Most of what was happening during those three weeks didn't interest me and I wanted to earn money to justify purchasing overpriced academic textbooks that were funded from research councils whose money comes from the tax payer plus with a little extra for some ideals.
It gives me the impression that nobody has played sport at a sizeable level prior to university. I know the massive increase in numbers means smaller sized sports become more popular but even then the usual most popular sports are still dominant as they outside of university life. I was interested in sailing, kayaking and rifling but the sailing was done about 20 miles away from campus and it was very expensive in terms of transport. That put me off kayaking and I don't think I found rifling but I didn't look for too long since the air club was the original plan, but it closed down before I joined due to finances. Which then makes me wonder why they didn't bother to increase the cost of sports membership. Because it's not rugby, football or rowing?
I did think about archery but I think I was told that they received nothing from the collected funds from sports membership too. So, basically, the sports I was interested in, didn't benefit from the sports membership fee but I still had to pay it to do sport.
I thought I was just getting bad luck when I went to the general ones! I did ask a lecturer at my department, the School of Applied Social Sciences, but I didn't get much of an answer. If people want to do IB I have no problem, but we're not all the same. Some of us would have studied a different subject if we knew from the start that the subject of choice for my degree has little to no relation to my future job. I even took up the idea of having subject based placements with a lecturer, so those who study sociology and criminology can get some experience in correctional settings (they need not be top security prisons), Home Office, Probation, etc. I even asked some societies who oversee those funky journals related to my degree if they do work experience schemes but was told none existed. This was while I was still itnerested in a career in academia but over time I felt more and more disillusioned with higher education in general (probably doesn't help reading up on genocide either, writing all the stuff that goes on the world to only put it to one side because EastEnders is on TV?!). I mean if I studied medicine it would be a good idea to think I want to be a doctor no? *sigh*
I do wonder who organises these career fairs because even the military and journalism weren't represented and I was a little surprised at that, given that we tend to have a a fair few high ranked officers in the military currently serving, or recently retired, just to promote the stereotype in a fun way!
But I do think any current Durham student who is taken aback at the overrepresentation of IB to the detriment of subject specific careers should take it up. I'll probably moan about this in GUD some time (I've been meaning for a long while) to see if other universities cater better at this.