University cruelty

Based on my performance in exams in subjects I'm fair at (I got an E in A-Level English coursework (oops, too much Nintendo!) and pulled this up to a C at the exam) I'd MUCH prefer the full exam stress with none of the coursework/modules stuff - when under pressure in exams, I tend to do OK.

 

damn, where did I go wrong? An arts degree and I still missed the good stuff!

How was Japan Ian?

 

Indeed my qualification came down to a 45 minute recital, I had to prepare about 3 hours worth of playing, and then 5 days before they told me which one's they wanted. Now that was stress, 4 years work and practice all assessed in what seemed like a moment.

Maybe I'm getting old, but where's the life preparing rigour in today's university courses and even school exams?

 

It's there. Job interviews I can handle without a flutter. My presentation to the examiners on my final year project had me shaking like a nodding dog in an earthquake. I kept drawing squiggly lines on the whiteboard... No presentation, no project. No project, no degree.

 

I'm sure it is in some courses Isaac, but there seems to be too many people getting degrees these days to maintain their value. It's an emotive subject I'm not going to bang on about again, but from where I sit at work there is a huge erosion of educational standards, not in the quality of teaching, but in the standards required to meet certain attainment levels. I'm sure that degrees from the established universities are as demanding as they used to be, and I'm sure that there are many excellent new courses focussing on the growth of ICT and the like. There are however many educational dead-ends. On Friday one of our local FE providers brought their music roadshow in, I supervised what was basically a karaoke show. Our kids enjoyed it, but what benefit is learning to sing to a backing track to a 16-18 year old. There are people leaving university who write in a semi-literate manner. This is inexcusable to me. If you can't meet the standards you can't have a degree no matter how hard you work.

 

Agreed. In engineering there's a shocking lack of grammatical ability.

I think there are a lot of mickey-mouse degrees with mickey-mouse requirements. Strangely though, it's not reflected as you'd expect in graduate employment. The highest rate of unemployment 6 months after graduation is in Computer Science. Second highest is Electronic Engineering.

Does this mean that standards in these disciplines is lower and that the jobs don't exist for the mediocre graduates? Or does it mean that someone who took a nether degree for the sake of it is happier to take whatever random office or fast-food outlet job that doesn't need a degree (since the statistics don't take account of whether the employment the graduate is in required the degree or not).

I think you should ask Britney spears. Or the spice girls. Or girls aloud. Or S Club 7. Or Steps.

 

Ah yes I'd forgotten Britney et al. Trouble is compared to the lot I heard she can sing!

 

The problem I think is that electrical engineers and computer scientists are fussy gits, you have to be to be able to stick those courses out for so long. Therefore those graduates want to go into the industry, other degrees such as media studies the graduates don't seem to be as fussy, therefore can get work easier.

I am not going to discuss the academic standard of 'arts' degrees because I am not good at that kind of thing, and they do seem to be very hard in a different way to science degrees. However in terms of employability I am not sure what benefit media studies has to the majority of jobs.

We have to be careful when discussing spelling and grammar and university standards, some of the best engineers in the world cannot spell correctly. Are you suggesting that these people shouldn't have got degrees despite them being experts in their field?

Also there are some universities and courses which are to easy to get into, I think this is ok, as longs as they make it easy to fail. The problem is many universities have a bums on seats attitude, so they keep students knowing damnn well they won't pass, it takes these students five years to get somthing like a 3rd. It really isn't fair on the students to allow this to happen. If you get less than 40% in the first year then you should not be able to go into the second year, at the moment it seems if you have about 35% you can move up without resitting.

I also worry about the number of people getting degrees, but it is still the minority, and the people getting good degrees is even rarer. Graduate job vacancies are increasing by 15% this year, so despite what the media says jobs are out there waiting for graduates to take. Its just there isn't enough jobs for David Beckham Studies students who get a 3rd from Bums On Seats University.

 

I am indeed suggesting that to get an award that is close to the top of any education systems hierarchy one should indeed be literate and capable of proper and effective use of language. If they are an expert in their field and can't spell, I would suggest it is down to laziness, not poor linguistic ability. Most bad spelling is simply a result of either an inability to learn the rules, or a result of not being bothered to learn them. If you are clever enough to get a degree, you should also be clever enough to use the language you write in to get that degree properly. If you can't, no degree. How quickly would written language improve then?

