Hmpf....*sigh* .... Where to start??

I had a coffee and a talk with my friends and course-mates earlier today, and we got talking about the course and whether we can actually see ourselves working as journalists.

And that's pretty much where the dilemma starts.
I came to England 1 1/2 years ago, because this university, the University of Cumbria *clear throat* is the only place in all of EUROPE offering a B.A. (Hons) in Travel Journalism. It sounded like a great course! It would be a journalism degree with some tourism modules on the side. We would have the chance to meet people working in the industry, plan and go on our own research trip in Year 2, learn all the skills needed to survive not only in the journalism world, but also in the travel journalism world in particular.

And then I got here. Here is Carlisle (Cumbria, UK), a place where the nearest airport is 1 1/2 hours by train away, where fell-walking in nearby Lake District is the main tourist attraction and the spoken language is (at least for foreigners, sometimes) almost incomprehensible. You'd expect a course like this in a thriving place, a touristy place - a European metropolis... instead you end up with the cows and sheep in Rickerby Park to provide entertainment. Thanks.

I got accepted into the University of Central Lancashire, but when I got to Carlisle, I found out it's actually UCLan's Business School and the Cumbria Institute of the Art (C.I.A.), united as the newly formed University of Cumbria, together with St. Martin's College. Travel Journalism is clearly a journalism degree (the title would be a give-away), however, it is run by a Business School. From the word go we had problems, as we're enrolled at the Business School site, but actually study most of the time at the Art College. We're part of both and don't belong to either.

On the one hand, we're doing a journalism degree - just without any of the NCTJ qualifications we'd need to work as proper journalists in this country. I always thought a journalism degree should give you a bit of insight and practice in all areas media - I'm only allowed to do PRINT. Unlike the "proper" journalism students, I'm not allowed to have an elective, go into broadcast and be a radio or TV presenter or make documentaries. And that, although I could imagine myself to work on the "destination pioneering" team of such shows like "VoxTours" or "Wolkenlos".

On the other hand, we're doing 2 tourism modules, in which we learn everything about the business side of tourism, supply, demand, culture & society, destination management and planning. I'm a journalist. It says so on the tin of my degree. Travel Journalism. However, we're expected to wrap our heads around planning modules and theory and location factors and write business reports as assignments. We were even told, that our written work for that part of the course should not be so "journalistic"...

The way I see it, this course will give me the basis of journalism, and the basis of tourism management, but it will not qualify me in either.

When I think about travel journalism, I imagine writing for guide books like Lonely Planet or the Rough Guides. I see travel supplements of weekend papers. See travel shows and documentaries on TV. We're not doing any of this. All it would take is for our lecturers to actually get together and discuss our course. Everytime I write a travel piece for journalism, it gets turned down. The magazine I'm editor of now ("Horizons") will feature quite a few travel-related stories, but our lecturer was not impressed and didn't want a travel magazine. But after all, I am trying to do a degree in this!! A bit of help would be nice. Why not change one of our assignments to "Write about Carlisle as if it was for a guide book, using the Lonely Planet house style"? That would actually get us somewhere!

At the moment, I just think I spent an awful lot of money for an awful lot of nothing! If I'd only wanted to do journalism, I could have stayed home. Would not have had to immigrate to the UK. I could have studied for free or for a tiny percentage of what I'm paying now. I could still live at home. Have my friends around me. Speak my own language. I wouldn't have to go to university at all. I could start as a trainee reporter at my local paper tomorrow and be a proper journalist working for them 3 years down the line. But it's not what I want to do.

I've already changed my job expectations to include writing for an entertainment magazine and/or (German) local-but-bigger-than-the-News & Star newspaper! Just because I don't get to do any travel journalism on the travel journalism degree!!! And believe me, I've thought about quitting this course more than once in the last 18 months! I don't think the lecturers really understand that they are messing with our futures! But I'm not a quitter, and I would have wasted a lot of money. That's the only reason right now why I'm sticking with it. Don't get me wrong, I don't know what I'd do without the "journalism gang" this course made me part of! But that's because they're friends, not because they're journalists!

Although I always said I that I want to live in an English-speaking country, I never really fancied living in the UK to start with. Add limited funding and being stuck in Carlisle to the experience... I know it's a disgrace for a travel journalist not to travel - but what can I do? Maybe it'll all sort itself out at some point and I'll come to love this country. Who knows? The only one, who's making moving to the UK seem like my best idea ever and brightens it all up is my boyfriend, and I am really, really thankful for that! I am really glad I stuck with the course long enough to meet him last October - especially since I was considering not to return to the UK after last summer!

I came to the UK and to the University of Cumbria on a false promise it seems. I've done all I could and played along.
It's time the University of Cumbria fulfils its part of the deal, I'd say!!!