Going abroad alone is a daunting task for any student wanting to go out and see the world for themselves, be in for a weekend in Paris or for a week in New York. Now imagine you were fortunate enough to go as part of your degree on the ERASMUS scheme. For a 3 month period students on various courses are given the chance to go around the world, partly to study, but partly to experience a different culture without the tourist rose-tinted glasses. For those more adventurous of you this might sound like a chance in a lifetime, one to be grabbed and like that first pint after the day from hell.
However, imagine if you went abroad and found that grant you were promised never arrived? As appealing now? Our sources in Denmark tell us that the grant that was supposed to help students fund themselves in an alien country has yet to arrive despite the students being out there for over a month.
The students were supposed to be receiving a grant of £878 to help cover flights and living costs. However, this grant is nowhere to be seen. The stranded students were promised the money would be in their accounts at the latest by 7th May despite originally being told that they would receive the money before they left the country. The money is likely to be delayed even longer because the 7th May is in fact a bank holiday so no money shall be transferred, thus prolonging the students’ strife.
“It’s ridiculous to the point of offensive,” one student, who wishes to remain anonymous, told us. “Covering costs is hard enough sometimes at home with a student loan and overdraft. When you’re trying to that going at home, and in an expensive foreign country know that there’s money you were promised SOMEWHERE, possibly gathering interest in the university’s account, it just makes you angry.”
The student told us that it was ‘ridiculous financial mismanagement’ whilst continuously cursing those delaying the transfer of the money. Denmark’s economy means wages are higher than in England and thus prices can be standardised to that, meaning higher prices for simple commodities. This makes the money students are owed even more essential.
“It would have been better if they were straight with us from the start, saying the money could be up to a month late,” our anonymous student told us, “then we could have made financial arrangements at home. These are impossible to do here as banks like NatWest and HSBC have no partner banks in Denmark.”
Concerns may arise for future groups of students heading abroad. With tuition fees rising, it is possible that such money would become more necessary than ever to those students wishing to spend a summer in Denmark, or even a year in partner universities in North America or Australasia. With the increasing dependence on student loans and the like one must look at the students’ welfare if this financial support fails to materialise. In attempts to save money it is logical to think that corners will be cut, and unless the issue is solved soon a meal that would have been a square, may become a perfect circle.
“It’s just not good enough. It’s not like I want the money for beer, I need it for food and rent too,” our exasperated student concluded.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Procrastination for the nation: The Tardis of the Mind and thinking out of the bubble
Imagine yourself lying flat on your back on your bed, staring from the ceiling to the cascade of paper covering your floor, wondering what to do with your life and feeling lost. As you sit thinking about the looming examination season, you try to get that echo of your parents’ voices and the student version of ‘I will survive’ to exit your skull and stop jiggling around in there messing the other stuff up. But what then? What do you do? Procrastination for the nation? After all, its exam season.
Flick back to reality. That fifty-something on the radio is whining about lazy students and their general uselessness to society. What a way to make you feel better about yourself. Back in your dream world, you wonder whether this time wasting, sun worshipping, roof-sitting, fantasy-barbecue strain of the study avoidance plague is an age old problem or a deepening national crisis.
So, now you have a very clear picture firmly fixed in your head of all the things you could or should be doing about now, or worse, should have done last week. The chances are you’re starting to feel the panic rising inside you. So take a minute or so to lengthen this dream. You’ve wasted enough time, what difference will a few moments more make? Take a little trip Dr Who style (if he can do it so can you) back in time, 30 years or so. Picture your flat mate, an eighteen year old James May, pondering his future, dreaming of the Lotus Espirit he saw at the ‘flicks’, and KITT from Night Rider, while elaborately etching his name into the walls of room 97 of the then Pendle College. The little bubble world of campus is a different place. Bucks Fizz are playing on the radio and are still cool. (The Camera Never Lies don’t you know?) Bowland and Lonsdale are like peas in a pod, you can wave or otherwise make rude gestures from one window to another. Cartmel’s now seasoned freshers are plotting new acts of sabotage for County’s tree. Alexandra Park and the advent of the En-suite bedroom are but elements in a far-fetched and distant dream.
