If completing a degree was easy, then everyone would have one. It is hard work, but that makes the graduation day all the more enjoyable. When you are standing on the stage under the bright lights, your degree in your hand, with your friends and family cheering you on… Nothing beats that feeling. For many of our students, it is one of the happiest days of their lives. Many students do not just complete their degree for themselves but for their family too. Maybe they are the first person in their family to complete a degree. The simple message is never ever give up.

My first dissertation was bad. I vividly remember the very-hot-then-very-cold wash of shame that crept down my neck when I opened the email containing the breakdown of my undergraduate results. I blinked twice, then blinked again, but the unfamiliar and unwelcome number next to ‘Final Project (60 Credits)’ refused to change. Compared to the other essays, it represented a spectacular blot on my record.

I recently supported a student who was entering her final year of study at Arden. She was bright and conscientious and was eager to look beyond the final year of her studies – to look ahead to the career she was about to start. We considered her possible next steps, and it soon became clear that the options fell into two main categories. There were graduate schemes, and there were graduate jobs.

This brief blog entry reflects on the digital divide in online education and on how to build a bridge across it. At the beginning of my teaching experience, almost 20 years ago, classes (apart from lecture theatres) were equipped with PCs, a digital whiteboard and digital drawing pens. Often, the pens would not write on the digital whiteboard due to some technical misfortune. As a result, students would usually be sitting behind a desktop PC, while I would be typing on the screen or writing on a regular notepad with an analogue pen.

Hi, I’m Hazel. She/They is fine with me. I’m 5 foot 1 on a good day - when I remember to stand up straight and I’m wearing shoes. I, currently, have brown hair with half of my head shaved. I have visible tattoos and piercings. I often get told that I don’t look my 30 (nearly 31) years of age. This may be because I’m constantly battling with the urge to dress in a 90s grunge aesthetic.

The Library Team and Academic Skills Tutors will be taking a break for the Christmas period from the 24th December until the 3rd January and will return to the office on the 4th January.

You will still be able to access everything on the Library Portal and within our collections during this period - however the Library Team and Academic Skills Tutors will not be available to answer any questions you may have during this time. 

I am a chartered librarian by profession, a lapsed musician, and at Arden University a manager of all things related to Academic Skills – a somewhat eclectic combination! Some 28 years ago when I graduated with a BA (hons) in Music, I would never have dreamt that I would be doing what I do now. I entered Higher Education as a nervous, naïve undergraduate having only written essays during my A-Levels. Back then in the early 1990’s there was little support available – let alone technology to help – so it amounted to a steep learning curve.