27th June 2011, 02:08 PM
In my humble, you get out of uni more or less what you put in. Certainly it is almost impossible to fail, provided you turn up (sometimes) and submit something, and I have come across people with degrees who display a mind-boggling lack of knowledge, or a complete misunderstanding. However, it is also possible to get an excellent education, if you enter into the spirit of the thing. If you expect to be spoon-fed, I doubt if you will get much out of it.
I would certainly agree that universities (as far as I can see, I've only been to one) could probably add a little more practical content - not necessarily just digging under commercial conditions, but as suggested above, in project planning and so on - the management and professional practice side. I subscribe to the view though that this is not their primary function: a new graduate is not the finished article, far from it, but is prepared and equipped to commence their professional career in whichever field or discipline they choose.
None of this is peculiar to archaeology. I know a number of fully qualified architects (not that unqualified architects exist, by definition) who quite frankly you wonder how they got though
their first year. I also know a number who are very competent and talented, and a large number somewhere in between.
I would certainly agree that universities (as far as I can see, I've only been to one) could probably add a little more practical content - not necessarily just digging under commercial conditions, but as suggested above, in project planning and so on - the management and professional practice side. I subscribe to the view though that this is not their primary function: a new graduate is not the finished article, far from it, but is prepared and equipped to commence their professional career in whichever field or discipline they choose.
None of this is peculiar to archaeology. I know a number of fully qualified architects (not that unqualified architects exist, by definition) who quite frankly you wonder how they got though
their first year. I also know a number who are very competent and talented, and a large number somewhere in between.