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.

Right, it's that time of the academic year again.

University has started, and before I fall into the same trap I fell in last year - doing everything last minute - I've now planned my weekly time wisely. The plan is simple, really. I'll spend 1 - 2 hours every day writing up the lecture notes, doing the assignments as soon as I get them and reading in the relevant text books.

Then in the afternoons (except for Modays, when it's in the mornings before class), I'll spend 2 hours researching / reading and eventually writing my dissertation. This way I hope I'll be keeping on top of things and don't have to worry about deadlines too much.

I really need to focus this year. After all, I want a fairly good degree. Last year, I didn't really give it my best. I still got quite good marks in most of my subjects, but because the people at this university kept screwing my course around (and that has nothing to do with the lecturers - just with the fact that they didn't give us the lectures we were supposed to have).

But this year really counts. It's my final year! So I'd better put some effort in!

I wrote a piece for the Solinger Tageblatt's youth page "Karl. " which got published yesterday.

It's about all those big words and abbreviations that are used in every day university life, but which are confusing for Freshers. Bearing in mind, that I don't study at a German university, I still managed to come up with a list for my University A-Z. It seems that you need a university degree just to be able to understand their brochures these days...

If you can read German, check it out here!