The NZ Herald online has a piece about the University of Auckland setting limits on student numbers, so that there is no longer open entry to the B.A., and limited entry into other programmes.
The article, at least insofar as the Herald quotes details, seem to suggest that the cap is largely cosmetic, indeed, somewhat aspirational. The limits seem to all be set at numbers higher than current student enrolment. There's a word for that : Marketing.
The University market is highly competitive, with a plethora of billboard campaigns, TV advertisement and bus stop signs trying to attract students.
Limiting numbers is a way for Auckland to claim prestige, and high standards (particularly necessary in the wake of the bad publicity the University got last year, when a lecturer's e-mails to a post-graduate international student with poor writing abilities were made public.)
I should declare an interest: I'm a University of Canterbury Alumni (B.Com, LL.B ), both degrees which had restricted entry to all or some of the courses back when I did them (graduating 1994).
What Auckland is doing isn't new, but it is clever. When I enrolled at Canterbury I pre-enrolled for Law, and also for Economics. I didn't really expect to study Economics, but I wanted to keep my options open, but it was one of the few courses with limited entry, and pre-enrolment was essential.
When I arrived at University, the whole first-year experience was quite overwhelming, and I stuck with what I'd pre-enrolled for.
I had no background in Economics because I'd done Physics at school instead (we had an excellent Physics teacher). I found when I started it that it was for me. I loved microeconomics in particular (maths! graphs!), and still enjoy reading economic topics today - Freakonomics a case in point. I'm glad I took it. (not only because I got an A+, and the letter from Head of Department Frank Tay inviting me to do the economics honours courses - another piece of good departmental marketing)
Auckland's new "caps" which seem to be more aspirational than effective are a good move, because of the perceived prestige that scarcity brings, and because students who enrol "just in case" to keep their options open, will be captured, and go with the easy option.
Clever.
20 June 2008
Meet Up for Christchurch Creative Class
Calling Christchurch Creative People
Midwinter Meet Up
Dux de Lux downstairs bar
Sunday 22 June 2008, 4-7pm
Midwinter Meet Up
Dux de Lux downstairs bar
Sunday 22 June 2008, 4-7pm
Calling all you Writers, Artists, Actors, Designers, Entrepreneurs and Creative Types (and those of you who wish you were)
Join me at the Dux at 4pm on Sunday for conversation, inspiration and a glass or two of what you fancy.
Why come?
• To meet up with other interesting and creative people
• To celebrate the shortest day and return of the sun
• To find out about The Artist’s Way * course for uncovering and rediscovering your creativity
• To link up with others who want to be creative for mutual support and encouragement.
Why do this now?
It’s winter, and the nights are long. I’ve talked about the Artist’s Way to so many people in recent weeks, that it seemed a good idea to invite them all together. Added to that, it would be great for all the interesting people I know to meet other interesting people. I’ve no idea how many will turn up, but if it works, I’ll make it a regular monthly thing – a chance for creative and artistic people to meet others for networking, support, stimulation and inspiration.
Forward this to others who may be interested – and let me know if you can make it - Rachel at LikeToTheLark dot com, or text 021 02759023
* About the Artist’s Way: Julia Cameron wrote the course to help artists, writers and other creative people to get through creative blocks. You can follow it yourself – just buy or borrow the book, but I’ve found it really helps to be part of a “Creative Cluster” of people. I’m hoping that people who come will meet other like-minded people to form Clusters with. I’m already in one, and it’s great. The book costs around $32.50 from Scorpio books - they have some on order.
18 June 2008
What I do is me: for that I came
Last Tuesday, I attended an National Speakers Association New Zealand meeting and the wonderful Irina Yashin Shaw was the speaker. She spoke about how, as speakers, we need to look to our own lives, our own stories, histories and the things we have around us to provide our topics, and enliven our speeches. Irina has been described as a "pocket dynamo", she talks about how the brain works, and creativity (my favourite areas) and I have found another role-model for my "role-model wall" along with Marcia Reynolds (see her sites Outsmart Your Brain and Burden of Greatness ) and Michael Bungay-Stanier of Box of Crayons and ( The 8 Principles of Fun)
As she spoke, I realised how much this particular poem, is one of my "touchstones". It's by Gerard Manly Hopkins, an hedonist aesthete turned ascetic who apparently destroyed much of his early poetry after entering a monastry. I am pretty sure I first studied it in the 7th form, with Roderick Lonsdale, my English Teacher who made sure we did far more poetry than many other classes.
