can attain the princely lifestyle that I surely deserve.
But only because it is my duty.
LOL!!!
Your piety is duly noted.
I understand what you’re saying, but let me ask you this: Would you look down on a billionaire’s son for going to school to learn how to run the company when he takes over for his father?
Probably not, right? At least I wouldn’t. It’s better than that billionaire’s son running around making an ass of himself and never doing anything with his life and living off his inheritance, and then whining about how hard his life is. Or worse, running the company into the ground because he doesn’t know what he’s doing when he takes over. I think that is a fair analogy to what William is doing now, and there is nothing wrong with that (in my opinion).
Also, for William, if he is taking this course and running the Duchy seriously, that means he’s taking his role as a royal more seriously and may actually prove to be better than he has been–ie. doing more royal duties and taking less vacations and whining less about everything.
For a long time it’s seemed like William didn’t really give a shit about the responsibility of being a royal and just wanted the money and time to party and vacation and whatnot–to be a rich kid with no responsibility to the public, like his friends. This is the first time he’s done anything that would actually prepare him for being a working royal in later life. And like that billionaire’s son who’s willing to put in the time and energy and work, there is nothing wrong (in my opinion) with William preparing for his future role (as long as he doesn’t take discounts when he can easily pay for things).
BUT, like I’ve said before regarding William and this course, I have a feeling that it is an excuse for William to hide away and not preform full-time royal duties, rather than actually learning anything.
I hope that clarifies things.