According to the Sodexo-Times HE University Lifestyle Survey, these are the Top 3 reasons students go to university:

1. To improve job opportunities (73%)
2. To improve salary prospects (58%)
3. To improve knowledge in an area of interest (57%)

And these are the Top 3 things prospective students want to know about a course:

1. More information about what a course would qualify them to do (47%)
2. Views of past students of the course (43%)
3. Number of contact hours with academic staff (42%)

Given this, what if every university prospectus answered these questions based on each degree course:

• What could I go on to do with my degree?
• What are my future prospects like after completing this course?
• How do previous students rate the course? [Include interviews & comments from past students?]
  
• What did those previous students go on to do?
• How much time do students get with tutors and how accessible are they outside formal teaching hours?
• How many hours are spent per week in formal teaching situations (i.e. lectures/seminars/tutorials)?

Many matters are important when choosing a degree, but these are overwhelmingly big questions according to the survey.  I’d say a good, open and honest prospectus would do well to answer the questions set out above as a priority.

That’s just what Paul Marshall, Executive Director of the 1994 Group of universities, said today:

“Providing transparent and accurate information about universities, and the nature of what they offer, should be a priority in delivering excellent student experience. Students need clear and accessible information to enable them to understand the choices available. Prospective students deserve more than glossy advertising prospectuses to inform crucial decisions about which university to attend and which course to study.”

As a student, would you know how your uni would answer the above questions?  Were you happy with the information given to you before starting, or would you have preferred greater detail for making a suitable decision?

Further resources on the survey:

Access the full University Lifestyle Survey [PDF 2Mb]
Major facts & statistics are mentioned in this Sodexo press release [PDF 66Kb]

There are nearly 400 posts here on TheUniversityBlog.  They get a varied amount of attention, from tens of thousands of visits to just a few hundred.

I’ve already mentioned the most visited posts here, but what about the less fortunate articles?

Here are 6 posts looking for a little bit of love.  They may currently be neglected, but please give them consideration.  Why?  Because…:

Kill Conflict Dead

Because… In an increasingly ‘instant’ world, we regularly act before thinking.  Please, let’s think before acting.

Why even your independence goes through a dependent phase

Because… You believe everything you read.  Once you accept this natural behaviour, it’s easier to move on and develop your critical thinking, which is so important for effective study.

Don’t let minor issues slow you down

Because… The world doesn’t change in a flash, but your thoughts can.  Are you willing to spoil your day by giving the trivial importance?

Be inspired, no matter what the situation

Because… You should “Enquire Within Upon Everything”.

Thinking traps and trapped thinking

Because… Flaws need to be recognised before you can do anything about them.

Controlling ‘valid disruptions’

Because… Disruptions aren’t always unwelcome, even if they are disruptive. You just need to be able to self-regulate and limit the extent to which you’re distracted.

Image credit: original by artwork_rebel (cc)

Heavy quoteageness today.

What do you mean, “Quoteageness is not a word”?  I’m having none of that.

EduLinks time!

From The Chronicle – Literature for Real:

“I read a decent amount of non-nonfiction. I could certainly compile a list of my top 100 novels, but I could reel off my top 100 nonfiction books in a quarter of the time. Fine writing, no matter the genre, remains fine writing. However, given the choice between reading a middling novel and a middling work of nonfiction, the latter wins every time, offering at least some compensatory lode of information. I am the kind of reader—and we are legion—who is a sucker for the aura of the real.”

Dan Pink – 7 rules for writing

Deliciously accurate in my opinion.  Write, write, write, move, read aloud, write, write.  It’s a bit more detailed and helpful, but you’ll see what I mean.

From Topsyturvydom – End of civilisation as we know it:

“At our open days, there are frequently more parents than students, and it’s the parents who tend to dominate the question and answer sessions. The most frequently asked question when I am performing is ‘what can my son/daughter do with an English degree?’ I usually answer by agreeing that studying the Victorian novel or seventeenth century poetry is not, in itself, going to open any doors for them, but that the attributes they will acquire through diligent study and participation on their degree programme will be useful in a wide variety of careers. I often throw in an anecdote about a big cheese from a giant multinational computer company who visited the campus a few years ago. ‘I don’t care what degree subjects they have,’ he said, ‘we can teach them all they need to know about computers in our training sessions. What I need are confident, articulate people, who can communicate well, who can work in teams and on their own initiative, who can write clearly and produce the goods under pressure, who can be organised and intelligent in their approach to work.’ Which is, I point out to the parents, exactly the range of attributes we seek to instil in our students.”

Student Direct – Eco Sex

Full of helpful advice to sex fans who want to help the environment.  Advice like this:

“Bondage fans should invest in Velcro hand-cuffs which, being made of cloth, are biodegradable and require no metal mining or oil based plastics. Steer clear of hemp rope though as it’s horribly scratchy.”

From University of Leeds – Computer says no:

“Although computers assume that people tend to act logically, limits in human memory and the amount of information people can process often leads us to take mental ‘short cuts’ to answer complex problems and as a result, error and bias creeps in. These errors are compounded by a human tendency to look for information that confirms what we already think and ignore everything else.

“A key purpose of computers is to provide decision makers with extra information and this may simply be used to reassure themselves they are making the correct choice, when in fact they may be making the wrong one.”

Fun Life Development – How to Approach Personal Development

Is personal development a different beast for everyone?  Hint: Yes, it is.

If the hint doesn’t help, read how 7 online gurus answer the same two questions.

From The Ed Techie – What might cuts really mean for higher ed:

“…when people talk about 18% cuts, these are not merely belt-tightening exercises. In order to realise those types of cuts you actually have to lose more staff, and make deeper cuts because there are residual overheads in the system. And cuts of this magnitude are unprecedented and when you put them into the kind of context we see above (can you really imagine closing all Russell Group universities?) then the scale of the problem becomes apparent.”

Charade – When academic life is not as it seems

A guest post I did for Megan at Charade.  With so many struggles in uni life, study can suffer.  Some of the comments you or your friends make may not always be entirely accurate.  So what is the truth?