venetodavid

If we're talking about being let down by the system, it isn't me you should feel sorry for. The system lets us all down to different degrees. And I don't think that one can become well-rounded thanks to a degree. To stick my neck out, I know a lot of people with degrees and they don't seem that well-rounded. Indeed, most of my friends from previous generations describe their time at university as a blur of partying and watching daytime television not unlike The Young Ones. Only at the end of every year did they have to make a concentrated effort. That's not the case for all degrees, I'm sure... Actually, a lot of them are surprised at how much work I have to do every week and how serious and concrete a lot of it is. Because I do it online, they keep saying I'm missing the "university experience" they enjoyed. I can safely say that the skills I'm learning on the eCommunications degree are already useful in my job. I'm sure the final year at Sheffield Hallam will be more academic and involve more essay writing and research so I may yet end up well-rounded after all...

I live in Italy and they hardly seem to write essays at all. Exams are normally oral exams rather than 3 hour stints in the sports hall. There are pros and cons to this too. I think the oral exam is based on the idea that if you want to know how much a person knows about something, ask them some questions, give them the third degree on the spot and see how they deal with it. On the other hand, essay writing is as skill too. In some ways, forum discussions are a bit of both. You can't just write anything on an assessed forum; you have to be able to back up what you're saying, show that you've considererd what other people are saying and where they are coming from and show that you do have a knowledge of what you are talking about. I think some people will find essays more difficult than forums; others will find having to respond to unexpected questions and challenges in the middle of making a point equally difficult. Most Italian students learn their stuff by heart and can recite it at will, there are fewer reasoning skills involved. If you write a lot of essays, you learn how to do it. What I'm saying is that, perhaps rightly, there are formulas and conventions involved. Perhaps, that's the same with forums - learning to debate and discuss intelligently rather than just ranting and abusing. The more skills we learn the better - even the ones that are considered low-brow.

Yes, I agree. And as you imply: if you have children, they end up owning you. And yes, they make you feel vulnerable and fearful. So some of us end up building barricades around ourselves and our children and others get to explore the planet. Some of us are looked down upon for our insular behaviour and others, who travel the world, do the looking down.

I think some are and some aren't. Like anything else, there are appropriate and inapproapriate ways to write short messages. I'm always upsetting people, unintentionally perhaps because something gets lost in the form. I use email a lot at work with other countries and you really have to think about writing in a way that non-English mother tongue recipients can understand. Maybe you'd agree that just because young people are already well trained in speaking English to each other before they come to university, it doesn't necessarily mean they are good at it: some are and some need help. There are different ways of teaching critical and lateral thinking. The eCommunications Degree isn't just about forums and emails but longer pieces of work. I think it redresses the balance between essay and the trend for shorter more interactive forms of communication and expression. I agree that the emphasis on the workplace is a shame. I'd love to have gone to university for the love of knowledge, like people did just a few decades back; now I'm going because I want to get a decent job (with a contract and a pension and some paid holiday and sick pay, for example). I don't know of any course doing 3 years full time training through short messages. I'm just saying there ought to be a balance that reflects the real world in 2011. Actually, for me, the difficulty is writing short messages to the point rather than going into too much detail and boring people (like now).

Doesn't that just reflect that in the workplace you rarely have to write traditional essays but you do have to exchange a lot of short messages? I'm not saying it's better but that perhaps it is more appropriate to a society where a degree is all about getting a good job whilst education for the sake of education is just a luxury for the wealthy.

Yes, that's my story. Rubbish at school but picked things up over the years. One thing about the eCommunications Degree I'm doing is that you realise some of the things you've picked up can be used in ways you didn't realise. In other cases, just learning a little bit more from someone else can top up what you've learnt on your own but open up new possibilities. Finally, I never had a reason to blog or use Facebook or make videos or whatever so the course gave an excuse to have a go. At least when I say I don't like Facebook but I can see that it's very, very useful to other people or firms, etc, I've done it having had the experience of using it. Before the eComms course, I would have just dismissed it as rubbish.

What gets me is that, from the logic of the government, about students being a burden, you could say that my parents and grandparents paid for all these MP's to go to university but now it's their son and grandchild who want to go, we have to find the money ourselves.

Yes, and it's horrible that you have to have a degree for so many things and then they make it so hard for you to get a degree. I'm one of the lucky ones; I get to do it all online. There's no way I could afford it otherwise.

I suppose it depends on what times you are referring to. In the not so distant past young people got free university places and grants to go there; now they have to pay fees and get into debt. During the sixties there was full employment; now young people face mass unemployment. At one stage, nationalised utilities didn't have to con their customers in order to make profits; now firms try to squeeze every penny out of us whilst giving huge payments to their bosses. In times gone by you could get a loan from a building society and buy a house; now the banks are less keen to help you out but pay their bosses millions in bonuses. My parents had it hard in the war and the fifties, but after that there was full-employment, proper contracts in the workplace and the hope of a pension; the NHS was a source of pride and ordinary people could either save up to buy a house of find council accomodation. I don't think young people have those opportunities to look forward to any more.

I know what you are getting at but doesn't this contradict what you were saying earlier?

Were parents more responsible in the past? And were education standards better then? Is that what you are saying?

I can understand that. It's a good thing, I think, but it seems like a bit of a luxury these days. My daughter, who has achieved many of these things by going to work in New Zealand, also said she wanted to go to have "the full student experience". For her, it was mainly going to be about being drunk for the first year and getting somewhere near the seaside - she didn't know what subject she wanted to take. Whilst I sympathised - and still do - all that seems pretty unrealistic for most people. I did used to consider returning to the UK to do a degree but there was no way I could afford three years of not working or working part-time - and that was in the days when they still gave students grants!

Yes, that's right. That's why I wanted so much to do this particular degree because it covers so many situations. What with so much moving online - booking flights, downloading products, marketing - I wanted to brush up on my online skills. And that fact it is delivered online as well - the first in the country in fact...

Hi, I'm studying a BA Hons degree completely online with Sheffield College and Sheffield Hallam University. Once it's over, I'm thinking of moving to Sheffield to find work. The question is, why do people in Sheffield leave for other universities given that there are so many opportunities there? Is there something I should know?