” Why do you want to study at Bristol?”
“Because the city looked cool on Skins.”
- overheard at open day, September 2011.
Why did you choose to study at one university over another? Go on, be honest…
What do students actually expect from University? One long party? To pass a few exams? Or something more than that? And why are those geeks from the IT department even thinking about this?
Technology is now pervasive. It has become so small, so light, and so cheap, that it disappears into the environment around us. Technology is no longer something unto itself. The computer is not a special box in the corner to be approached with reverence, it is mobile and personal, accompanying us in our daily life.
When technology surround us we need a whole new way to think about it. The most interesting answers come from looking outwards, and working across disciplines. As the technologists emerge into the daylight, they are working with educationalists, with theatre practitioners and with game makers to answer some big questions. How do we make university a transformative experience?
I studied at the University of Cooperative Education in Mannheim/Germany. The idea behind those is that you pair an academic course – in my case Business Information Technologies – with internships at medium to large-sized companies, in my case BASF AG.
Main reasons for doing so was the strong link between academic theory and business reality and the fact that you are employed by the company getting a monthly pay-cheque for the 3-years you study and work.
I studied at the Open University.
I was a mature student with family responsibilities and a “traditional university” was not an option. Isolation was always a challenge as I only had contacts with other students at Summer School, but there were many advantages in addition to the obvious ones of affordability and flexibility. Most importantly I could create a degree that took modules from different disciplines, and I could decide for myself if I already knew enough to tackle high level courses. This meant that, although they were not assessed, my life experiences, knowledge and interests could be at the core of my studies, so my “real life” and my academic life complemented and enhanced each other.
Thanks Frank & Pamela. Some very different reasons which determined your choices there, but in both cases very strong links between your university and the rest of your “real” life.
The theme of FOTE is “meeting student expectations”. First we have to understand the expectations, of each student, as an individual. A real challenge. I hope going back to the start of the journey into higher education helps shed light on it.