And now the pressure's on, the heat is rising - the time has come to stop apologising

DoaMS: It's that time of year again (whether you like it or not)

Before you ask, this is, yes, me avoiding work.

I've also been avoiding Blogger as a whole recently thanks to a set of circumstances whereby my practical tutor ended up viewing my youtube channel, which - being named the same as this blog - means that in any sane world I've now managed to 'expose' this blog to said tutor and, by extension, the faculty at large.

Hi!

I had managed to maintain a veneer of anonymity by never mentioning my University of Choice, or referring to specific people, staff or courses by name, but I kind of suspect that's all over now.

(Then again, considering nobody reads this blog anyway, it's maybe churlish to complain about an uptick in reading figures. But anyway.)

I'm guilty, I will admit, of using this blog as an outlet for frustrations and problems that being a mature student has brought out and that I don't really have any other avenue for expression. Nothing in this world is perfect, as you already know, and while the last two-years-and-change have been amazing and instructive in equal measure, well, there have been times when it's been difficult to tamp down a rising feeling of sheer frustration.

Case one: Film Studies is a young course.

Not strictly speaking, of course, but compared with other academic disciplines, and especially compared with other academic disciplines in England, film studies is the hyperactive younger brother to English and, perhaps, History.

While teaching Film Theory may not have changed overly much over the past, say, twenty years - as evidenced by the majority of our textbooks being across a 1970s / 2000s split in authorship decade - practical filmmaking courses now change every six months.

I wish I were joking, but I'm not, alas. Put it this way; my academic year is unique, because no other year after us will have to take the same course choices as we do, and the courses themselves changed as soon as we had finished them. Some examples;

- The practical skills course we took in year one was gone by year two, replaced by a production course, and by this year the requirement to take this course was replaced with a revamped version of the practical skills course

- Which, fact fans, is now the first assignment of practical skills in filmmaking II brought forward to year one - i.e. my year, in taking practical skills in filmmaking II, is now unique as the course has already changed and the first assignment from PSII is now the entirety of PSI.

This means that if you're in my year - or, arguably, the year above me that graduated in june - you're a test subject. Oh yes, the students in the years below you will get the benefit of the tutors observing your interactions and how the courses work, but let's be selfish for a moment here; how fair is that on us?

I have a lot of sympathy for the PSI/PSII tutors, because they're just trying to make the best course possible for the students who are soon going to be in the £9,000 + tuition fees bracket, and soon value for money will be the key credo. It must be difficult to constantly have to rewrite the rules and values of the practical courses.

But as difficult as it is for them, how difficult do you think it is to be part of a student body now constantly in transition?

... Although, now I come to think of it, it's almost exactly the same as being back at work, where if there wasn't a transition every six months, we felt neglected.

Here's the thing: there's no point complaining. Which, yes, means you've just spent a few minutes reading pointless complaining. Sorry about that. At the end of the day, this is an amazing course filled with creative people, and with which I will hopefully be able to do fantastic things. It'd just be nice not to feel like an Aperture Science Approved Test Subject once in a while.