I like the first thought, “You’re not going to save the world with your dissertation”. No need for grand ideas that can’t be built in time (or at all).
The Guardian, FT, Telegraph & Sky are looking for graduates to take up paid internships. Be warned, you’ve only got this weekend before Sky’s deadline arrives. So be quick if you’re interested!
“…college students approach research as a hunt for the right answer instead of a process of evaluating different arguments and coming up with their own interpretation.
“‘Not being aware of the diverse resources that exist or the different ways knowledge is created and shared is dangerous,’ she said. ‘College is a time to find information and learn about multiple arguments, and exploring gets sacrificed if you conduct research in this way.'”
A problem that’s been with us for years. Students panic about renting a place long before they even need to think about it:
“Every year the same myths come up, that there will be a lack of housing, that the good houses go early. There’s a horrible trend for students to rush into a group of friends for a house for the next year. People can end up with worse houses than if they had waited.”
Your good news won’t sound positive to everyone. Marko says that shouldn’t put you off, recommending you “Do what is right for you!”
Other people can advise you in things you hadn’t considered, but the final choice needs to land with you. Just because a similar thing didn’t work out for one person, your own circumstances will be very different. It’s up to you to take advice on board and work out if you need to think about things more.
Need something quick, easy and online to handle your to-do lists and workflow organisation? WorkFlowy is as simple as it comes. And being online, you can login wherever you can get reach the Web.
When tutors suggest you ‘read around’, what do they really mean? When you get a reading list with hundreds of books on it, where do you start?
photo by Valentina_A
Reading around covers a lot of ground and is important for undergraduate work:
“Reading will be a crucial element of your study in higher education…There is a much greater expectation and requirement, if you are to be successful, to read more independently and more widely than you may have previously.” Studying and Learning at University – Alan Pritchard (p28)
So, reading needs to be ‘independent’ and ‘wide’. Let’s go further:
“University work needs more than simple reproduction of facts. You need to be able to construct an argument and to support this with evidence. This means that you need to draw on the literature that you have read in order to support your position…What is important is to present a tight, well-argued case for the view you finally present as the one you favour.” The Smarter Student – Kathleen McMillan & Jonathan Weyers (p226)
What you say must be backed up. That’s where reading around comes in. Your aim isn’t to get a unique view on the world. That’s almost impossible. You need to refer to what’s already out there, which is why you can’t rely on a small number of sources unless you’re content with a bare pass (or worse).
Here’s what reading around does for you:
Reading around helps you fill in the missing gaps you didn’t realise were there;
Reading around lets you know the subject, rather than just the facts;
Reading around is like filling up a jar in stages. You start with big rocks of information. When the big rocks fill the jar, you can still put in small stones of detail that fall between the big rocks. When the small stones fill the jar, you can still put in fine sand of specifics to fill in the smallest, unclaimed areas in the jar.
How do you start reading around? Here are a few ways:
Read more than the key texts on reading lists – When tutors list ‘further reading’, ‘extra’ texts, or ‘suggested’ materials, they aren’t giving you anything that’s surplus to requirements. The purpose of further reading is so you can learn more, not to read more stuff you don’t need to know;
Highlight research that considers similar issues and explore their findings – You are discovering what has gone before. How have we reached where we are today? Is research still going on, or have we reached a dead end? What is influential and why?;
Don’t rely on textbooks alone – Read up online, in journals, in textbooks, in the news, and so on. Check for the most recent research going on, even if that means no more than a quick Google Scholar search for papers in the last year or two;
Find links between your subject and another field – If you stick to your subject alone, you can’t appreciate the bigger picture. How does your subject impact upon others and vice versa?;
Don’t think ‘answers’, think ‘questions’ – You’re finding what fits with your argument and how matters can move forward or be explored further. Research wouldn’t be necessary if we had all the answers;
Check bibliographies of the most useful books – When you find a corker of a book, or you rely heavily on a general textbook, the bibliography and references within can help in the same way a tutor’s reading list does.
Reading lists are detailed for a reason. For first years especially, they need to show variation, given that students will be coming from many backgrounds and with varying levels of understanding around the subject. You’re not expected to read everything from cover to cover. You’re not even expected to check every single title out. But you are expected to use the list to explore and make your own discoveries.
Some books will sing to you like beautiful music, while others relentlessly scream nonsense at you. If a book’s content confuses you, don’t despair. It doesn’t mean you don’t understand the subject; it means the book isn’t a good fit for you.
To get an idea of how a book or article speaks to you and if it’s important to your research, check out:
Chapter titles;
Abstracts;
Introductions;
Conclusions;
Headings/Sub-titles
Lists, activities, images & tables;
First & last paragraphs of chapters.
If certain texts aren’t available in your library, make reservations and remember to do some quick and easy online research about the book. You can often find a lot of content long before you get your hands on the text.
Whatever you’re studying, a lot of reading is involved. With so much out there, you may be stuck for a starting point. John Kay explains that there’s no point in making a specific plan at times like these. Just jump in:
“When faced with a task that daunts you, a project that you find difficult, begin by doing something. Choose a small component that seems potentially relevant to the task. While it seems to make sense to plan everything before you start, mostly you can’t: objectives are not clearly enough defined, the nature of the problem keeps shifting, it is too complex, and you lack sufficient information. The direct approach is simply impossible.” Obliquity: Why our goals are best achieved indirectly – John Kay (p175)
Kay’s point can be taken further. You may worry that you couldn’t possibly read everything. If you’re meant to read around, how can you do that when there are millions of potential reads?
The answer is to read enough and know when to stop.
How are you expected to know that? Well, there’s no magical answer to finding a time to stop. However, as you read around and research, there comes a time when your viewpoint is more confident and you have plenty quotations, references, similar views, and so on. At this point, it’s pretty safe to start.
