EduLinks – From first digs to final dissertation

EduLinks haven’t been given a show for a while.  As I recover from being ill all this week, the least I can do is deliver a few links of webby goodness.  Happy reading and viewing!

Chronicle – Breathing and Pedagogy

Tutor and students make a conscious effort to breathe: “The quality of student attention and participation in class has definitely improved – not only in the aggregate, but over the weeks of the semester I often see individual students make clear progress in their focus and engagement with the material.”

To Promote Critical Thinking You Must Model It

Argument also needs shaping critically for best results.

Hack College – Students Can Build Empires Between Classes

Now is the time to strike!

9 Evidence-based Study Tips

Clear tips you’ll want to remind yourself about once in a while.

Sid Savara – The Ebbinghaus Curve of Forgetting

Retain your ability to retain.

Where Good Ideas Come From

To Do: Dissertation

Studying…or Stawsome? A rather bizarre study guide…

If you’ve not already seen this, you need to. Musical wooness to start the weekend.

Why fees don’t act as a deterrent to uni

Would higher tuition fees put you off university?  A study by the University of Leicester suggests demand for places will be strong even if fees went up by triple their current amount.

730 university applicants were asked if they would be put off by higher fees.  The majority said they would still apply.  Slightly more than 10% would be put off by a £10,000 yearly fee.

photo by subcircle

Prospective students don't feel locked out over fees (photo by subcircle)

This is surprisingly low in contrast to the recent NUS & HSBC survey that asked a similar question to current university students.  Asked if they would have been deterred by higher fees, a whopping 78% said they would have been put off by fees of £10,000. [Click for full survey report in Word (doc) format]

So why the difference?  The NUS survey asked students already in HE.  Those students are more than aware of the fees burden, so it’s clear they would be alarmed by an even higher cost.

The Leicester study went the opposite way and asked sixth formers; those not yet in the higher education system.  With so many people applying to universities, I’m sure most students don’t feel they have much choice but to accept whatever price they have to pay.

At a time when university is considered the only route to career success by many, the focus on applying won’t rest on fees.  Suggest everyone had to pay £50,000 a year under these circumstances and I doubt even then you’d have a majority turning away from uni.

Bursaries and scholarships are available to cover some, if not all, costs.  These schemes would have to grow if fees were to rise.  Sadly, students most in need of this financial assistance are not sufficiently aware of such schemes.

The Office for Fair Access (Offa) reports that bursaries are not attracting poorer students.  The “chaotic patchwork” of bursaries are not doing the job of supporting students most in need.  Those at a financial disadvantage are far more likely to attend a university with lower bursaries.  The links are clearly not joining up.

Nik Darlington recently complained that he found the NUS/HSBC survey to be unrealistic.  He argued that by asking current or former students about fees, “This will not give you a realistic market opinion – these respondents are biased having already paid less than half of that amount for their current or former studies.  You have to be putting the question to future students for satisfactory realism”.

While the Leicester survey did put the question to future students, I don’t believe that survey can paint a full picture either.  The answers aren’t surprising.  So long as prospective students deem university to be the usual route forward after school, most students won’t appear to be put off by fees.

Darlington says Leicester have offered “vastly more robust research“.  Nevertheless, the results may be missing the wider point.  Put both sets of answers together to see why.  Before university, any fee is just a price that needs paying.  During university, that fee doesn’t seem quite so obligatory.  The change of opinion is important.

And how about after graduation?  Are current fees worthwhile and, if so, would higher fees still be acceptable?  I am skeptical about the £100,000 graduate premium in these changing times.  Would a graduate-only survey highlight resentment over fees even at their current levels?

How important is opinion in these matters anyway?  It seems that views vary, even amongst students.  And as Ferdinand von Prondzynski suggests, “the electoral impact of fees may be much less predictable than one might think”.

The future is going to be tough, whatever happens.  We have an ever increasing number of questions and very few answers.  Even if the Browne Review recommends higher fees, as is expected, the coalition government have to work a reasonable solution.  Under the circumstances, finding that solution will prove difficult.

And that last sentence is a contender for understatement of the year…

Unpaid internships & graduate quandaries

I’m in a muddle.  On the one hand, I don’t agree that unpaid internships are reasonable.  On the other hand, I’m aware that some graduates get great benefit from time in these roles.  For example, Mario Creatura says that his unpaid internship with the 1994 Group was fantastic and something he would do all over again.

photo by amortize

photo by amortize

Now the 1994 Group is seeking more graduates for unpaid roles.  These are part-time, typically two days each week, lasting a couple of months.  While Mario would heartily recommend this from his past experience, not everyone is happy.

Co-director of Intern Aware, Ben Lyons, told The Guardian:

“Working for free is impossible for the majority of graduates.  We cannot have a situation in which young people are only able to start a career in education through the support of the Bank of Mum and Dad. It goes without saying that it is socially unjust if affluent graduates are first in line for the best career opportunities. But it is also unfair on hard-pressed parents to have to bankroll their kids, and it is bad for the organisations if the best jobs go the richest graduates, rather than the most able.”

I can fully understand why Mario endorses the internship on offer with the 1994 Group.  It sounds like a great opportunity.  He says:

“As a graduate, much maligned by the state and society as a whole, it was refreshing and downright encouraging to be finally working in an organisation that truly valued your work. We weren’t there to make tea and coffee; we were there to learn and work as if we were professionals within the sector. To learn from respected officers, attend prestigious conferences, assist research on influential policy and write speeches to mass audiences was to help with the essential day-to-day running of an organisation that prides itself on working for the student experience; high quality research and world-class teaching.” [Source]

So far, so positive.  I am happy that other former interns on the 1994 Group intake have also come out in praise of the scheme.  On this front, the 1994 Group can be heartily congratulated for offering such a great service to graduates.  There is clearly no issue here.

