Welcome to the Board Ranger 96. As Stan said, no one's criticizing the individuals. They make their choices within a system that I feel has misled students in past years. Current students just need to go in with their eyes open, that, for example, a 2-2 in Drama after 3 years, while being useful later in life in e.g. an amateur dramatics society, may not open that many doors in business and commerce. Business and commerce may not be important to that individual, and so, aware of the reality, they go ahead with drama, and that's fine, they make their informed choice. PS Good luck with your course!
I think that's a great shout because I have some oscar winning drama performances in the UK corporate culture The entire staff at where I am stationed must have all got degrees in drama Come to think of it you can witness people in everyday life now really really really really so so so getting into their roles its so so so amazing
Sounds like you work with some natural Thespians who have no need of academia. Every day, a different performance...Life must never be dull in your office!
Just heard that a friend's son has got into his first choice Uni. He was offered a place if he got an A and 2 Bs. He actually got 3 C's, phoned them up and they decided to give him the place anyway. Good for him and he's a good lad, but tells you everything you need to know about the financial need of the institutions to fill every spot.
So have I got this right... Undergraduate degrees in Scotland are essentially free for Scottish nationals and EU nationals, however, if you come from England, Wales and NI you have to pay to study in Scotland. How on earth does that work?
Not sure on the workings of it all, but essentially you are correct. The standard tuition fee for an undergraduate degree course in Scotland in 2015 is £1,820. The Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) will pay these fees if you meet eligibility conditions; for example, if you are a Scottish resident and/or a qualifying non-UK EC student. If you come from the Rest of the UK (RUK), universities in Scotland will charge you variable fees up to a maximum of £9,000 just like England and Wales.
Not really - they are seperate education systems, so can charge whatever they decide (although I understand your point). Surely the argument would be better turned on it's head and ask why the English universities can charge and then the students get loaded with debts whuch can take them years to pay off?
So then why allow EU nationals the subsidies but discriminate against the RUK students? I support subsidies for your own nationals but then to say no to English, Welsh and NIish who are 'EU' nationals is wrong. The Scots are only part of the EU as part of the UK, as are the RUKs. Surprised this has been allowed to happen, then again maybe not!
Damn, a nuanced and balanced response............both my brothers got to Uni after going to comprehensive schools whereas my two best mates from Grammar school both left education at 18, one has been Financial Director of several nationally well known companies and the other has had a long career in the commercial side of broadcasting with Sky and others and now has his own very trendy company. As long as your chances are not closed off (as Richard Ranger implied) not doing Uni is the end of nothing. As far as job titles go I love the LinkedIn inflation. My own is intentionally completely impenetrable, even to company employees, and not strictly accurate in terms of byzantine company hierarchy. Can't be arsed to change it. I have asked a couple of people about their ambitions and got the response 'I want to be a Vice President'. "Vice President of what, paperclips?" "I don't mind'. I tell them that my entirely achievable ambition is to spend most of my time reading a book and sipping Brunello on my terrace in a hilltop village in Umbria. But secretly it's to change the 'Global' in my job title to 'Galactic'.
Point taken... and not as someone that 'employs' young people I can't really comment on the intricacies of the employer perspective. The essence of what I was saying is that working, in whatever form, through uni can be a very positive experience. What I learned about human nature from being a waiter/barmean has stood me in good stead despite the fact that I didn't pursue a career in catering - dealing with people is a universal skill which we can all benefit from, and in my case the confidence it gave me really helps with e.g. presenting/pitching - at the same time, learning what it is like to be on the 'other side of the counter' i.e. doing the serving rather than being the served gives one a bit of life perspective and certainly teaches a bit of humility when you're again the one being served. It is perhaps sad that the perceived need to gain 'work experience' in a field you intend to pursue is given so much credence - especially since degrees and university are an opportunity to learn and experience so many different things - all things that will help anyone to become a much more rounded individual.
Welcome to the forum 96 and nail on the head mate. Mickey mouse degrees which will help boost the government education figures but most likely not lead to a worthy job in the long term. Still fair play to anyone with any degree as they are much more clever than me and got there on merit and good grades.
Programme on BBC1 at the moment about what parents will do 'to get the very best free education' (programme makers words) for their kids. I'm glad my kids are too old for us to go through this ****. Fighting to get kids into C of E schools by attending church, then stopping as soon as the offer of a place is made (over 50%), renting a flat to get an addresss in the catchment area for a 'good' school, departments full of local authority 'investigators' trying to catch people bending the rules - and taking them to court. Here's an idea. Take the resource and energy going into this quasi policeforce and improve the schools people don't want their kids to go to. Havering Council employs at least 3 people (probably more, these were the ones on the telly) to find 26 dodgy applications of which 9 were found to be 'fraudulent'. Of course, as soon as they get their little darlings into a 'good' school, the parents spend the rest of their time sneaking them out to go on illicit term time holidays.
