Today is the day!! I have just graduated from the University of Central Lancashire (but taught at University of Cumbria) with Upper Second Class Honours in my Bachelor of Arts Travel Journalism degree!!

It feels weird in a way, that it's suddenly all over. Three years of university have finally paid off. This morning we collected our gowns and mortar boards - for everyone not familiar with that term... it's the hat - from Ede and Ravenscroft at the Crown and Mitre Hotel in Carlisle. Once again, I was glad that my degree is validated by Central Lancashire and not Cumbria. While UCLan graduands wear grey and red hoods over the gowns, Cumbria graduands wear grey and a colour best described as neon green and quite hideous.

I went back up to Carlisle yesterday, with my mum, dad, sister and of course my other half. Staying for the last time ever at the house that's been my home for three years - and which my landlord had already rented out again although our contracts hadn't run out yet.

Nonetheless, I had to get up early this morning to get ready and went over to the Crown and Mitre by myself, through the rain. Inside, I met up with fellow Travel Journalism graduand Lauren, got my gown and hat, got my official photos done and then waited for my family and other half to arrive.

While all the ceremony guests got seated in the cathedral, our gowns were checked, hoods straightened, hats put on tight and straight and the procedure was explained. We then made our way to the cathedral and down the centre aisle towards the altar and stage. What I didn't understand is why they hid us graduands behind the columns in the side aisle. After all, today was supposed to be our day. Helen Hutchinson came by, finding Lauren and me and congratulating us. Then the ceremony started with several addresses and it seemed to last forever until we finally got to go on stage. We had to hand name cards to the dean, then walk up the stairs when our names were called, shake hands with UCLan's vice-chancellor and walk off the stage again, walk around the whole cathedral and sit down. Kind of disappointing, that we did not even get a fake scroll. A graduation ceremony without anything to show off?

After all the degrees were conferred and two honorary fellows appointed, the ceremony was declared over and we followed the academic procession down the main aisle again, and exited the cathedral to applause from guests and all members of the university.

Outside Carlisle Cathedral, our course leader Dr John Luffrum, and tourism lecturer Brian Eaton came to find Lauren and me to congratulate. After all, we're pretty unique as graduating classes go, seeing as there are only the two of us. We're the first to graduate, and for now as far as we know also the last. For three years, it's been our little four person clique when we didn't have lessons at Brampton Road for the journalism modules.

University is over, and somehow we made it! I say hats off to that!!

My graduation is on 16th July (only two weeks from today) and I still don't know whether I passed or not.

After handing in my last assignment on 13th May, I haven't had anything from uni yet. If I was a single honours journalism student graduating in November I wouldn't be this stressed. But leaving it evidently less than two weeks before graduation to tell students whether they actually passed or not is not fair.

It really reminds me of the start of my third year... I was back at uni, studying in third year for 3 weeks, before they Gold me that i had actually passed second year.

The reason for this graduation result malarky is the University of Cumbria. Although I studied at their Carlisle campuses, my degree has always been run by the University of Central Lancashire. Assessment criteria, assigmemts, rules and regulations all set by UCLan and I have always considered myself a UCLan student. UCLan's exam boards where a while ago and we could have had results then. But apparently UOC decided they wanted to have a look as well, resulting in this massive delay. Why UOC wanted to have a look at degrees clearly validated by UCLan is anyone's guess..

All I can say is that I'm glad I can leave UOC behind me in two weeks and never have to go back. The teachers were great but that uni screwed up too much on my degree.

The problem with this university degree in travel journalism that I've been doing for the las three years is: it's not NCTJ accredited. Which means, in order to actually work as a journalist in the UK, I'll have to get these sought-after qualifications another way.

There are 6 preliminary exams in total, only two of which I can actually do right now. One is Newswriting and the other is handing in a portfolio of work.

I've just sat my Newswriting exam today, in which I had to write a 325-word news story, an 80-word story, a 50-word story as well as come up with sources and possible interview questions and how to make use of the internet for a pretend news story within the space of two hours. It's my only third year exam, and it's not even set by the University of Cumbria.

