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Student's Have Their Say in Biggest-Ever Survey

Students' views are coming through loud and clear in a new survey called Making the Right Choice, which was published at a special conference last week. The survey, which is the biggest ever of its kind, reveals that students now see themselves as consumers - and they expect a good return on their 'investment' in higher education.

The survey, which was funded by the CVCP, 15 universities and colleges and other HE bodies, was conducted over the last 18 months by the Institute of Employment Studies. The research included inputs from over 20,000 university applicants and 2,000 16-year-olds. According to Richard Pearson, the Institute's Director, the results show that "Students are prepared to work in order to pay for their higher education, but they want to be well-informed consumers and to be able to make effective decisions about the relative merits of different courses and universities. They want better, independent information to support their choices."

The survey reveals that students are still putting the right choice of course at the top of the list - but earning potential and career prospects follow close behind, while traditional concerns such as social life are slipping. They are demanding more access to independent information on standards, and are prepared to work in order to pay for their education.

Pointing the way forward for universities, the survey recommends an emphasis on wider recruitment, with different targetting strategies to be levelled at mature learners and non-traditional entrants. It suggests that universities and colleges work closely with schools to recruit working-class pupils at an early age, and recommends a 'one-stop shop' approach for students to get all the vital information they need from one point in each university and college.

Richard hopes that Making the Right Choice "will help everyone target their efforts to give relevant and useful information and support to the diverse range of people applying to higher education.

"It will help provide policy makers in national bodies and at individual institutions with a more up-to-date and comprehensive research base than has previously existed in the UK," he says. The Pink Pound has become established as a watchword for the consumer power of the gay community. The survey proves that students are now a formidable spending body: the 'Pint Pound' could be the next big thing.

Students are becoming more career-driven in their university choices

The CDU Website

CDU's website has been described as a top site for careers advice and links in a guide to the best sites, published in a New Scientist Graduate Career Special, for science and engineering undergraduates and finalists. The website address is http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/CDU.

People

Professor Craig Clunas, CCS, has been awarded the R.C.Hills Gold Medal of the Oriental Ceramic Society for an outstanding contribution to the study of Chinese art.

Professor John Barrow, CPES, is to receive the 1999 Kelvin Medal from the Royal Glasgow Philosophical Society. He has also been awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Science from the University of Hertfordshire 'in recognition of distinguished contributions'.

Professor Peter Townsend, ENGG, recently competed in the European Veteran Fencing Championship in Moulins. He got into the semi-final 12 of the foil rounds and survived two rounds of pools in the epee.

Professor Tony Mcaffrey, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, has been awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy by the Naga Oka University of Technology in Japan.

Robin Lee Poetry Prize Competition

Linda Chin, a student in HUMS, was one of the runners-up in this year's poetry competition.

In memory of my father who is alive

I
You offer a peach to me, but the last one I had was bitter, juiceless,
so I shake my head politely, blush and lie, "I'm not hungry."
My bone has been chewed before, and now juts out of skin like a gun
hid in trousers. You notice my fingers are clumsy as I light the
incense and place it
above the happy naked Buddha, and ask me in a language
whose face my schooling has rubbed off

Who is that other always beside you,
I count the two of us walking,
and then a shadow between

II
What is this broken earth you call home?
Gay bricks once of a small fortress.
Two-pronged utensils that have survived
the New Year feasts. Wooden buckets.
Rags beside the river that have scratched
the red skin of a newborn girl.
I am walking in a museum, father.

III
My peace of mind cannot be found in the elements
that you have charted, having read books that lure
you into a culture of giving thanks with pig,
false money, incense. Yet I am awakened by water,

on the thin page I dip two dots and one
stroke underneath. This is the radical
for blue-green life that requires strong limbs
to swim. I wrestle with you silently, losing

my breath in what you call your world.
There is the wood radical, a cross with wings.
Millions of trees whisper outside the village,
all their roots touch underneath the earth
like the fingers of shy lovers confessing.

Now metal, a house of three floors. I envision
your mother's copper, the colour of mud
with knots of wisdom - a circle of hope
around her skinny wrist. Now earth,
a cross on a line. From earth springs tree, gold:
next to earth is water, life; and fire comes as an end,

a figure with arms and legs running. Follow me,
you call when absent. I know only the bare
essentials of cooking a feast, the fire refines the raw.
My death will witness how little I feel my heritage.

These five elements compose the universe.
I paint them on paper, recite their names aloud.

IV
What are these red marks that we follow
on the road? A legacy of leaves that fall silent.
Funny faces drawn with chalk that disappear
when we have passed. Sunburns of afternoons
relinquishing their rights to keep you here.
Taking years away from your life, I walk
down the riverside of stones, words.

Linda Chin