5th November 2010, 09:53 AM
"In the days of increased tuition fees, I would expect that more students would complain about the lack of specfic training, as they're going to be paying through the nose for it. Universities really do need to be getting on this. I would like to see (and would have liked when I was a student) the concept that students are customers, and treated as such by Universities. However, doing all of the extra curricular stuff will get you top of the pile."
In the days of increased tuition fees, I would expect fewer students to want to do archaeology in the first place, and for those that do, to do research like ginger about the market, skills requirements and careers. In the case of the OP, she says she chose academic courses over practical courses and field schools. But it is largely down to the economy. When I started a few years ago, I went staright into my first job on the back of three months digging and about a month each of surveying and geophysics, but asd Dinosaur says, I don't think I had many useful skills for a commercial site. The research digs were on good sites, but the supervisors did all the recording, so I had no idea where to start there.
If you come out of university owing fifty grand or more at 9% interest, you pretty much have to start trying to pay it off straight away. If you proceed in the usual archaeological career, your debt will have doubled by the time you make over 21K and start trying to pay it off. You will be covering it out of your state pension or something equally horrible.
In the days of increased tuition fees, I would expect fewer students to want to do archaeology in the first place, and for those that do, to do research like ginger about the market, skills requirements and careers. In the case of the OP, she says she chose academic courses over practical courses and field schools. But it is largely down to the economy. When I started a few years ago, I went staright into my first job on the back of three months digging and about a month each of surveying and geophysics, but asd Dinosaur says, I don't think I had many useful skills for a commercial site. The research digs were on good sites, but the supervisors did all the recording, so I had no idea where to start there.
If you come out of university owing fifty grand or more at 9% interest, you pretty much have to start trying to pay it off straight away. If you proceed in the usual archaeological career, your debt will have doubled by the time you make over 21K and start trying to pay it off. You will be covering it out of your state pension or something equally horrible.