The portfolio will be handed in soon, just need one more story for that. Now I just have to sort out where and how to learn shorthand, PA, law etc. which I will need for the full qualification.

I'm just glad that with this exam, university is really over!

After several all-nighters, countless cups of coffee and very, very little sleep, it's finally done! I have just handed in my dissertation for the B.A. (Hons) degree in Travel Journalism.

"In what ways do travel magazines define their readership and how does their style and content refelct this? An analysis of the travel market" was my topic, and I looked at travel magazines Wanderlust, Lonely Planet Magazine, The Sunday Times Travel and National Geographic Traveler in terms of writing style, features, pictures, colours and advertising, to find their readership. For this I also had to know how market segments can be defined and what methods are used.

In total, I have written 15.938 words, excluding quotes, abstract, declarations, lists, captions and references. 60 pages including the cover, and the overall word count of everything I have written is 19.028.

I found that I had to cut a lot out. Writing the Literature Review, and the first few chapters explaining Market Segments, Travel Writing and Magazine Style was pretty straight-forward, based on quotes and my own interpretations. However, the four case studies were not that easy to write. I did one after the other, so I wouldn't get confused with the magazines. I looked at each one from many different angles, and really had to focus so I wouldn't write too much. The hardest part was then to link it all up, compare, contrast and add quotes and references to earlier chapters. I found that nailing down a specific readership is not possible in most cases, even though every book on the subject advises editors to have a very clear reader profile in mind when designing the publication.

I actually finished my dissertation in the early hours of yesterday. However, I still had to write an abstract, which took me most of the day, as I had to sum up nearly 16.000 words in 250 words or less.

Once the results are published, I will publish my dissertation for you to judge!

My university has made headlines yet again - they've failed to apply for a GBP 25 MILLION grant, as the News & Star wrote today:

Cumbria university failed to apply for £25 million grant
Exclusive By Phil Coleman
Last updated at 16:59, Friday, 02 April 2010

Bosses at the debt-hit University of Cumbria never applied to the Learning and Skills Council for a £25 million grant as has previously been suggested, The Cumberland News can reveal.

The LSC’s failure to hand over the cash has been cited by managers as one of the key reasons for the financial crisis at the university, which is likely to have a deficit of around £30m by the end of this academic year.
But on its last day in existence this week, LSC officials confirmed that no grant was applied for nor was funding promised, even tentatively.

The LSC’s statement provoked a shocked reaction from politicians and union officials.
Deborah Newell, the LSC’s regional press officer, told The Cumberland News that previous claims that it had failed to provide a £25m grant were wrong. She said: “Although there were initial meetings and discussions, the university did not submit an application to the LSC for capital funding support of further education facilities. Nor was any sum for grant support agreed, even tentatively.”

The statement came just a week after The Cumberland News revealed a catalogue of problems which helped trigger the current crisis, including a promise to not tackle overstaffing for two years after the university’s creation in August 2007.

That helped push staffing costs up to 71 per cent of the annual budget – the highest in the country.
Managers have suggested that another key cause of financial woes has been the continued provision of further education at Newton Rigg, which they say has contributed £5.1m to the debt.
Vice-chancellor Prof Peter McCaffery has refused to rule out selling farmland used by students at the Penrith campus.

Last week, the university’s communications boss Lynn Clark said managers must look at all areas of business “in the light of reduced student number growth and lack of expected capital funding from the LSC”.
Reacting to the LSC’s statement, David Maclean, MP for Penrith and the Border, said Mr McCaffery had “inherited a pig in a poke” if the LSC was right. He said: “It’s extraordinary. We were led to believe they had applied for capital funding to the LSC, and told that the LSC had reneged on that promise. The professor is clearly not at fault but his predecessors need to give an explanation.”

Carlisle MP Eric Martlew said: “If somebody has been saying that they put in for a grant and they hadn’t, then we need an explanation. But we need to move forward.”

