STUFF BY ME WEEK-ENDING 31 JAN 2010

I mentioned on last week's blog that I recently completed my second degree, with the submission of one short essay on immigration bringing to a close the second period of academic adventure in my life so far.

And do you know what, even though it's a mere nine days since I checked out of London Metropolitan University's Aldgate base for the final time, I'm already feeling a nostalgic warmth for the place. 

Ironically more so than for Edinburgh University, which I checked out of some twelve and a half years ago. That's possibly because my nostalgia towards Edinburgh tends to revolve around the things I involved myself in while I was there - so the Bedlam Theatre, Fresh Air FM, the Teviot Row students' union and EUSA newspaper Midweek - more so than for the university itself.

The fact Edinburgh University bugs me for donations three time a year while persistently ignoring and refusing to support the educational elements of the ThreeWeeks project, which I happen to suspect is one the most exciting and dynamic examples of alumni-supporting-current-students to have ever come of that or any higher education institution, probably also has a role in cooling my enthusiasm for my first university.

But before my newly found nostalgia transforms me into an unwavering advocate for London Met, I must get down in binary code the two things that most bugged me during my six years learning there. Because I was certainly more vocal in my criticism of my university experience second time round, not because London Met was necessarily any worse an establishment than Edinburgh, but because my experience in the working world, and the fact I was paying this time round, made me less tolerable of all the shit which, I believe, you'll find students must deal with at most universities in the UK. 

The two most shitty areas are as follows: communications and careers advice. I'll deal with the former here, and make sure I return to the latter before the glow of nostalgia gets so warm the haze it gives off clouds my judgement.

If ever there was a case study for a marketing/communications imbalance it would be London Met University. Every September and January it would be hard to miss their marketing effort to recruit new students in London, as thousands of pounds is pumped into tube and print media advertising. The campaign specifically targets non-traditional students - part time students, mature students, students from communities where higher education is not an automatic given. This is a good campaign - it's how I discovered the university existed back when I was thinking about doing my second degree - and its targeting of non-traditional students is honourable.

But once you are signed up to a course, all efforts to communicate stop. Student communication - or, rather, customer communication, given most students are now paying for the privilege of learning - is frequently lacking. And while I'm aware some online communication channels have been developed during my six years at the university, I've no idea what is communicated how, when and where. And no one has ever made any effort to tell me, despite the university having me as a captive audience member six hours a week 24 weeks a year.

And even if I did know where this online communication was stored, or if the university decided to step it up and send me three emails a week (as I believe some do) that in itself probably wouldn't fix the problem. And that's because the bigger issue is internal communications, or a lack thereof.

A student's main points of contact with the university are the academics they see on a weekly basis at lectures and tutorials. But universities seem keen to keep these academics out of the communications chain, while some lecturers seem to relish being disconnected from the system: "I'm here to deliver an academic lecture, not to sully myself with the day to day running of the university". This disconnect is at the core of the problem, and means that many students are unaware of the many extra services their university may offer (including the careers advice I'll come to in a later blog) and, more importantly, of information that may be crucial to the successful completion of their degree.

Too often discovering how things work, and keeping up to date with changes, requires a link to the university's informal gossip grapevine. It is this grapevine which just about enables universities to continue to operate despite the terrible lack of communication channels. Such a system might just about work if you're a full time student with hours to spend gossiping around campus. But if you're a part time student - the sort of student the aforementioned well-funded London Met marketing campaign seems deliberately skewed to attract - then you don't have time to indulge in such gossiping, nor to build the friendship links that are needed to be connected to such a grapevine.

Why does this matter? Well, you may have read that London Met recently found a £35 million hole in its budget after it emerged it had been over claiming for government funding as a result of a failure to keep proper tabs on drop out students - ie it was claiming for funding for students who had quit. This was all due to gross mismanagement, in part the result of a Vice-Chancellor who spent far too much of his time in the top job justifying why he should be paid more than any other VC in higher education in the UK, despite overseeing a woeful attempt to merge North London and Guildhall universities, the two institutions that combined to create London Met in 2002.

