The holy grail of university education.

studentphil

Sola wrote: »

Sadly not - our entire IT department is outsourced.

You need to move to Asia Ringo.

studentphil

Hereward wrote: »

Nope, he's qualifed by experience. AFAIK, there aren't professional bodies for Lectures.

that amazes me.

Sola

studentphil wrote: »

That's the sort of feeling you get from students I know who have got city jobs they are vastly over confident and really big I ams. It is nice to know that is not a reflective sample.

I think that says more about your hang-ups personally than it does about them. There are sectors where huge confidence and ego are a benefit eg. no shrinking violets in a sales environment. Although obviously it needs to be tempered with wisdom, given last year's sub-prime fiasco. But the more you think solely in stereotypes, the more wrong you'll be overall.

Hereward

studentphil wrote: »

that amazes me.

Why? Is it that he applied himself and work up from the bottom rather than go in near the top?

studentphil

Hereward wrote: »

Why? Is it that he applied himself and work up from the bottom rather then up in near the top?

Yes, there seems a great divide in universities between support staff and academic staff, therefore, to move up seems unlikely, especially with no degree.

poet123

Hapless wrote: »

It would only be a poor career decision in your eyes, it may not be in theirs.

I guess you will be one of those "helicopter" parents then when the time comes.

As a parent we should all encourage our kids to achieve their potential. I have 3 kids 2 of whom are at Uni and we support them both,when the time come the 3rd will also probably go as well and we will support him.

We do this;- a) because we are able to
b) because we see it as part of our duties a a parent to give them the best start we can (as we were given by our parents) and
c) because we want to see them do well,earn decent salaries and be happy......money doesn't make you happy but no money does usually make you miserable!

So I am with Ringo on this and make no apology for it,and have never been a helicopter parent,just a caring,supportive one....there is a difference!!

Riq

Uni education was the holy grail FOR ME. None of my family had been to uni before so I was the first and still only person to have a degree in my family (until June when my sister graduates!! grrr! )

But it is more than an academic education it is a brilliant social education too. You meet so many people from all over the country. I miss it like mad as it was the best 3 years of my life.

lxpeanut

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Whatever happened to "I want to do a degree in <SUBJECT> because I want a career in <JOB TYPE>"

Did that ever happen for the majority? Most degree courses used to be things like pure science, maths and language not directly applicable to a job at all unless it was acemdemia. More degrees are vocational these days. I did a degree that was directly applicable to a career unfortunatly there wasn't enough jobs in that sector. My degree still counted for me when I went for other jobs though.

I think the problem is there are too many diferent degree courses. Too many people have degrees and some of them are in stupid subjects but many jobs don't differentiate between the good and bad subjects.

lxpeanut

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Nope SP, currently you don't need any special qualification to lecture. I've given a lecture at a uni as part of a post-grad course and i've got no special certificate to say I can.

They may be introducing a requirement soon, but it's not required yet

To lecture you just need to be an expert in a subject. A degree does make you an expert experiance does.

Hapless_2

poet123 wrote: »

As a parent we should all encourage our kids to achieve their potential. I have 3 kids 2 of whom are at Uni and we support them both,when the time come the 3rd will also probably go as well and we will support him.

We do this;- a) because we are able to
b) because we see it as part of our duties a a parent to give them the best start we can (as we were given by our parents) and
c) because we want to see them do well,earn decent salaries and be happy......money doesn't make you happy but no money does usually make you miserable!

So I am with Ringo on this and make no apology for it,and have never been a helicopter parent,just a caring,supportive one....there is a difference!!

So if a child of yours turned round and said "I want to be a bin man" what would you do? Would you say "No way, you are not doing a job like that, you will not be fulfilling your potential. You will go to university, even if you don't want to because I say you should" ?

Telling a child that they can't do x job because it is beneath them is as bad as saying you can't go to uni because I can't afford it or won't pay for it. It puts too much pressure on the child.
What if your child decides to drop out of university?

When will people learn that career choice is a personal thing for an individual and children should not be pressurised into something they do not want to do, whether that means achieving their "potential" or not at that current time.