Wanda Armstrong, whose union Unison represents support staff, said: “I’m really shocked and quite disgusted. The lack of LSC funding was always given to us as one of main reasons that we are now in this mess.”
A university spokeswoman said: “The University of Cumbria was in close liaison with the LSC while it was preparing to submit its application to the LSC for funding.

“Unfortunately, this happened at the same time as the LSC was being forced to revisit its capital budget.
“Once the LSC had revisited its budget the vast majority of the projects that they were considering at that time were simply not fundable.

“Unfortunately, the university’s application was one of these. The very few projects that the LSC were able to fund were ready to start construction immediately. Unfortunately the UoC was not in that position.”


Why doesn't any of this come as a surprise anymore?

In December 2009, we were asked to look at Carlisle from a "Resident - but tourist for a day" angle, and do a small documentary about what we found out for our Post-Modern Tourism module at the University of Cumbria.

This video was made by Conny Kaufmann and Lauren Moore.

Sorry for going on about my university, the University of Cumbria.

But this interview with my friend and course mate Stephen Graham made the front page of local newspaper News & Star today:

Cumbria university students claim they have been let down by lack of cash
By Thom Kennedy
Last updated at 13:34, Monday, 08 February 2010

Furious students from the University of Cumbria say they have been let down by a lack of investment in new facilities.

Plans to regenerate the city’s Viaduct Estate with a large £70m flagship university campus – including a theatre and arts centre for the city – have been put on hold because of financial problems.

That leaves students coming to Carlisle facing swingeing cuts to the university’s ambitious plans, including the dropping of some courses including law.

Final year journalism student Stephen Graham, 29, of Chatsworth Square in the city centre, said: “I started at the university in the first intake when it first formed, and over the three years the quality has degraded and I am glad to be leaving it now.

“Things like Brampton Road library closing have made it harder to study for my dissertation. It’s all very disappointing for students in Cumbria as they are going to have to travel away to go to university. It’s bad for the area.

“I feel really sorry for the next generation of students coming here. If I was going to stay on after I finish and do a Masters, I wouldn’t do it at the University of Cumbria. If it carries on the way it is, it’s going to implode.”
Steven Ramshay, of Kingstown Road, Carlisle is in his first year at the university, studying journalism. He said: “We were promised the library in Brampton Road, and we’ve been disappointed. I have been let down.
“It has turned out nearly the complete opposite of what I expected when I came to university. My sixth form college is better. The facilities available are very mediocre for a university.”

Recent MA graduate Kevin Murphy added: “They are reducing the facilities tremendously. Students will have signed up 12 months ago being promised a library and all these facilities, and now they are just reducing them.
“The library was a key part of the university as that’s where most of the research goes on.”

The Students’ Union launched a campaign last autumn to save the library when university bosses relocated it to Fusehill Street following a boost in student recruitment at the Brampton Road site.

Other students have expressed their anger at the university’s proposal to cut the law course next year, prompting a group of students to start a Facebook campaign to save the course. A plea to students reads: “The powers-that-be are proposing to axe the law degree at University of Cumbria after only two intakes of students.

“Why can’t we have a local university with prestigious degree courses like law in Carlisle? Why must we focus purely on agriculture, nursing or teaching? Why not have a wide range of courses to ensure local firms employ local people?”

Lecturers at the university’s Ambleside campus, which is set to be mothballed as a £2m cost-cutting measure, have refused to rule out strike action over the plans.

South Lakes MP Tim Farron, who is fighting to keep the Ambleside campus open amid the budget cuts, described a decision to allow outdoor studies students to continue using Ambleside as ‘a partial victory’.
However, he added: “I’m devastated for teacher training students who are still being asked to move, and for dozens of hard-working and long-suffering members of staff who may now face redundancy. Many who have given their life to the campus and to its generations of students face redundancy and an uncertain future.”

I just wanted to show you that it's not just me, who's complaining about the way this university handles things. But UoC is not the only university facing cuts. For more, read the article that was featured in The Guardian today!

By the Book, an original musical by UoC student Scott Tomkins, will come to the stage of the Stanwix Studio Theatre on 18 December. Watch Scott talking about the inspirations that influenced him to write By the Book.




