Graduates now 'more likely to end up as cleaners', official figures show

ukcarper

chucknorris wrote: »

Yes although the timetable for each year varies slightly, it approximates to:

5 years of 1 day per week with lectures starting at 10am and ending at 8.30pm (it was 9.30pm but changed this year to 8.30pm). Students with an HNC can enter directly onto the 3rd year of the part time degree.

When I did it you had to have 3 additional HNC subjects then it were 3 years 9am to 9.30pm.

misskool

kabayiri wrote: »

There was a wide variation in hours when I was at Uni. My course had 27 hours a week lectures in the first year.

Politics or Botany had 7 hours per week.

Luckily, the politics students must have found a vital source of study material to supplement their learning in the student bars. This is the only explanation I can offer as why they were there

Can you do a degree in 2 years with a few more hours in lectures ? Only one way to find out !

Why is contact hours so important? My PhD students get 0 compulsory hours of lecture and yet they work more than the required 37.5 hours a week.

Anyways, you go to university to read for your degree, not to be spoon feed a number of lectures and hope that you get a job paying £30k a year for the end of it, though I am happy to say that is the main reason why most people now go to university and that must change. The motivation lies in yourself. If you have 7 hours of contact time, you make the most of it.

The students I tutored at Oxford saw me for an hour a week, one tutorial and one essay marking. 2 hours but it more than covered what they were required to learn and they certainly spent more than the 2 hours learning what I wanted them to know.

And if you've ever tried to find original material in a library for English/History you will know things are never where they are supposed to be. The problem with academic things is that they aren't many physical manifestations, I can look like I'm not doing very much but I'm trying to put all the pieces of information I have together and organise it better so that it will make sense. It's infinitely much more satisfying to get up and cook a meal as you will then have "something" at the end of it.

olly300

Lokolo wrote: »

How old are you?

My uncle hasn't got a degree but has been a Soft Eng. for YEARS. The only reason I did a degree was so I could get a programming job, as they seem to want people with degrees more than those without nowadays.

I've worked with a few people over 40 who work in IT who haven't got degrees.

Some them have had to study with the OU (oddly most of them do/did Maths) to get one as they found it difficult to get promoted or move employers.

Loughton_Monkey

kabayiri wrote: »

Can you do a degree in 2 years with a few more hours in lectures ? Only one way to find out !

Rather amazingly, Prince Charles got his 'degree' [a 'pass'] with only 2 years at Cambridge. And I don't think he did 'extra' lectures.

Look where this got him! OK, he flits around on 'fill-in' jobs amongst the family, but he still awaits a 'proper job'. Mind you, I have full confidence that he will get a job as 'Monarch' just as soon as a vacancy arises, but I'd rather this be later than sooner.

nomoreboomandbust

IronWolf wrote: »

It's i2010 and were recovering from a recession. Pretty pointless comparing figures now to 1993 it's hardly normal circumstances

Weren't you around in 1993 or is your memory playing tricks on you ? In 1993 we were recovering from the early 90's recession and unemployment was about 2.8 million mid 1993

kabayiri

misskool wrote: »

Why is contact hours so important? My PhD students get 0 compulsory hours of lecture and yet they work more than the required 37.5 hours a week.
...

It definitely is in engineering.

I doubt anyone would want a student of robotics setting up their own facilities in their bedsit

kabayiri

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

Rather amazingly, Prince Charles got his 'degree' [a 'pass'] with only 2 years at Cambridge. And I don't think he did 'extra' lectures.

Look where this got him! OK, he flits around on 'fill-in' jobs amongst the family, but he still awaits a 'proper job'. Mind you, I have full confidence that he will get a job as 'Monarch' just as soon as a vacancy arises, but I'd rather this be later than sooner.

He's a bright bloke that Charles. He might be our first ecoMonarch!

Has anyone else here paid to attend these boot camp courses? You find them in software; I'm not sure about other subjects.

They are very intensive, and pass marks show a fair degree of success.

misskool

kabayiri wrote: »

It definitely is in engineering.

I doubt anyone would want a student of robotics setting up their own facilities in their bedsit

I think one of my friends is trying very hard. He keeps taking 'bits' home to figure out why they won't do what his software is telling them to do. :rotfl::rotfl:

lostinrates

kabayiri wrote: »

It definitely is in engineering.

I doubt anyone would want a student of robotics setting up their own facilities in their bedsit

for us lecture time and seminar time was different to lab time. we had scheduled lab time for specific subjects and you could book lab time for other things/thesis work/further self study but not once things got massive (a course that had 30 people on it one year went to 130 the next...things suffered.)

kabayiri

I think my sister who also lectures would argue a similar line to MissKool. It is a sound coherent argument, one you would struggle to disagree with.

Truth is, subjects are so different. I always thought Arts-based academic subjects relied on a lot of self motivation by the student. Developing that attitude is a skill in itself.

My suggestion for shorter courses is because I genuinely worry for a student emerging with £50K of debt, even if it may not be paid off for years. What a weight that must be on someone's mind? Not everyone is comfortable with debt. I worried about being £500 overdrawn when I graduated.

As usual, there are no easy answers. I'm hoping the picture clears by the time my children have the F.E decision to make.