If, like James, you had your dream job for which you get to drive, race and generally smash up the best cars of the moment, while meeting all kinds of celebrities and encouraging them to do the same, I’d guess you’d be pretty happy with the career side of your life. But, the stories James tells at dinner parties do not only involve Ellen McArthur and Chris Evans and their adventures on the race-track. Oh no, they stem from the best days of his life in good old Lancaster. In passing, he recalls his time here as a right good laugh, ‘If nothing else, it made for a good pool and darts tournament.’ But who wouldn’t want to hear about his Christmas tree-stealing antics, how he first set his kitchen on fire (and how every other kitchen in the block managed to copy the stunt before the end of the year) or how he walked the length of campus on the roof of the spine without touching the floor?
Put yourself in his shoes, in his house. After several glasses of wine, and usually by the time you reach dessert, you relish being able to listen to your guests ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ with respect as you detail how you jumped the gap between the roof and the shelters in the square. Oh how they wish that they too had experienced the fun and frolics of Lancaster. That’s just the guests who studied elsewhere, more impressed and envious are those who didn’t go to university and missed out on the crazy days of ‘study.’
James is a self-confessed under-achiever, but one day he sat at his desk answering his emails and one stood out. It was an email from a current student at Lancaster, who has aspirations of becoming a journalist. He learns that although his own college has long been flattened, moved and replaced, that this young student is currently camped out in new ‘Cartmel’ because this year it is the turn of Grizedale College (his former rival) to be homeless. For posterity’s sake, he took his own little trip down memory lane, and dutifully regurgitated his tales of colleges, cars, Christmas trees, kitchens, thefts, nights out, and artistic etchings. But there was one other thing he couldn’t resist sharing in that beautifully individual way of his; his advice to anyone wanting to be a journalist: ‘Only do it if you can’t get a proper job!’
With, as he says, Lancaster looking more and more like a ‘landed space station,’ (with which the only fault he can remember is its peculiar smell of brick dust) cut away from the outside world it is very easy to loose sight of where you hope you are going in life. As you while away the hours avoiding study, no-one will notice you in your Tardis of a mind, exploring the lives of the rich and famous that walked where you walked, and wondered as you wondered. Comfort yourself that all is not lost, and that the sun will rise another day as your life emerges, the product of a bit of work and a lot of play. Think of those who lay on that bed before you looking at the ceiling and their mass of paper, and see what they have become. Take a lesson from the students of old, who we are told were ‘simple and unsophisticated’, and forget about the future for a minute or two. Look at what is in front of you, and embrace it with open arms.
Jonathan Starr and Katherine Gledhill
Flick back to reality. That fifty-something on the radio is whining about lazy students and their general uselessness to society. What a way to make you feel better about yourself. Back in your dream world, you wonder whether this time wasting, sun worshipping, roof-sitting, fantasy-barbecue strain of the study avoidance plague is an age old problem or a deepening national crisis.
So, now you have a very clear picture firmly fixed in your head of all the things you could or should be doing about now, or worse, should have done last week. The chances are you’re starting to feel the panic rising inside you. So take a minute or so to lengthen this dream. You’ve wasted enough time, what difference will a few moments more make? Take a little trip Dr Who style (if he can do it so can you) back in time, 30 years or so. Picture your flat mate, an eighteen year old James May, pondering his future, dreaming of the Lotus Espirit he saw at the ‘flicks’, and KITT from Night Rider, while elaborately etching his name into the walls of room 97 of the then Pendle College. The little bubble world of campus is a different place. Bucks Fizz are playing on the radio and are still cool. (The Camera Never Lies don’t you know?) Bowland and Lonsdale are like peas in a pod, you can wave or otherwise make rude gestures from one window to another. Cartmel’s now seasoned freshers are plotting new acts of sabotage for County’s tree. Alexandra Park and the advent of the En-suite bedroom are but elements in a far-fetched and distant dream.