You can also listen to an interview with Scott, in which he explains the ups and downs of the casting and rehearsing process here.

Listen to writer and director Scott Tomkins talking about the casting and rehearsing process for his original musical By the Book, which will premiere on 18th December at the Stanwix Studio Theatre.




Watch a video of Scott talking about his inspiration and influences for By the Book here.

A new and original musical by a third year UoC student is coming to the Stanwix Studio Theatre this month. Cornelia Kaufmann had a chat with writer and director Scott Tomkins.

Sue is a librarian and absolutely loves her job. The only thing she doesn’t like is the fact that every day is the same and her boss Beryl holds her back from what she wants to be.

This is the scene for the original musical By the Book, which will be performed at the Stanwix Studio Theatre on 18th and 19th December at 9pm.

“The old library is being upgraded and Sue is really excited about the change. However, her boss is a bit old-fashioned and against it. Never in her life has Sue stood up for herself or to her boss before and you just have to see what happens when she finally does,” writer and director Scott Tomkins, a third year Musical Theatre and Technical Theatre students explains.

“The musical is very quirky, very up-beat and funny. Some of the songs are taken from already-existing musicals, although they are not too well-known. One of the key songs, I’m a librarian, is by American singer Jonathan Rundman, who kindly gave me permission to use it for By the Book. Other songs the audience will get to hear I’ve written myself,” Scott says.

The cast, led by Alex Anstey as chief librarian Beryl and Jennifer Yeates as Sue, will encounter exaggerated versions of real-life students throughout the show. “The casting and rehearsing process was fun! There’s mature Creative Writing student Bob, portrayed by Ben Edgecombe, who’s been doing the course for eight years now; and Adrian, a student who has lost a book and now has to go on a mission to find it again, who is played by Martin Carlton,” Scott laughs.

However, the musical also shows that good things can come from a bad situation and it doesn’t all have to be doom and gloom. By the Book is partly based on the library situation at the University of Cumbria’s Brampton Road campus, which was closed and converted into teaching space over the summer. Watch an interview.with Scott, in which he talks about influences and inspirations that led him to write By the Book .

Tickets are available at the Stanwix Theatre Box Office, by phone on (01228) 400356 or email stanwixtickets@googlemail.com. They cost £ 4 for adults, concessionary tickets are available for £2 and members pay £1.

I have just found this on Informer Online. It's a review of the movie "Wall-E": Who needs words to be a hero? written by yours truly.

Isn't it great to see that your work does get published on the website for our university newpspaper? Even if it's a year too late? You see, I wrote this review, and posted it on Conny's Corner on 17th December 2008! I know that sometimes stories don't make it into papers right away for various reasons, like tight space or bad subbing. But waiting one year is a new extreme, I would say.

I had urged our lecturer who's responsible for IO and Online Journalism, to put features up on the website, that were written for the latest Informer print version, which came out 3 weeks ago. We need our features to be published for an assessment, but, as usual with this university, nothing is done about it. I just don't think it reflects well on us, that we say in the print version "For the full story, visit us online" and then the story isn't there. Do you think that's good journalistic practice?

Well, along with some stories written for the latest Informer, some articles that have been waiting in a folder for a year finally got to see the light of day. Apparently, who ever put these things online, didn't bother to check which stories went into the print version, but just put everything that looked unpublished on the web. Thanks for that.

Next to the Wall-E review, there's also a story about a photography competition that I wrote for Conny's Corner last December on IO now. It's great our students finally find out about this competition, however, the book that resulted from the competition hit the shelves this autumn. Is it just me, or could this be seen as taking the piss?

And I'm still waiting for my Berlin Wall story - which you can already read here, as I posted it in time for the 20th anniversary celebrations - to be published on IO, so that I can hand it in for assessment. Maybe I should check back next November. Chances are, it might have made it online by then.

Today, our last, proper Informer came out! So go aorund one of the Carlisle campuses (although your best bet is the Brampton Road Newsroom) to pick your copy up!

