My new phone arrived in the post yesterday!
The Samsung Tocco - its pretty cool - with a touch screen and something called smile recognition! It knows when people are smiling and only takes a picture then. :-) picture :-( no picture.
And I have just filled in the National Student Survey. This is the survey of final year students in the UK about what we think of our course. Last year a lot of people did it - about 200,000 - but it was open to abuse, abuse which was documented in some cases. This year my university was offering a £5 reward to people who completed it.
Why? Well, so we would spend five minutes of our lives answering questions about the last three years of our lives.
The questions were slightly odd, well the answers really. I was given the choice of strongly agree, agree, neither agree or disagree, disagree and strongly disagree. Now - the results last year were portrayed as "students love our degree and our university". Is that because lots of people wrote strongly agree? But for which questions? And what about all those people - and I'm sure there were lots that answered "neither agree or disagree"?
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Today an extraordinary thing happened
11th February saw something amazing happen on campus. So amazing, this correspondent felt compelled to write about it on his blog.
Students were actually involved in something other than themselves! Four separate events on campus were going on and people were stopping, listening and thinking about what was happening!
For many, this news would not come as a surprise. Students, many think, are very politically minded, and will often stand up and make a noise about things they do or don't like - look at Nelson Mandela and Nestle, and the campaigns around them in previous years.
However, whether it is the 21st century, or whether it is just the University of Kent, people just don't seem to bother here. 320 people attended the recent AGM, less than 3,000 voted in the Union elections, 'Varsity' - the local sporting derby between Kent and ChristChurch university is unknown to most. Over 15,000 students are part of this university, but many appear not to want to be too much a part of it.
But, today that was not the case. On one part of campus stood the Fruit and Veg stall. This was booming with customers. It is situated in a good part of campus, unlike its former site, in the depths of the Venue. A popular innovation liked by all.
But a little further along was a large white marquee with the words 'have your say' above, and the smell of burgers to the side. This marquee was part of Kent Union's attempt to hear from students about the direction of the Union for the next five years - their strategic plan for 2009-2013.
And people were in the marquee, reading the notice boards, writing down suggestions, and eating the burgers. It was a success - around 100 people had been through only a couple of hours after it was set up! Yes the free food was helping, but just to get people through the doors was good.
Thirdly (and a bit of a plug) inQuire! Woohoo, my own newspaper (well, I'm one of the section editors). I had great fun handing these out today, and people looked interested when I gave them one and started talking about the story on the front page. Again, people interested in what is going on at their Uni.
And finally, a table set up outside Essentials, advertising a Pro Evo Soccer competition in aid of a Gaza society. People here too were stopping, listening and signing up.
So, a normal Wednesday afternoon, but not normal activities, its so good to see people involved in what is going on around them, I like that a lot, and sitting here in the library, the world looks a happy place.
Students were actually involved in something other than themselves! Four separate events on campus were going on and people were stopping, listening and thinking about what was happening!
For many, this news would not come as a surprise. Students, many think, are very politically minded, and will often stand up and make a noise about things they do or don't like - look at Nelson Mandela and Nestle, and the campaigns around them in previous years.
However, whether it is the 21st century, or whether it is just the University of Kent, people just don't seem to bother here. 320 people attended the recent AGM, less than 3,000 voted in the Union elections, 'Varsity' - the local sporting derby between Kent and ChristChurch university is unknown to most. Over 15,000 students are part of this university, but many appear not to want to be too much a part of it.
But, today that was not the case. On one part of campus stood the Fruit and Veg stall. This was booming with customers. It is situated in a good part of campus, unlike its former site, in the depths of the Venue. A popular innovation liked by all.
But a little further along was a large white marquee with the words 'have your say' above, and the smell of burgers to the side. This marquee was part of Kent Union's attempt to hear from students about the direction of the Union for the next five years - their strategic plan for 2009-2013.
And people were in the marquee, reading the notice boards, writing down suggestions, and eating the burgers. It was a success - around 100 people had been through only a couple of hours after it was set up! Yes the free food was helping, but just to get people through the doors was good.
Thirdly (and a bit of a plug) inQuire! Woohoo, my own newspaper (well, I'm one of the section editors). I had great fun handing these out today, and people looked interested when I gave them one and started talking about the story on the front page. Again, people interested in what is going on at their Uni.
And finally, a table set up outside Essentials, advertising a Pro Evo Soccer competition in aid of a Gaza society. People here too were stopping, listening and signing up.
So, a normal Wednesday afternoon, but not normal activities, its so good to see people involved in what is going on around them, I like that a lot, and sitting here in the library, the world looks a happy place.
Monday, 2 February 2009
Job hunting
I haven't written on this for a while, so Honkit, here is the next entry.
June 2009 sees this particular blogger leave his degree at the University of Kent and enter the big wide world (note: that phrase was used when I left primary school, secondary school, sixth form. I think I'm at least partially in the big wide world already!)
I'm looking a job at a newspaper. My aim is to write for a national newspaper, and I have applied to a national newspapers graduate scheme, but I am also following advice to start in a local newspaper, and so I'm reasearching that now.
By picking big towns which are likely to have good newspapers I think I'll be able to find good newspapers to start with - that is what the advice I was given.
So I thought that instead of making the decision when I went to uni of not picking anything with 400 miles of my home, I would start in the South East: London, Brighton, Southampton, Dover, Portsmouth. Any other good towns?
Maybe I'll send a couple of letters off to Liverpool and Manchester too.
So, back to it...
June 2009 sees this particular blogger leave his degree at the University of Kent and enter the big wide world (note: that phrase was used when I left primary school, secondary school, sixth form. I think I'm at least partially in the big wide world already!)
I'm looking a job at a newspaper. My aim is to write for a national newspaper, and I have applied to a national newspapers graduate scheme, but I am also following advice to start in a local newspaper, and so I'm reasearching that now.
By picking big towns which are likely to have good newspapers I think I'll be able to find good newspapers to start with - that is what the advice I was given.
So I thought that instead of making the decision when I went to uni of not picking anything with 400 miles of my home, I would start in the South East: London, Brighton, Southampton, Dover, Portsmouth. Any other good towns?
Maybe I'll send a couple of letters off to Liverpool and Manchester too.
So, back to it...
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