If, like James, you had your dream job for which you get to drive, race and generally smash up the best cars of the moment, while meeting all kinds of celebrities and encouraging them to do the same, I’d guess you’d be pretty happy with the career side of your life. But, the stories James tells at dinner parties do not only involve Ellen McArthur and Chris Evans and their adventures on the race-track. Oh no, they stem from the best days of his life in good old Lancaster. In passing, he recalls his time here as a right good laugh, ‘If nothing else, it made for a good pool and darts tournament.’ But who wouldn’t want to hear about his Christmas tree-stealing antics, how he first set his kitchen on fire (and how every other kitchen in the block managed to copy the stunt before the end of the year) or how he walked the length of campus on the roof of the spine without touching the floor?
Put yourself in his shoes, in his house. After several glasses of wine, and usually by the time you reach dessert, you relish being able to listen to your guests ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ with respect as you detail how you jumped the gap between the roof and the shelters in the square. Oh how they wish that they too had experienced the fun and frolics of Lancaster. That’s just the guests who studied elsewhere, more impressed and envious are those who didn’t go to university and missed out on the crazy days of ‘study.’
James is a self-confessed under-achiever, but one day he sat at his desk answering his emails and one stood out. It was an email from a current student at Lancaster, who has aspirations of becoming a journalist. He learns that although his own college has long been flattened, moved and replaced, that this young student is currently camped out in new ‘Cartmel’ because this year it is the turn of Grizedale College (his former rival) to be homeless. For posterity’s sake, he took his own little trip down memory lane, and dutifully regurgitated his tales of colleges, cars, Christmas trees, kitchens, thefts, nights out, and artistic etchings. But there was one other thing he couldn’t resist sharing in that beautifully individual way of his; his advice to anyone wanting to be a journalist: ‘Only do it if you can’t get a proper job!’
With, as he says, Lancaster looking more and more like a ‘landed space station,’ (with which the only fault he can remember is its peculiar smell of brick dust) cut away from the outside world it is very easy to loose sight of where you hope you are going in life. As you while away the hours avoiding study, no-one will notice you in your Tardis of a mind, exploring the lives of the rich and famous that walked where you walked, and wondered as you wondered. Comfort yourself that all is not lost, and that the sun will rise another day as your life emerges, the product of a bit of work and a lot of play. Think of those who lay on that bed before you looking at the ceiling and their mass of paper, and see what they have become. Take a lesson from the students of old, who we are told were ‘simple and unsophisticated’, and forget about the future for a minute or two. Look at what is in front of you, and embrace it with open arms.
Jonathan Starr and Katherine Gledhill
Friday, May 04, 2007
Universities Gone Mad!
Exams are a stressful feature of every student’s life. Going over notes, mind maps and frantically reading through textbooks making sure you are as prepared as you can be for the challenge that lies ahead.
However, it is all very good you being prepared for your exams, but what if the University are not?
Work is just about to start on the new Grizedale accommodation at Lancaster University. Although it is good to see that work is beginning on the pile of rubble that has sat in wait since the beginning to the academic year it has come to many people’s attention that it seems illogical to start this major building work right as a ‘Quiet Period’ has been put into force around the campus. Why are diggers allowed to make excessive noise, and yet students get told off by the porters for having a small game of football?
It would appear that this university has not thought about its students and the effect such a noise disruption will have on their revision and ultimately their final grades. One postgraduate student commented; “When will the University start to think of its students, its customers? I mean undergraduates go home in June, we have to suffer this right through the summer, and previous experience shows that even though we pay huge amounts of money for MA’s, our dissertation writing time is destroyed through excessive building noise or just plain bloody inconsideration”.
However, it is not our own University which seems to have lost all sight of their students. It was announced recently that the students of Manchester Metropolitan Business School. Are to sit their exams, that had been scheduled to take place in a conference room in the City of Manchester Stadium, will in fact be situated in a large marquee in a car park next to one of Manchester’s busiest roads. A student of the business school told me that he was ‘Outraged at the situation’ and that the idea of taking exams in a tent was ‘a joke’. The clear message from the students was that no one was laughing.