And I am proud to report, that all six stories I submitted were published as well!
They were:

• Wild Wolf Publishing
• "When the Wall came tumbling down" about the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's demise and my personal experience
• Former student David Simister met the Prime Minister
• Former student Rashid Adamson - from writer to PR Manager
• Former student Claire Lewis published her first novel "A sick work of Art"
• and former student Kirsty Wood was crowned the first-ever Spirit-Catch European Women's Wrestling Champion

I actually got Kirsty's story on the backpage - the main Sports page, which is almost as important as the front page! And the other success stories are all on centre spread!!

Finally some good news!

I've just got a letter from the University of Cumbria, informing me, that I am going to receive a small bursary in form of their Cumbria Bursary for EU students!

This is the first response I've had from the university, since I wrote a letter of complaint to their Finance Department last month, after they tried to take out my tuition fee without warning or approval.

I discovered in October (embarrassingly when I wanted to pay for Sunday Lunch), that all my money was gone, although I had just paid money into my account. It turned out, that after two years of me paying my tuition fees myself, the UoC had decided to take two payments (a total of more than GBP 1,070) out in one go, without sending me a letter informing me of payments amounts and dates. I therefore decided to cancel the direct debit, and informed the university, that I am still in the process of applying for my student loan (which I still haven't heard from - all I know is they're assessing it) and I will therefore not make payments, until I have heard back from Student Finance.

Up until today, I still haven't received a letter about tuition fee payments, or an official response to my complaint. But I will count awarding me this bursary towards it - after all, why else would they all of a sudden send money my way?

We are finally putting the finishing touches on the 53rd edition of our university paper "The Informer."

It is the last Informer that we third year journalism students will work on. It is weird, in a way. But then again: We only have two Informers per year, the other two issues are a "Words by the Water" magazine and a magazine we can choose ourselves.

But with all of us now focussing on dissertations and final projects, the second year's now have to replace us as sub-editors, page designers and proof-readers.

Production days are always mental, and I am glad, this was our last one!

A short story about growing up with mixed heritage has set UoC Creative Writing and Journalism graduate Rashid Adamson on the path of success. He talks to Conny Kaufmann about writing to promoting.

Getting her novel published was Claire’s big aim. Now that her first work is in print, she talks to Conny Kaufmann about her novel, similarities between her and the protagonist and how she finally got published.

When Claire Lewis was studying towards her degree in Creative Writing and Film at the University of Cumbria, she had a dream. This dream stayed with her so much, that she wrote a short story about it while she was in her third year. However, feeling that there was more to it still, she successfully turned her dream into her first novel “A sick work of Art”, which was published in August.


“The story’s main character is 24-year-old Maxie, who works in the coffee shop of an Art Gallery. One day, she finds a video on the internet, in which an artist kills someone. Through her work, she gets mixed up with the art scene and the story really gets quite dark from there”, Claire outlines her novel. “Because of the subject matter, one of my friends was worried I might have turned into a serial killer – but I can assure you I haven’t” she laughs. “And although 40 per cent of Maxie’s personality are based on me – we both live in Newcastle and our boyfriends are in the Royal Navy – there are still quite a few differences between us.”

When she couldn’t find a job as a writer after her graduation in 2006, Claire decided to put her novel on hold and do a fast-track journalism course. “I guess, in the end, it all worked out for me as an author. But that was the hardest course I’ve ever done!”

Claire had been sending her manuscript to publishers all over the country. In the end, Newcastle-based Wild Wolf Publishing, who specialise in dark fiction, thought she has potential. “It’s very exciting to have a proper book. It was published a little early and nobody told me, so imagine my excitement when I found it on Amazon!” She admits that one day she might go down to a bookstore just to see it on the shelf. “But at the moment, I just try to get reviews and feedback.”

“A sick work of Art” by Claire Lewis is available online and can be ordered in every bookshop. Wild Wolf Publishing, £ 8,99.



Hear and see Claire reading an excerpt from her novel:
(The sound is pretty quiet, due to technical problems, I'm afraid!)

Yesterday afternoon: I open the front door, and find a letter on the floor, beneath the letter box. An official letter from the University of Cumbria.

