Thursday, June 02, 2005

What's a degree worth?

Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | Degree devaluation, from Lucky Jim to Average Joe
Much food for thought in this article. What Jackie Ashley doesn't go into is the "university as lifestyle choice" brigade. These students are interested in the parties and the fun, but not the work. Two anecdotes to underline this: I confronted a very elusive student recently, who is currently enrolled again as a first year having failed his first year last year. I said that, since he hardly ever attended classes, hadn't submitted any coursework, and had made precisely zero contribution to the course, that he could hardly be classed as a student. He was extremely annoyed, and told me that he most definitely was a student, "because I've paid my fees." So that's all right, then. Another student, who has managed to spend four years completing(full time) two years' worth of study, told me she wouldn't be choosing my third year module next year. I asked why, and she told me that she couldn't because it was on a Thursday. When I looked blank, she explained, as if to a mental defective, that Wednesday night was traditionally the night for getting completely wasted in the student bar, so Thursdays were simply not possible. I'm not holding my breadth for her graduation...

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Here's Boris

Flickr: Photos from spencro

This link will show you a picture of Boris, our excellent male cat, companion of Phoebe. He likes being upside down, and is therefore a good mascot for Topsyturvydom. He also features on my profile - why would you want a picture of me?

Hello World

You have to imagine it's Alan Whicker saying that...
This is my first attempt at blogging. The title, Topsyturvydom, is intended to suggest a few characteristics: quirky, wide-ranging, sceptical - what newspapers always used to call " a sideways look at..." I'm interested in lots of topics, and hope to post on anything and everything, but mainly cultural stuff - literature, music, art.
Right now, I'm intrigued by what the blogging phenomenon means, and where it's going. The cliche about the web is that a) it's great, because anyone can publish on it and b) it's awful, because anyone can publish on it. In other words, its great strength is also its great weakness. It seems to me though, that the greater access that people have to an exchange of ideas and opinions, the better. The web is a great leveller in that respect.
I'm off now to look at some other blogs I've found of interest. Maybe they'll inspire me to write something more interesting than the above.