A University to be Proud of

Proud of My University

I've been toying with the prospect of whether I should start a blog or not and after many months of debating, I finally decided that if I don’t get fingers to keyboard, it’s never going to happen.  Then I realised that back in 2010 I started a blog and somewhere along the way, I simply stopped writing it.  So here it is the somewhat eagerly awaited updated blog by Ken Harris.  Please forgive me for referring to myself in the third person, but I’m sure that I will not be getting graded on my grammatical approach to this blog.

So you are probably wondering what I’m going to be talking about?  If you are expecting exciting stories of intergalactic battles, high speed car chases or naked (gender neutral) warriors, then you really need to get yourself over to your local  Blockbusters, because what I have install for you is something a lot more down to earth.  I hope to thrill you with a short introduction to my experience as a proud graduate from the University of Wolverhampton, and maybe tantalise you at the end with a hint of where I might go next.  

As a recent graduate of Wolverhampton University and former president of the Students’ Union I can honestly say that I am a proud alumnus of the university.   I have to say that we should all be proud.  Not just because it used to be one on the slogans printed on various university produced literature, “A university to be Proud of”.  Admittedly when it first came out I was a little confused as to whether it was a statement or a question.  If there is still any confusion, let me clear it up.  It’s definitely a statement! 

I will tell you about an experience I had recently on the issue of being proud of your university.  Sometime last year I was in the sports hall on Walsall campus, in the dressing room after a workout.  There were two young men talking about university.  To my astonishment one of them said, “This University is crap, my cousin goes to Aston University and that’s way better than this place.”  Now forgive me for paraphrasing a little in my quotation of this charming chap, as that wasn’t exactly the choice words he used.  But you will probably be surprised with what happened next.  I challenged him on what he had just said.  Why you ask?  Is it because I crave for topical debate and intellectual arguments at every opportunity?  Is it because I hoped that in doing so I would find myself a new friend to join me in my workout sessions? Or is it because I was disgusted with the fact that this young man was trashing the University that I was a member of and was therefore trashing my hard-earned degree, reputation and prospects of future employment.  

Now if you guessed the latter of the three options, then you too are on the same thinking as I. (you will see that I have reverted back to referring to myself in the first person).  So In addition to pointing all these things out to the young man, I also highlighted that I could be a potential future employer that he could find himself sat in front of once he completed his degree.  It took a little bit of additional explaining, but I pointed out that essentially I could be anyone, and right now all I am hearing is him trashing the university and giving me a negative perception of the university and all its students.  

I think my message struck home because he apologised, but he did end with saying that it was still a fact that Aston University were ranked higher than Wolves University in league tables.  Now if you remember, I’m in the changing rooms after a gym session and as much as I enjoy a good debate, I really wasn’t keen to spend the whole evening in the gym discussing this.  I much prefer to have that discussion online, in a blog for example.  I will however end on these facts; I don’t care about league tables because it made no difference to my overall achievement and experience.  I chose this university because it had the course I wanted to do and the location was perfect for me.  I read the prospectus, came to the open day and spoke to the lecturers that were going to be teaching me and I was suitably impressed.  

I understand why Wolverhampton University have chosen not to be in the University League tables.  I am in no way speaking on their behalf, but I personally understand it as being for a number of different reasons.  Mainly the information used in compiling the lists is not based on fair and comparable information.  The focus is heavily weighted towards those universities that have a strong focus to research. The Russell groups of universities will always be featured in the upper quartile of the table because the factors used to measure and produce the scores are unfairly weighted in their favour.  I could go on, but I think I should save this for a dedicated blog that I can also backup with relevant quotes and statistics.

In essence what I will say is that I feel that it is impossible to judge and rank a university based on a selection of factors and data that differs across over 100 different universities.  What is more important is the teaching and the resources and the personal effort that you commit as a student.  It is not a simple matter that it you go to the number one ranked university and are lectured at by the greatest minds in the worlds, that this will in turn translate to you magically getting a first class honours degree.  You will learn more and have a better experience if you are taught by lecturers who are not only knowledgeable, but passionate about their subject, but you must reinforce this with your own commitment to additional study and reading.  You will find these lecturers at all universities whether or not they are on a league table and regardless of its position in the charts. 

I received a 2:1 from Wolverhampton and am nearing completion of a Postgraduate Masters.  I value my degree for the hard work I committed throughout my studies and I see this degree as equally comparable to any degree gained at any of the other universities throughout the UK, whether that be Russell Group, Guild HE, University Alliance, or Million Plus.  I am proud of my degree and I am proud to be a graduate and alumnus of University of Wolverhampton.  This is why I always proudly say I went to the University of Wolverhampton.