Turns out, that after three weeks of being a Third Year student, I finally got to know whether I actually passed my second year or not!

We finished our second year of the Travel Journalism course in the first week of May. Everbody else got their results in July and August. But apparently, a certain Media Law lecturer had first of all got the results in too late and put the results in the wrong system, so it took this university five months and 2 weeks to process our results! Maybe it's just me, but I don't think that's acceptable at all. After all, we students get marks deducted if we hand assessments in a day late. So leaving it until after we signed up for another year, to officially tell us whether we passed the last year, seems just a tiny bit hypocritical!

I did pass the Second Year.
With 454 overall points last year, I got 56,75% - which in uni-speak is a Lower Second Class. However, if you count in my 516 points in Year 1 (thanks to the 85% I got on one of my tourism modules), which equals 64,5% or an Upper Second Class, I've just about got an overall Upper Second Class degree so far! The magic threshold from Lower to Upper Second is 60% - if you do your maths, I come out at 60,625% ! Which is why I need to pass most of my assignments with 60%+ to maintain that degree!

For those of you who are not familiar with the British marking system:
35 - 39%: Condoned Fail
40 - 49%: Third Class (D)
50 - 59%: Lower Second Class (C)
60 - 69%: Upper Second Class (B)
70%+ : First Class (A)
80%+ : First Class (AA)

My course leader was nice enough to email me a screenshot of my results (minus the Media Law one) in August, so I knew I had passed. But it still took the university almost two months, to actually confirm this!

For the last few weeks, my boyfriend and I have been working on this idea: A new, independent student newspaper for the University of Cumbria. Why? Because the newspaper we've got, "The Informer", only comes out every 6 - 8 weeks which means that everything we write is old news by then. Also, Informer is the uni's official student newspaper, which means we can't really voice our opinions about the university - that would be considered anti-establishment.

So the idea of "Student Voice" was born. An independent, fortnightly newspaper/newsletter which covers all aspects of student life at UoC and is not afraid to put the students' real views and opinions across. The way I see it, all students have a right to know what is going on at their uni - after all they're paying good money to be there.

We're still working on layout at the moment, and need to find some stories. The paper will be an A4 paper, printed on both sides and folded in half, so that we'll have four A5 pages to work with. Though the launch edition will be free, I fear I might have to introduce a price of 5p or 10p per copy - just to cover the printing costs. That's the downside of being independent, I guess.

There will also be a website , which I am creating at the moment. The intention is to also offer classifieds on the website, for people looking for housemates, second-hand stuff or models for their final projects. Students will also be able to advertise their exhibitions, plays, record release parties and any other event, to get an even bigger audience. The site will be able to feature pictures and video, so people interested in broadcast are also welcome!

I want Student Voice to be a paper made by students for students. Filling the gap that Informer leaves after being published, and not just covering Student Union stuff like The Scene.

Please feel free to email any suggestions for stories, pictures, freshers' week anecdotes, etc. to me at student-voice@hotmail.co.uk

I am still looking for people who want to see their name in print as well, so feel free to drop me a line!

Well, mine definitely is not! The University of Cumbria in Carlisle will be relocating the Brampton Road library. Apparently, the books taken out the most will go to the library at Fusehill Street, while all the rest of the books will go into storage at Milbourne Street.

The library at Milbourne Street was purpose-built for the University of Central Lancashire, whos Business School campus in Carlisle has been integrated into UoC. However, once they closed the Business campus and transferred the students to Fusehill Street, they closed the library. Now they are closing the second. Students at Fusehill Street enjoy a wide-range of medical, teaching and sports books, but everyone else will have problems getting set text books or writing their dissertations.

Brampton Road library has to go because the Graphic Design department wants to expand, although they have quite a few big rooms to themselves. Journalism really only has the newsroom, which is too small to hold all the students in three years at once, and a broadcasting studio.

They should keep the library and just not take on more students than they can accommodate. The money should rather be spend on updating their catalogue, as some of the books date back to the 90s and students get marks taken off for referencing out-of-date books...