All this talk about qualifications being 'dumbed down' is clearly nonsense. A Media Diploma where pupils are expected to 'critically respond to a range of computer games and discuss why enthusiasts like playing them' is going to be every bit as challenging as boring old Maths, Physics and Chemistry. If you can master 'Printing banners for a party and performing a stand up comedy routine' then top Universities up and down the Country will welcome you with open arms.
Why is anything that contains the word 'Media' always so good for a laugh?
ps I foolishly attempted to drive to Hereford last Friday and ended up spending the night in the car park of a pub on the A44 just outside Worcester as the waters rose all around me. Any readers who've suffered in the recent floods certainly have my sympathies.
10 comments:
"However Mr Balls said: "I want to see the brightest and the best taking diplomas which will give them more choice and allow them to get the careers they really want."
Not a chance, considering the best universities (which one would expect the 'brightest and best' to attend) i.e. Oxford, Cambridge and others, already have a banned list of subjects for admission
http://www.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/requirements/
scroll to the bottom
Computer gaming is an industry that is now bigger than Hollywood.
Why do you mock people for trying to learn what customers like/dislike about this important sector of the entertainment field?
You mock media studies, but the media is one the UK major industries, with lots of jobs that pay far more than a physicist or engineer.
The job market has changed, and students have recognised that, especially now they are deeply in debt at graduation, so must take into account how much a job will pay.
Why have you not recognised that a physics degree has a very much lower value than a media degree?
"In 2006, six months after graduation, 71% of recent media graduates were in full or part-time employment working in the following areas: clerical and secretarial occupations, 18%; retail, catering, waiting and bar work, 17%; arts, design, culture and sports, 16%; and marketing, sales and advertising, 10%."
"In 2006, six months after graduation, nearly 50% of physics graduates had entered employment. Of these, 11% went into scientific and engineering professions and 6% into IT - professions which both relate to physics. 18% went into business and finance professions, 6% into teaching, and 9% into commercial, industrial and public sector management."
from prospects.ac.uk
Enough said really.
A Media Studies Degree is highly valued by employers; eg Mc Donalds, KFC, Starbucks and Call Centres up and down the Country.
Back in the late 60s I asked "what do physics graduates do?" Apart from becoming PhD students or school teachers, I was told, they mainly become amateur electrical engineers, or amateur aeronautical engineers, or amateur programmers, or amateur .....
That wouldn't have mattered, I suppose if the BSC in physics had been designed to provide an excellent scientific education, but it was designed, I suspect, to provide a demanding but narrow technical training to lead on to a PhD.
'When we employ candidates with Media Studies Degrees, we involve them in decision making right from the start. They will be put in situations where they are required to use their initiative.'
eg asking the customer; "Would you like Fries or a Coke with that order, Sir?"
amigauser said 'Computer gaming is an industry that is now bigger than Hollywood' - not quite true and but not far off.
However, that does not mean the industry needs loads of graduates in Media Studies or suchlike. The computer games industry can only employ so many marketing specialists and what it really needs is software engineers. A degree in IT, Maths, Physics, Engineering or some other technical discipline is ideal for those positions.
People mock media studies because, despite what you said amigauser, it does NOT lead to a well paid job doing what you've been studying for.
I can just see your media studies graduate now ...
3d rendering ... check
physics engine ... check
artificial intelligence ... check
yeah right.
I am getting a national diploma in ict and then after I want to go on to get an a level in physics and maths. Now that’s what I call fun subjects. I was going to consider politics but that’s a fickle business you see. Its more about who you know than what you know. I am glad because hopefully it should get pretty far in politics then.
www.IanMacNb.net
I missed words out and such. Shame on me!
www.IanMacNb.net
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