But a side issue to this story, which has been less remarked upon in media coverage of it, is why were so many people dropping out in the first place? Is it a natural consequence of going after the aforementioned non-traditional student demographic? Or is it because poor communications means those students - having been wooed by the big bucks London-wide marketing campaign - struggle to navigate the world of academia, and are hindered by a campus culture where the inner workings of the university, and the role of support staff, is one big mystery, which not even the academic staff seem able or willing to solve? The latter, I believe, plays an important role.

And as for the wider academic world? Even if students, full time and part time, are able to successfully navigate their universities through to getting a degree, the fact is that a degree alone doesn't necessarily make that person employable anymore. And too often, because of poor communications, the services most universities offer than can help in that regard go unnoticed by too many students. Which brings me to careers advice, which I promise to return to soon. Not next week probably, but soon enough.

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STUFF I DID THIS WEEK
On Monday I spent much of my day sitting on the judging panel for a new funding programme for arts companies heading to the Edinburgh Fringe this August.

I'm naturally suspicious of arts funding - especially when government money is involved - because too many funding programmes force applicants down unnecessary paths to tick boxes that only political muppets want ticking. Too few, meanwhile, encourage arts companies to use funding now to put themselves in a position in the future where their artistic pursuits might be commercially viable in their own right, without relying exclusively on future hand outs.

I agreed to get involved in this fund, though, partly because it's not government money being spent, but mainly because it seemed to have been devised with the aim of removing as many of the irritants that come with other funding as possible. It also encourages those who receive the cash to use some of it to better themselves, both artistically and in terms of commercial awareness.

Plus there are actually far too few such funds for aspiring Edinburgh Fringe producers to turn to, many funding bodies seeming to be of the opinion that if you want to sully yourself with the world's biggest arts festival, then you should do so on your own. Possibly because performing in Edinburgh doesn't tick enough of those aforementioned boxes.

Anyway, if I was feeling a little positive about the Ideas Tap Edinburgh Fund, and the Peter De Haan Charitable Trust that backs it, before last Monday, I was bubbling with enthusiasm for it once the day of deliberations was complete and the two significant grants (£20K and £10K respectively) had been dished out. So much so I feel I must point you in the direction of the Ideas Tap website where you can find out about all their other projects - www.ideastap.com.

It also got me all enthused again about the best cultural festival on the planet, the 2010 edition of which is a mere six months away now. Bring it on.

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STUFF I WROTE THIS WEEK
A round up of some of the news stories and articles I wrote for UnLimited's media in the last seven days...

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MUSIC BUSINESS STUFF...

New BRIT award aimed at school kids [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

IMPALA launch friends of programme [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

LiveMaster approved [CMU Daily 26/01/10]

Kobalt reveals most transparent rights admin system yet [CMU Daily 26/01/10]

Warner/Chappell re-sign the Buble [CMU Daily 27/01/10]

IMPALA propose new ways of financing the music industry [CMU Daily 27/01/10]

Peermusic form artist development studio with Hoffman [CMU Daily 27/01/10]

New music consultancy launches [CMU Daily 27/01/10]

IMPALA sales awards dished out [CMU Daily 28/01/10]

Haiti telethon album first digital-only album to top US chart [CMU Daily 28/01/10]

!K7 to distribute Vice record label in Europe [CMU Daily 29/01/10]

BMG Rights move into Swedish market [CMU Daily 29/01/10]

Primary Wave and Agency Group form strategic alliance [CMU Daily 29/01/10]

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COPYRIGHT STUFF...

US judge cuts Thomas damages [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

Another lawsuit for Jacko estate to consider [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

French culture minister confirms digital collective licensing plans [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

[PIAS] launch new D2C offer [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

British three-strikes discussed in Cannes, and closer to home [CMU Daily 27/01/10]

Baidu beat record companies in Chinese courts [CMU Daily 27/01/10]

Collective digital licensing back on the MIDEM agenda - will it come to the UK? [CMU Daily 27/01/10]

Thomas knocks back RIAA damages olive branch [CMU Daily 28/01/10]

Dunstone will go to court to fight three-strikes [CMU Daily 29/01/10]

Ruling fast-tracked in interesting Aussie ISP liability case [CMU Daily 29/01/10]

Eagles man sues namesake over uncleared song use [CMU Daily 29/01/10]

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DIGITAL STUFF...