Just imagine it. All the hours spent in lectures, all the time spent reading through textbooks and the abundant note taking all building up to those end of year exams only for a lorry to roar its engine and you’ve lost your train of thought mid-sentence. One can not specifically say the effect that such a disruption will have on any student but it is clear that such an interruption will only have a negative effect on the final result.
The purpose of Universities is to create an atmosphere where students can excel in their chosen area of study and further their academic career. This taken into mind, why does it appear that some universities are not seeking to create this much sought after ambience? It is also noted that neither University had planned for the disruptions to occur. Grizedale College had been planned to be well under way by now and Manchester Met.have fallen on the bad side of a double booking. But even with this taken into account, neither University can seriously expect their students to perform to their full potential under such circumstances. Both Universities have issued their apologies for the disruptions caused to the students during the stressful period, but last time I checked apologies did not help you pass an exam.
Jonathan Starr
However, it is all very good you being prepared for your exams, but what if the University are not?
Work is just about to start on the new Grizedale accommodation at Lancaster University. Although it is good to see that work is beginning on the pile of rubble that has sat in wait since the beginning to the academic year it has come to many people’s attention that it seems illogical to start this major building work right as a ‘Quiet Period’ has been put into force around the campus. Why are diggers allowed to make excessive noise, and yet students get told off by the porters for having a small game of football?
It would appear that this university has not thought about its students and the effect such a noise disruption will have on their revision and ultimately their final grades. One postgraduate student commented; “When will the University start to think of its students, its customers? I mean undergraduates go home in June, we have to suffer this right through the summer, and previous experience shows that even though we pay huge amounts of money for MA’s, our dissertation writing time is destroyed through excessive building noise or just plain bloody inconsideration”.
However, it is not our own University which seems to have lost all sight of their students. It was announced recently that the students of Manchester Metropolitan Business School. Are to sit their exams, that had been scheduled to take place in a conference room in the City of Manchester Stadium, will in fact be situated in a large marquee in a car park next to one of Manchester’s busiest roads. A student of the business school told me that he was ‘Outraged at the situation’ and that the idea of taking exams in a tent was ‘a joke’. The clear message from the students was that no one was laughing.
Just imagine it. All the hours spent in lectures, all the time spent reading through textbooks and the abundant note taking all building up to those end of year exams only for a lorry to roar its engine and you’ve lost your train of thought mid-sentence. One can not specifically say the effect that such a disruption will have on any student but it is clear that such an interruption will only have a negative effect on the final result.
The purpose of Universities is to create an atmosphere where students can excel in their chosen area of study and further their academic career. This taken into mind, why does it appear that some universities are not seeking to create this much sought after ambience? It is also noted that neither University had planned for the disruptions to occur. Grizedale College had been planned to be well under way by now and Manchester Met.have fallen on the bad side of a double booking. But even with this taken into account, neither University can seriously expect their students to perform to their full potential under such circumstances. Both Universities have issued their apologies for the disruptions caused to the students during the stressful period, but last time I checked apologies did not help you pass an exam.
Jonathan Starr
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Wicked by Name, Wicked by Nature
"It was one of those sort of random events that completely change your life," said composer Stephen Schwartz when he was asked about his newest musical ‘Wicked’ which has had a big impact on theatre goers both in the US and in the UK.
‘Wicked’ is a musical with songs by Stephen Schwartz (Godspell and Pippin) and directed by Joe Mantello. Set in the days prior to Dorothy's arrival from Kansas, Wicked explores the idea that the infamous antagonist we call the Wicked Witch of the West was a misconstrued, victimized person. Her alleged wickedness was merely retaliation against a charlatan wizard's corrupt government.
