Matters of the Arts
University can be a tricky time; a tsunami of washing disasters, near-fatal culinary experiments and caffeine dependency, not to mention the occasional essay crisis to interupt that whirlwind of social events and million-and-one other things you manage to pack into what can be a very hectic three years.
It all makes for a difficult juggling act; add life-altering decision-making into the mix, and you have a dangerous combination. At a time in life when stability and routine are provided by daily repeats of Neighbours, is it really advisable to make plans and take decisions that will decide and define the rest of our lives?
For those of us not accustomed to bouts of self-questioning, deciding what to make of our lives is no mean feat. Whilst the aspiring medics and lawyers amongst us can sit back with a degree of certainty and ponder the intricacies of their pension plans, what happens to those who haven't served four terms in the Union or become the president of at least six university societies? Is it really such a bad thing that, at the age of 22, we might be a little hesitant in deciding what we should do for the next forty years? Well, apparently so.
Arts students are particularly susceptible to this brand of criticism, with arts degrees seen to be less vocational than their science counterparts, and many students graduating with little career direction or work experience.
According to Charles Clarke, Secretary of State for Education and Skills, the very idea of education for its own sake with no specific field of work in mind is "a bit dodgy," though apparently not "dodgy" enough to get you out of thousands of pounds in tuition fees.
Surely nothing can be more infuriating for arts students than the perennial question, suitably loaded with inappropriate sarcasm and smugness: "So what are you going to do with your degree then?" as though the past three or four years have been spent doing little more than completing a critical appraisal of Cash in the Attic and Bargain Hunt.
And as for job prospects, popular misconceptions would have it that, with an arts degree, you can teach, or you can, erm, teach. But with the disappearance of so-called "jobs for life," the flexibility and transferable skills taught by an arts degree are actually increasingly valuable in the current job market.
But never fear. For those of you unbitten as yet by the career bug, help is at hand. The Oxford and Cambridge Careers Handbook and the web pages of the Careers Service offer lots of useful advice.
Perhaps lack of direction is not simply a matter of not knowing what to do with your life, but is actually a deep-seated fear that "university is almost over." Not to worry though, this life crisis can be easily remedied by ten minutes with the Duty Careers Adviser, or may be able to offer a few helpful pointers if nothing else.
Not that this is completely reassuring for the more insecure jobhunter. According to the Careers Service, freshers have no need to panic about career choice; there's plenty of time to decide, which is reassuring. By the time you reach the dizzy heights of the second year however, you begin to overstay your welcome on indecision row and in your final year, if you are still lacking in inspiration, the outlook is bleak.
The vaguely threatening advice to "talk to a careers adviser about how to relate your current situation to future possibilities" becomes sufficiently ominous to strike a note of fear, prompting even the most indecisive amongst us to formulate some sort of haphazard plan. Maybe the world of investment banking beckons, or perhaps you feel the need to delay any decisions by doing a PhD, and maybe another degree after that...
Important decision-making is never easy; it requires careful consideration and thought, and if it takes a while to make that decision, then so be it. In the meantime, there are more important internal conflicts to resolve: Cadbury's or Mars? Giant Buttons or Maltesers? Maybe I'll have both.
14th Oct 2004