Education Renders Us Fit Members For Well Organised Society

Today I went to Oxford Brookes Universities open day... I was hoping to find a course that I could go on to advance my qualifications (I already have a BSc, so I was looking for a MSc or MEng).

I suppose it all started to go wrong when I got there, and realised that there was no parking... at all... unless you have a disabled badge... I suppose you're expected to catch the bus, or instead cycle there. When I eventually found a space (Many thanks to the guy running the corner shop that pointed out that outside his shop was the only place I could park without a permit (Tho even that had a limit of 2 hrs).

I imagined an open day at one of Oxford many universities to be a grand affair with many lecturers to talk to... sadly was mistaken. When I arrived I was presented with the customary bag of goodies and pointed in the direction of a room where all the faculties each had a stand. Not at all what I was expecting... 2 people to a desk and once for each faculty... my god I thought, each faculty has positively tens of courses... where are the other lecturers? I quickly found the Technology desk, and noted they had about 4 leaflets, none of which at first glance appeared to have any relevance to what I intended to study. So naturally I inquired to the only chap that was free at the table, only to be informed that his area was in Audio Visual engineering (IE Films Tv etc), now whilst I would never say I wouldn't do that line of work (I've always fancied being a SFX modeler/tech, especially pyrotechnics :-) ) it wasn't what I was there for, so I asked if there was someone with knowledge in that area around? "erm he'll be back soon" was the response... 10 mins later I decided that I'd take a load off and sit down, so I asked them to point him in m y direction when he showed up.

20 mins later he showed up... looking pretty bedraggled... hardly an advert for the course. Must have had a tough day I thought... so I posed my questions about the course, and he adequately answered them... all the time munching his way through a stack of biscuits that had been laid out as hospitality to the prospective students (His long day can't have afforded him much of a lunch!), suffice to say as a spokesman for the university I was quickly beginning to doubt that this was the place for me. Especially when I discovered that the course on Advanced Engineering Design was primarily focused on Automotive Design (Oxford being home to various F1 design housed I should have guessed this in advance), which unfortunately is completely irrelevant to my current employer, and frankly far detracting from my chosen career of Aerospace and Defence Engineering.

Ho hum... I now continue to look... hopefully a few well placed letters to some Universities may come up with something of interest.