If you need to go back later, then do it. Reading around doesn’t happen in one sitting. It’s an ongoing process throughout your degree.
Part of the reason why you’re given reading lists in the first place is so you can see what is already viewed as important in your field. You’ll see the big names, be introduced to the crucial concepts, be handed the most influential texts, and get an idea of what authors/books other academics have heavily referenced.
Reading around gives you a chance to be independent in your research, whilst being pointed in the right direction so you don’t veer too wildly off topic. There’s no trickery or punishment involved, even if you do feel overwhelmed at first.
As with most things, the more you practice, the more you’ll get into the swing of things.
What experiences have you had with ‘reading around’?
The government today responded to the Browne review recommendations. A few brief details on government proposals:
A rise in the tuition fee cap up to a possible £9,000 (including a lower cap of £6,000);
higher interest rates on loans, up to 3% above inflation;
students pay back once they earn above £21,000;
slightly higher maintenance grant for students from families earning below £25,000;
Introduction of £150m ‘National Scholarships Programme’;
greater loan support for part-time students.
For greater detail, Times Higher Education have put together the main detail in the proposals. There will be a lot more discussion throughout the week across the media, that’s for sure. Then there’s the small matter of a demo in London on November 10…
Just after the majority of teaching funding was slashed by the government, universities are going to have to find a lot of money from elsewhere. So it’s unlikely that institutions will want to charge less than £9,000 if possible. As with many capping exercises of the past, expect to see the cap become the price. Chances are that £9,000 will become a standard figure, with £6,000 being charged by any universities that cannot work toward the extra agreements. Whether or not you agree with a full marketisation of higher education in a cap-less system, it’s hard to see a variable rate up to £6,000 or £9,000 do more than push the standard price up across all institutions.
This situation is clearly one in which the financial burden will be placed on students. Those in favour of these changes are keen to say that it is graduates, not students, who will pay back the debt. These graduates are still the same individuals, regardless of what you call them. Students don’t pay up front at the moment, so the government is not proposing any type of revolutionary change.
Today’s proposals appear to be more of an offsetting exercise in regard to government debts. People won’t be saddled with credit card or mortgage style debts, but neither are they faced with that under today’s system.
Graduates will likely pay back more over 30 years. The lower debt we currently have, coupled with a cut off of 25 years, is not much different to a higher debt and a cut off of 30 years. The only real difference is the amount of time many individuals spend paying money back. Some call this a stealth tax. Some say that NUS and other opponents to fee hikes are scaring potential students unnecessarily.
Yet these proposals will make an impact. And alternative measures have been offered. For example, NUS released a blueprint outlining a graduate tax long before the Browne review was announced. That graduate tax was essentially ignored. The type of graduate tax dismissed in the Browne report was a basic, pure graduate tax; not the one offered by NUS.
For all the discussion going on today and all the debate within government, today’s proposals are not all that different to what is currently on offer. Yes, graduates won’t find themselves having to pay scary amounts every month once they’re earning over £21,000, but those payments will go on for much longer than they do today, because:
The fees will be higher;
The interest rate will be higher than inflation;
The cut off before remaining debt is written off will go up from 25 years to 30 years.
Some complaints regarding the graduate tax offered by NUS suggested that many graduates would have to pay back more than they do now.
However, at a time when fees are set to potentially treble, that argument cannot work. There are pros and cons to everything. Despite mentioning NUS recommendations, I’m not suggesting any particular solution here. My main issue is that people are not being listened to.
And while debate rolls on regarding the future of HE, it’s difficult for anyone to sensibly debate the issues because the goal posts keep being changed. Is it any wonder so many people are angry at Liberal Democrat moves to support higher fees when every single Lib Dem MP signed the NUS pledge that they would not support those very proposals?
Situations change and decisions do need to be updated based on new developments. However, much of the situation was known when those pledges were signed and many alternatives had been proposed, including by Lib Dems themselves.
With an almost total cut in government funding for university teaching, much higher fees will not provide universities with extra income. Those fees will also, therefore, result in no change to the student experience. The individual is set to pay more for the same and, quite possibly, more for less.
It is, therefore, no surprise that so many students, academics, parents, and other individuals are unhappy with what’s happening in higher education right now.
As things stand, I imagine there will be a considerable turn out in London on November 10. Mario Creatura recently said:
“I’m concerned that the decision to protest has been built on a foundation of emotive language gleaned from activists and the headlines which were ultimately based on Browne’s recommendation rather than what the coalition has actually said.”
Now the coalition has spoken. Creatura was worried that the London demo may protest too many issues and cover too much ground. But I feel this shows the magnitude of what is happening.
The Conservatives have been fond of saying “We’re in this together”, so why can’t people covering all aspects of higher education say the same thing? The issues may be plenty and cover a large proportion of HE, but that’s exactly the reason why solidarity is necessary more than ever.
Far from diluting the noise, a collective effort may be exactly what’s needed to point out why the situation must be taken more seriously and with greater focus on the bigger picture.
The government wants students to have more of a say in what’s important to them regarding higher education. I couldn’t agree more. It’s time to speak up.
More journalism gubbins. This time, how students at the University of Central Lancashire extensively covered the government’s recent comprehensive spending review. A fascinating insight.
Mark’s advice is quick and to the point, yet should still provide you with a wealth of ideas you hadn’t considered. There’s even a section on keeping good records, which is more important than you might think. Well worth a read.
KCLSU – Don’t be a zombie
As students and academics prepare to march in London on November 10, lots of videos are popping up to promote the cause. King’s College have made an impressive effort here.
TheUniversityBlog 