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NEWS: Graduation ceremonies overshadowed by bleak new employment statistics
As students graduate from QUB this week, a dark cloud has emerged above them as The Guardian reported today that graduates will be up against an average of 70 other applicants for any job they go for. Not only will they be up against the class of 2010, but they will also face opposition from graduates of 2009 who are still seeking to land that dream job. This is all made even worse by the fact that vacancies are set to fall by 7%, with 78% of employers are insisting on a 2.1 degree.
BY EMMA GALLEN
Summer graduation at Queen’s takes place this week, with up to three ceremonies per day. Monday’s opening graduation ceremony was held for the students of the Schools of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences and the week’s events will end with the graduation of those belonging to the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the School of Planning, Architecture and Civil Engineering.
Despite the gloomy economic outlook graduates will continue to celebrate their success. Looking towards summer graduation, History and Politics student Roisin Murray said, “I’m quite excited and it’s nice to feel that I’ve achieved something.”
Each of this year’s summer graduation events are to be streamed live on the Queen’s University website, inviting relatives and friends of graduates to take part in “a treasured moment”. Full recordings of all the ceremonies will also be available online afterwards, as well as photographs taken throughout the week.
Those receiving honorary doctorates this term Jamaican Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt. Former police ombudsman Baroness Nuala O’Loan will receive an LLD for distinction in public service and Dame Kelly Holmes for distinction in sport and public services.
Recalling last year’s events, Queen’s summer 2009 graduate Laura Gray explained that the most overwhelming feeling of the day was relief. “After three years work, I was now a graduate”, she said. However, for many of last year’s graduates the sense of relief soon gave way to anxiety as Laura and her peers found themselves in a declining job market with scarce opportunities.
According to The Guardian, “The class of 2010 have been told to consider flipping burgers or stacking shelves when they leave university as leading firms in investment banking, law and IT are due to cut graduate jobs this year.”
Former Gown editor and 2010 graduand Catherine Wylie is glad that she has yet to join the graduate job rat race but fears that things may not have improved in a year’s time. “I’m glad that I have secured plans to go on to further study, as I know that otherwise I would be on job seeker’s allowance or getting a job in retail or catering. So many careers, and definitely journalism which is my career of choice, require an abundance of volunteering and experience, and I just hope that after I complete my studies next year that I will have enough that makes me stand above other graduates. It really is a dog-eat-dog process,” she said.
Tags: Emma Gallen, Gown, newspaper, qub, Queen's, queen's university, student, students, The Gown
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 at 6:53 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Things are not as bleak for graduates as the media would have us believe. It's not easy, not has it been easy for a long time but determination and patience still pay off.
It's more difficult not to lose heart when you're being told that you've wasted your time by the media and even your lecturers are telling you that it's hopeless. We had a guest lecturer come in and tell us that none of us had a chance of landing graduate jobs. Charming man and the thing that made me angry was that he was invited back to speak the next year too!
a succession of incompetant ministers at that!
Finding a job in teaching is only problematic in NI but in the rest of the UK they are screaming for good teachers.
The reason that it is hard to find a job in teaching because of the Dept. Education has a minister who is totally incompetent.
Graduate 10, qualified to be a professional waster ye mean... journalist, politician, lawer... and you are wrong about teaching, you need a PGCE to do that, but even so.. try getting a teaching job. I have friends who done H&P and they are still wafting about university wondering what to do... whilst I in my vocational degree (which has many more doors open than H&P) have a good job and I haven't even graduated!.. and there are many more jobs on offer.
Do something worthwhile with public funding please!
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/QUB-honours-Lumle...
Lumley got her honorary doctorate in 2008.
Have to laugh at the idiot who mocked the history and politics degree, it actually qualifies people to do a great deal more things than vocational degrees like Medicine, Nursing and the like. Journalism, politics, law, teaching(more qualified I think than someone with a BEd) and loads more. Arts degrees are the first things Universities focused on when they began. At least these people have a choice still to make in their life and aren't stuck regretting doing a vocational degree only to discover five years down the line that it is not what they want out of life and qualifies them for nothing else, I know so many people like this. What of other degrees: Engineering, Accounts and the rest ... NOONE is getting jobs!
"Suspicious references"?
Is that really an accurate way to describe one small error?
I see that QUB have since corrected their online 2010 list. Lumley's name was on that list a few days ago and I was very surprised at them making such a mistake...Ahem.
I think she was actually on the 2008 or 2009 list...I remember Hood commenting on it...the rascal.
That's a good way to put it, but i wouldn't beinclined to say that further education is the way forward and definitely not volunteering!
Britain was much more successful country when the majority of its population was "uneducated". Now everyone is "educated" and think they are too good to do skilled labour jobs. Result.. Britain is fooked!
Some suspicious references in this article...Joanna Lumley....really? I don't think she is!
Calling a History and Politics degree an "idiot degree" is a little unfair, but I suppose so many degrees don't qualify you to either BE or DO anything as such.
Further education, volunteering and experience is the name of the game now. It has been for a while, but for the class of 2010 it's everything.
See you all in the rat race some time soon!
History and Politics student Roisin Murray explained, “I’m quite excited and it’s nice to feel that I’ve achieved something.”
LMFAO
IDIOT DEGREE
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