More MIDEM than you can probably digest in one sitting: The all-you-can-eat debate [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

CMU says: Industry right to be cautious of all-you-can-eat [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

French culture minister confirms digital collective licensing plans [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

Bach Technology launch MusicDNA [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

Omnifone announce pan-European HP partnership [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

We7 to launch subscription service next week [CMU Daily 26/01/10]

PRS enter into pan-European deal with iTunes [CMU Daily 27/01/10]

We7 confirm subscription options [CMU Daily 28/01/10]

iPad launches - main innovations in book and newspaper domain [CMU Daily 28/01/10]

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POP COURTS STUFF...

US judge cuts Thomas damages [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

Baidu beat record companies in Chinese courts [CMU Daily 27/01/10]

Thomas knocks back RIAA damages olive branch [CMU Daily 28/01/10]

Interesting insight into Universal's Grooveshark lawsuit [CMU Daily 29/01/10]

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GENERAL MUSIC STUFF...

Stephen Gately died from undiagnosed heart condition [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

Cherry Red seek brand new football songs [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

Dappy visa issues slow down an N-Dubz US launch [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

Black Eyed Peas win 1.3 awards at the NRJ Awards [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

Barat on Libertines reunion, again [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

No Slash-wear at GNR gigs thank you very much [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

MGMT influenced by Lady Gaga and Kanye West [CMU Daily 26/01/10]

Boyle fine after finding intruder at home [CMU Daily 28/01/10]

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MIDEM STUFF...

More MIDEM than you can probably digest in one sitting: The all-you-can-eat debate [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

CMU says: Industry right to be cautious of all-you-can-eat [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

French culture minister confirms digital collective licensing plans [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

Goldsmith calls on record industry to talk to the live sector more [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

[PIAS] launch new D2C offer [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

Bach Technology launch MusicDNA [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

Omnifone announce pan-European HP partnership [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

Williams tells new artists to start with marketing [CMU Daily 26/01/10]

Chris Morrison talks tough on file-sharing, down on brand alliances and all things Cowell [CMU Daily 26/01/10]

Some collecting society rambling [CMU Daily 26/01/10]

Kobalt reveals most transparent rights admin system yet [CMU Daily 26/01/10]

Are ad-funded services viable? Can the industry upsell to subscriptions? [CMU Daily 26/01/10]

We7 to launch subscription service next week [CMU Daily 26/01/10]

Soundcloud and Hype Machine offer new blog-targeted track preview platform [CMU Daily 26/01/10]

British three-strikes discussed in Cannes, and closer to home [CMU Daily 27/01/10]

Collective digital licensing back on the MIDEM agenda - will it come to the UK? [CMU Daily 27/01/10]

Stein and Gottehrer relaunch Blue Horizon [CMU Daily 27/01/10]

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MEDIA STUFF...

Channel 4 appoints new CEO [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

Stern on Penk [CMU Daily 25/01/10]

This Festival Feeling appoints Bearded founder to edit digi-mag [CMU Daily 27/01/10]

Former Sony chief in the running for both Idol and X in America [CMU Daily 28/01/10]

Former TalkSporter can take OfCom ruling to judicial review [CMU Daily 28/01/10]

Jazz FM launches City show [Creative Business News-Blog 28/01/10]

SeeSaw set to launch in March [Creative Business News-Blog 28/01/10]

ITV appoint new boss [CMU Daily 29/01/10]

Management team revamp at Absolute [CMU Daily 29/01/10]

New host for Guardian music podcast [CMU Daily 29/01/10]

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ADVERTISING STUFF...

ASA criticise fashion ad run in NME [CMU Daily 28/01/10]