16th April 2012, 04:05 PM
It means the decision to teach masters saved the huge staff base at the IoA from layoffs/early retirements for a few years.
UG numbers this year are not down that much - they were up last year so a drop on last year is meaningless without the longer term trend and that is not down as much as many people expected. Many Universities survive on their joint honours with classics/history or anthropology students and that pool is much bigger and more versatile than single hons archaeology.
The vast majority of undergraduates could not give a hoot about the pay and conditions in commercial archaeology because they have no intention of doing it, or doing it for long (less that 50% single hons grads go on to do any further archaeology). As a result I think fees will have the most dramatic effect on master’s courses not job seekers. At the moment the government claims that graduates will not pay back a penny until they earn 21k, if this goal post remains still it will leave plenty of room for the two year digger to remain in the profession before going to teacher training, becoming a surveyor, working for dad or to joining the civil service. It will also leave room for those who stay and who over a life time in commercial archaeology will probably pay back much less than those who currently leave with 3.5k a year plus living expense all of which must be repaid. However, by contrast when UGs leave with 30k of government debt they may not want, or be able, to privately finance a masters and many departments seem to be consolidating their postgraduate provision in preparation. Maybe the IoA can maintain its market position by being the biggest and most diverse masters teaching institution in the UK, maybe not.
On this note a text book that sits nicely in the 3rd year/masters slot, by providing professional development advice that university staff cannot, could be a winner so why not take your idea to a mainstream publisher like Rutledge/Duckworth/Oxbow or better still the CBAs hand book series. In paperback it would still be ?15-25 but with distribution support and marketed as a text book it could sell 1000 not 100 copies and have a lasting impact on next generation.
UG numbers this year are not down that much - they were up last year so a drop on last year is meaningless without the longer term trend and that is not down as much as many people expected. Many Universities survive on their joint honours with classics/history or anthropology students and that pool is much bigger and more versatile than single hons archaeology.
The vast majority of undergraduates could not give a hoot about the pay and conditions in commercial archaeology because they have no intention of doing it, or doing it for long (less that 50% single hons grads go on to do any further archaeology). As a result I think fees will have the most dramatic effect on master’s courses not job seekers. At the moment the government claims that graduates will not pay back a penny until they earn 21k, if this goal post remains still it will leave plenty of room for the two year digger to remain in the profession before going to teacher training, becoming a surveyor, working for dad or to joining the civil service. It will also leave room for those who stay and who over a life time in commercial archaeology will probably pay back much less than those who currently leave with 3.5k a year plus living expense all of which must be repaid. However, by contrast when UGs leave with 30k of government debt they may not want, or be able, to privately finance a masters and many departments seem to be consolidating their postgraduate provision in preparation. Maybe the IoA can maintain its market position by being the biggest and most diverse masters teaching institution in the UK, maybe not.
On this note a text book that sits nicely in the 3rd year/masters slot, by providing professional development advice that university staff cannot, could be a winner so why not take your idea to a mainstream publisher like Rutledge/Duckworth/Oxbow or better still the CBAs hand book series. In paperback it would still be ?15-25 but with distribution support and marketed as a text book it could sell 1000 not 100 copies and have a lasting impact on next generation.