Nevertheless, I remain uncomfortable as these unpaid roles automatically shut the door for many graduates. Mario’s argument is that so long as you are determined to succeed in life, “then you will find a way, any way, to sustain your skills in a very demanding market”.

I’ve had issues with this simplistic approach before.  Determination and drive are necessary, yet no amount of determination can guarantee ‘a way’.  It’s a good start, but not enough to suggest unpaid internships are therefore acceptable.  Also, some unpaid roles require more than a couple of days a week, leaving no space to take on part-time paid work in the mean time.  Again, kudos to the 1994 Group for giving graduates enough flexibility through their scheme.

One way to bring all companies to satisfactory levels is to create a standardised system for internships.  Newell Hampson-Jones of the British Standards Institution (BSI) told me how this would prove a solid approach for both employers and workers:

“Rather than enforce new regulation, it’s my opinion that mediation and compromise could bring the most positive solution for employers, universities and graduates. In my view, we should invite the stakeholders together to create a standard which will help all parties. With this standard, employers can ensure they get the best graduates by offering the most challenging internships, universities and colleges can ensure their graduates are protected by requiring all companies working with them meet the standard and, most of all, graduates can be assured that they will be treated like a valuable employee and not have their enthusiasm taken advantage of with unfair financial conditions.

“I’ve always found it interesting that, during my previous experience of finding students internships, it has been the smaller, specialist organisations like 1994 Group who have provided the most challenging and useful internships, whilst the large glamorous brands have, by and large, just used the system for recruiting admin assistants and tea caddies; expecting students to be grateful just to have the brand on their CV. Hopefully a standard like this can discontinue this practice and give graduates an opportunity to hold those employers who take advantage of them to account.”

A big problem emerging is the increased popularity of unpaid roles.  Many of these roles are legally obliged to pay at least minimum wage, but challenges aren’t exactly forthcoming, hence the continued practice in offering structured roles without a wage.

Perhaps the idea of standardising internships would sort the muddle.  Done right, the process would even give graduates better scope to explain the benefits of their role for CV purposes.

There is currently no satisfactory answer.  I don’t expect my muddle to go away any time soon.

Would you take up an unpaid internship?  What do you think of the situation?

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Clubs & Societies: Don’t Think ‘Employability’, Think ‘Achievements’

What do clubs and societies mean to you?

After Stanley Lee’s guest post, I started thinking about the reasons for joining up to societies and how different people use what’s available to them.

The key word that came to my mind was:

ACHIEVEMENTS

What you achieve could be the most important element linking the extra-curricular activities you undertake and your future potential to an employer.

However, your main purpose for joining anything shouldn’t be in order to impress an employer.  If it fits your career interests and potential future, by all means jump in.  But there’s little point in signing up to wow.  Nobody will be wowed.

For Carl Andrew, not all clubs express a symbol of achievement in the first place:

“Serving as president of the Fifa Appreciation Society, the Free Hugs Society (does pretty much what it says on the tin) or the Comic Books Society is not going to look very impressive on your CV. Employers are far more likely to look for students who have instead been president of their university’s politics, history or debating society.”

I disagree.  Serving as a president may appear more prestigious in a debating society over a Free Hugs society.  But a Free Hugs president isn’t in a worse position in highlighting what they achieved in the position.

photo by Jesslee Cuizon

photo by Jesslee Cuizon

For instance, a Free Hugs president could start an initiative for members to give away hugs at big Fresher events, or set up a ‘friending’ scheme to help International students and those suffering from homesickness.  These ideas could have brought forward an increase in student retention and student satisfaction at their university.

Unlikely examples? Maybe, maybe not. Nevertheless, these are the types of achievement to shout about.  By highlighting the strengths of your presidency and what you accomplished, employers won’t care about the name of your society.

Andrew also mentions how students use societies to boost employability:

“This can also be harmful for the societies when students join them, or seek positions within them, purely to boost their employability. Last year, I turned away a student from the Just Vote campaign I was organising (to encourage voting in the general election) when he mentioned that his CV was the only reason he was planning to come on board.”

Andrew makes a great point and I understand why he was unwilling to take the student on board.  While that may sound unfair to the student, I doubt a half-hearted attempt at looking better on paper would help in the long run.  A minimal boost is possible, but an eye-opening interest on paper would only come about if that student could explain their achievements in a society or campaign.

When I was at uni, there was no English society.  Some of us (students and academics) wanted to do something about that.  So we set the society up.  That’s an achievement.

We arranged book sales so students who’d finished with their books could sell them on cheaply to new students.  Everyone wins. That’s an achievement.

Students upped the game the following year by beginning an arts magazine with poetry and short stories.  That’s an achievement.

Being a member of a society is not enough if you can’t focus on the successes.  Say that you were a member of your English Society and an employer may shrug their shoulders.  Tell them you were a founder, that you helped students save money, that you organised events, that the society thrived…these are achievements.

I’m not suggesting any of us were heroes.  Achievements aren’t a sign that you’re amazing or you did everything yourself.  Achievements are signs of how much you care, of how you brought something to life, and of what you did to improve a situation.

When you next consider joining a club, society, campaign or cause, don’t think of it simply in terms for employability or personal gain.  Instead, consider what you can give back while you move things forward.  The more you achieve to benefit the society and its causes, the more you’re likely to benefit yourself.