The play is set at Shiz University, the intelligent green-skinned teenager, Elphaba Thropp (the wicked witch of the west in the original ‘Wizard of Oz’), meets beautiful and ambitious Galinda Upland (who changes her name to Glinda during the course of the play and later becomes Glinda the Good) when the two become roommates. Their lives intertwine, and throughout the show their friendship struggles to endure extreme personality differences, opposing viewpoints, rivalry over the same love interest, and of course Elphaba's eventual tragic fall from grace.
‘Wicked’ was opened on Broadway at the George Gershwin Theatre on October 30, 2003 and is loosely based on the best selling novel ‘Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West’ by Gregory Maguire. The musical became so popular that the producers were able to open additional ‘Wicked’ productions in Chicago and a touring company before crossing the Atlantic and opening at the Apollo Victoria Theatre on 27th September 2006. It opens in Los Angeles February 21st this year. There are also plans for the show to open in Japan and Germany before the end of the year and further plans for it to reach the Netherlands, Canada and Australia. Since its opening ‘Wicked’ on the West End in September last year the weekly box office gross for the London production is believed to be higher than any other show in West End history.
The development of ‘Wicked’ started around a decade a go when Stephen Schwartz was alerted to the book by a friend whilst on holiday to Hawaii. "It was one of those sort of random events that completely change your life," Schwartz told reporters. The book, he continues "is an incredibly brilliant flash of inspiration - to take the iconic and quintessential villain of American pop culture and decide to look at the story we all know from her point of view." Stephen Schwartz also said what surprises him most about his career so far is "to have been part of two shows that become phenomena - the first show I did, Godspell, and the last show I did, Wicked.”
What’s up next for Schwartz? His new opera ‘Séance on a Wet Afternoon’ is due to open in October of 2009 in Santa Barbara, California.
For more information on the show ‘Wicked’ and how to get tickets go to www.wickedthemusical.co.uk.
‘Wicked’ is a musical with songs by Stephen Schwartz (Godspell and Pippin) and directed by Joe Mantello. Set in the days prior to Dorothy's arrival from Kansas, Wicked explores the idea that the infamous antagonist we call the Wicked Witch of the West was a misconstrued, victimized person. Her alleged wickedness was merely retaliation against a charlatan wizard's corrupt government.
The play is set at Shiz University, the intelligent green-skinned teenager, Elphaba Thropp (the wicked witch of the west in the original ‘Wizard of Oz’), meets beautiful and ambitious Galinda Upland (who changes her name to Glinda during the course of the play and later becomes Glinda the Good) when the two become roommates. Their lives intertwine, and throughout the show their friendship struggles to endure extreme personality differences, opposing viewpoints, rivalry over the same love interest, and of course Elphaba's eventual tragic fall from grace.
‘Wicked’ was opened on Broadway at the George Gershwin Theatre on October 30, 2003 and is loosely based on the best selling novel ‘Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West’ by Gregory Maguire. The musical became so popular that the producers were able to open additional ‘Wicked’ productions in Chicago and a touring company before crossing the Atlantic and opening at the Apollo Victoria Theatre on 27th September 2006. It opens in Los Angeles February 21st this year. There are also plans for the show to open in Japan and Germany before the end of the year and further plans for it to reach the Netherlands, Canada and Australia. Since its opening ‘Wicked’ on the West End in September last year the weekly box office gross for the London production is believed to be higher than any other show in West End history.
The development of ‘Wicked’ started around a decade a go when Stephen Schwartz was alerted to the book by a friend whilst on holiday to Hawaii. "It was one of those sort of random events that completely change your life," Schwartz told reporters. The book, he continues "is an incredibly brilliant flash of inspiration - to take the iconic and quintessential villain of American pop culture and decide to look at the story we all know from her point of view." Stephen Schwartz also said what surprises him most about his career so far is "to have been part of two shows that become phenomena - the first show I did, Godspell, and the last show I did, Wicked.”
What’s up next for Schwartz? His new opera ‘Séance on a Wet Afternoon’ is due to open in October of 2009 in Santa Barbara, California.
For more information on the show ‘Wicked’ and how to get tickets go to www.wickedthemusical.co.uk.
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