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| Sunday, 8 August 2004 |
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Informative guide for aspiring students by Jayanthi Kaminie Liyanage "For most students, College is the biggest party on earth; a massive orgy of loose moral standards and wall-to-wall vomiting. Yet, the monotony of coursework is an inevitable part of College experience.
Continuing, he states, While these may be slightly ahead of their time, you would be surprised at some of the courses that get passed off as legitimate exercises in academia. Among the top ten craziest college courses offered at American Universities within the last couple of years are Xtreme Literature, Philosophy and Star Trek, Facial Reconstruction, Basic Horse Behaviour Training and Feminist Biblical Criticism. That is on the wierd side. Lets get on to more meatier ambitions of study. Students Times (ST), the newest edu-infor storehouse on sale, tries to mollify the growing demands of a world, moving inexorably towards knowledge-based economies where education is the singularly most important commodity in the market. The choice of which course to study, which university or college to attend, what career to embark on, are no doubt, difficult decisions to make, even for an adult student who begins with a minimal, or hardly any idea, of where to find the sources which could offer different streams or levels of study. Deshan Tennekoon, ST's Editor, describes the magazine as a biannual publication, and a single source of information, catering to students and parents who need to make choices about tertiary education and careers, both in-country and overseas. Left to discover all this on your own might probably leave you grubby, and dejected to the point of giving up the whole idea of further study. The pack also expands to offer information to graduate students, looking for avenues to broaden their knowledge. Turn the pages of ST and you will find Directories of Teaching Centres, Agencies and the range of subjects available to students in these contemporary tertiary education fields. Be it banking, arts, aviation, design or hospitality, each stream is taken apart into its multiple components, with a key pointing to the centres and institutes where the courses are conducted, with admission requirements, scholarships on offer, faculties, accommodation, career service programs, and many more details. Move on to the Testimonials section, which you will find thoroughly absorbing. Take Law - "Intellectual Property and Information Technology are exciting areas with lots of potential." Or Accountancy - "There may be a shift towards outsourcing some aspects of accounting.. processing source documents, basic book keeping.." Or Diplomacy - "A lot of social events at embassies.. various functions; travelling.. and meeting people from different backgrounds.." And Architecture - "Local education is advantageous since familiarity with the context is of prime importance with regard to architecture." These testimonials describe the skills required, subjects recommended, job options after graduation, demand for qualification in Sri Lanka, emerging areas, starting salaries, perks and the "last word" on the topic: For example, in diplomacy, "For the female of the species, it is vital to keep your cool as you will realise it is a 'man's world' out there so you must be prepared for a certain amount of unfairness... but remember that you are working for your country and have the main aim to promote your country as best as you can." Skip to Alternative Courses, "breaking away from the traditional method of a lecturer droning on endlessly about shutter speed and the like, they've come out with a new syllabus." Is there truly potential for a significant population of highly skilled freelancers, not moored to any particular field? Read the piece, "Jobs for Life" and you will know that facing the today's freelancer is a network of opportunities and contacts which could make her/his line of worth worthwhile. The publication also covers the available courses to the language learner, schemes of student loans offered by different local banks, addresses of useful websites and information on studying in the newly favoured destination of Malaysia, besides the old and firm favourites of Australia, the UK and the USA. The actual experience of a Sri Lankan student's contemporary fresher's week could be poles apart from the days when her/his Mum was a college girl with bright pink hair. One student says, "The most useful things I had were a kettle, Samahan and Siddhalepa. Those and a good night's sleep tended to sort out most minor ailments." If the above sounds exciting to you, the time is ripe to subscribe to the Student Times. Who knows - You might end up doing brilliantly in a study course you'd been losing nights and nights of sleep to get enrolled in.Student Times is published by hybridmedia and is available at all leading Bookshops. |
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| Produced by Lake House |
Only a select few courses have students clamouring to sign up. If it
was left to me, I would design such brilliant courses as Social Studies:
Reliving the 70's on LSD"; Beer Etiquette or Advanced Human Biology:
Interactive Female Anatomy, so states Rajinda Jayasinghe in his
introduction to an article on craziest college courses offered at American
Universities titled 'Basic Horse Behaviour Training'.
