tomorrow

Firstly, I love this:

Secondly, man I'm excited!

Basically, tomorrow I'm off to London at 4:00 in the morning to attend this protest. I. Am. So. Excited.

Coming to uni, I was expecting there to be loads of protests - students up in arms at the injustices of the world, in an idealistically Les Miserables kind of way. It was something I was really looking forward to: joining the ranks of thousands of other students in an attempt to shake things up.

Yet, amidst the sea of seemingly apathetic rahs and disillusioned socialists there seemed to be a distinct lack of passion about, well, anything really. But now, in my last year at uni, I have my opportunity! In a final hurrah for my university experience, I'm going to join thousands of other students in an attempt to defend the right for my little brother to have the same opportunities I did.

For those unacquainted with the changes to be made to higher education funding in England, here's a (very) brief summary:

• Our government has taken the cap off university tuition fees - basically meaning universities can now charge anything up to £9000 a year for the benefit of attending their institution. A levy (tax) will be put in place for fees of over £6000 (last I heard), but to be honest I don't think that'll put the higher-end unis off.
• Funding for those courses which the government deems not "essential" (mainly humanities courses, like mine, such as English, History, languages that are not "strategically economically advantageous", Geography - all that kind of thing) will be cut the most severely - with government money being focused more on courses such as medicine and engineering.

Basically, the whole thing is a sham. It's outrageous. Now, I do know that compared with places like the States we still pay relatively little for university, but to suggest that students in a couple of years' time (my little brother included) will have to leave university with debts of up to £30, 000 (when our parents could attend for nothing) is scandalous.

Rant over.

So, that is why I'm off to London with a few of my coursemates and hundreds of other Newcastle students (and thousands of others from across the country) to march in front of Parliament and through central London.

Will it make a difference? Probably not. But, man, I'm buzzing for it.

planning planning

So, tomorrow is module selection. At 9:00 tomorrow morning I'm picking my modules for next year. This is what I'm thinking:

Semester 1

• Beyond Wonderland (a module on the origins and development of children's literature)
• an Extended Study (5000 words on anything I've been taught so far - basically a mini-dissertation)

Semester 2

• Contemporary Documentary (learning about the theory and practice of making documentaries. We'll be taught how to use editing software and stuff, and part of the assessment is a 4 minute film we have to make about ourselves. Eek!)
• Career Development (70 hours volunteering at a placement. This is where I'm hoping to go - it looks amazing!)
• another Extended Study

So, all in all, it looks pretty mint. Not huge amounts of taught modules this time, but there are always less in third year because of dissertation/extended studies. Eee, I'm really excited!

I've wanted to do the documentary module since the beginning of uni, but have always chickened out. It's taught by Tina Ghavari and I think there's a fair amount of practical work involved and I've got no idea what to expect, which is pretty intimidating. Thing is though, I'm thinking when else am I going to get an opportunity like this?  I love film and documentaries and it's a real chance to learn to do something I love better. So I told myself to get a grip :)

I'll have to start thinking of ideas for my 4 minute film...