By the way why aren't the Inspiral Carpets on your website. Surely Manchesters finest. There must be some mistake! No Puressence either. AT you need to get it sorted

 

I've missed out Boony and co? I'll have add that. There are quite a lot of bands I need to add, just hadn't been able to do much to it lately, the site is getting to a total make over when I graduate though, and I am adding a nice unique feature to it.

Its just hard to find motivation for it when it dosn't get that much traffic (not checked the stats actually though).

Back on there are many reasons why people have poor spelling and grammar, some people just don't think in that way, also a lot of people may had have educational set backs at earlier an earlier age which may had made it harder for them to progress. It depends on how bad their grammar and spelling is though.

And any scientists can't be able to spell otherwise what would secretaries do? I don't think it is lazyness, typos are lazyness, but when you're working professionaly you make sure you don't make them, spelling errors are not the fault of the person. If one tries to their pest to spell and use correct punctuation then you can't blame the person.

A lot of people have never been taught it that much, a lot of people in my generation give and take 20% had the problem where the primary schools assumed the secondary school would teach it visa. I think the government have put many measures in place to stop this since then.

 

F'in media studies. It makes a joke of proper courses and you have to tell people your either doing 'music' or media else they can't grasp the idea of 'audio/electronic engineering'. MP3s and ipods come from santa. One guy actually said how can you do a degree in acoustics?! WTF??? Idiots.
AT: why haven't you go the longcut on there? They're the kings of manchester atm.

 

Yeah I need to add them, and add Peromance too etc, I haven't really touched the bands since July last year.

I have a similier problem, I never tell people I am doing Multimedia and Internet Technology becuase people (especialy compu sci) see it mickey mouse. When a lot the stuff I have done is compu sci standard, Java for example.

We are all doing compression techniques at the moment, which is actually the assignment I started this thread about. I understand all that entropy and Huffman stuff now though.

Acoustics is a form of engineering in its own right, its very surprising very few universities do it (I think Bristol and Salford are regarded as some of the best in this area). There is so much maths on that course from what I have seen. it is a proper hardcore course and is it very very different from Media studies.

Like you say where tdo they think MP3 comes from or how music is stored on a CD?

 

Its ok, theres a shortage of acoustic consultants atm so I'm quite willing to step in and help them out
Yes your right, its a proper headache.

 

I left school at 16 with 5 O levels and had no chance of a university education as I had to work to help support my family (long story).

I am now doing a OU course with the aim of securing a degree despite the fact that my salary is now well into 6 figures. I mention the money only to illustrate my belief that to be really sucessful academically, the job at the end should not be the motivating factor, instead a love for the subject might be better.



Its very difficult as I'm not able to give it the time it needs but I am determined to achieve it despite this. I suggest that you use your tutors and what have you to get back on top of the project but also don't be suprised that winning a degree is hard!

Or do what I did and go into sales, easy money and fun with it, so many lunches I'm almost round these days!

 

Interest in the subject is a must I think, if you don't have the interest in the subject you won't do well at all. I love my subject which is why I can do well in a lot of modules.

 

I agree with that jools. But doing a degree as a means to a job is a dead end anyway IMO. I could not do a job that I didn't enjoy and have an interest in. Hence why I do what I do.

 

I have absolutely no interest in getting a job what so ever, I'm staying at uni for as long as I possibly can but if theres a shortage of people I might as well take advantage of it.

 

I am hoping to setup my own business of some sort, and then do a part time masters. I am really too entreprenial to work for anybody else.

I have decided its now or never becuase I can't leave a job to setup a business as I would have too much to loose. This way I have nothing to loose at all.

 

Ahahaha! You got suckered in by Silva!

 

Partly yes, I can just imagine me having my own R&D department :MILD:

I shall be putting BEST to the test though to see if what she says about is actually just bollocks :SLEEP:

My mate has also been taken in to the point where he wants to that Masters of enterprise.