As kingfishers catch fire
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.
I say more: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is—
Christ—for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.
Gerard Manley Hopkins
My choice to move away from a secure career as a lawyer, to pursue new avenues, to train as an actor, a coach, to work as a speechwriter, speaker and workshop leader, to throw my cap over the wall in many ways stems from an underlying belief that there was more to my talents and skills than I was exercising. What I do is me: and I choose to seek out my purpose rather than stay in a secure rut.
As she spoke, I realised how much this particular poem, is one of my "touchstones". It's by Gerard Manly Hopkins, an hedonist aesthete turned ascetic who apparently destroyed much of his early poetry after entering a monastry. I am pretty sure I first studied it in the 7th form, with Roderick Lonsdale, my English Teacher who made sure we did far more poetry than many other classes.
As kingfishers catch fire
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.
I say more: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is—
Christ—for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.
Gerard Manley Hopkins
My choice to move away from a secure career as a lawyer, to pursue new avenues, to train as an actor, a coach, to work as a speechwriter, speaker and workshop leader, to throw my cap over the wall in many ways stems from an underlying belief that there was more to my talents and skills than I was exercising. What I do is me: and I choose to seek out my purpose rather than stay in a secure rut.
17 June 2008
Beautiful graphs - a maths geek moment.
Sometimes a picture paints not only a thousand words, but a thousand numbers as well. The very best graphs can tell a story.
I remember in my stage two Econometrics class, our Professor David Giles showing us a picture of a truly elegant graph, produced in the pre-computing days, showing Napoleon's advance into Russia, and retreat. From memory it captured the distance travelled, the size of the army and other variables on one sheet.
I found a new cool graph today, at Name Voyager courtesy of a link from the Freakonomics blog.
It's of a baby names graph of the 1000 most popular names in the US from the 1880s onward. You can type in a name, letter by letter, and it instantly graphs the letter combinations over time.
For example, my Mother's name, Judith, peaked hugely in the 40s - I wonder why? Was there a film star? The name means Jewish Woman, and at around the time the name peaked there was a lot of newspaper coverage about the fate of the Jews in Europe. Was there sympathy? Or just that the very sound was heard so much that it triggered an awareness and prompted more naming?
My own name, Rachel, hit a peak in the 70s and 80s. I was surprised to see that there wasn't a mini-bubble following the TV show Friends, but it seems that the name had passed on through by then.
Our shared second name, Mary, was the number one name from 1880s through to the 1950s, and moved into number 2 spot in the 60s before falling sharply away. What's most interesting though, was that in the 1880s more than 30000 names per million were Mary - or more than 3 percent of the total. By the 50s, it was still the most popular name, but now had only 1%, pointing to either a more Multi-cultural America, or an increasing pool of names (and spellings) in use.
Warning: name voyager can be addictive!
I remember in my stage two Econometrics class, our Professor David Giles showing us a picture of a truly elegant graph, produced in the pre-computing days, showing Napoleon's advance into Russia, and retreat. From memory it captured the distance travelled, the size of the army and other variables on one sheet.
I found a new cool graph today, at Name Voyager courtesy of a link from the Freakonomics blog.
It's of a baby names graph of the 1000 most popular names in the US from the 1880s onward. You can type in a name, letter by letter, and it instantly graphs the letter combinations over time.
For example, my Mother's name, Judith, peaked hugely in the 40s - I wonder why? Was there a film star? The name means Jewish Woman, and at around the time the name peaked there was a lot of newspaper coverage about the fate of the Jews in Europe. Was there sympathy? Or just that the very sound was heard so much that it triggered an awareness and prompted more naming?
My own name, Rachel, hit a peak in the 70s and 80s. I was surprised to see that there wasn't a mini-bubble following the TV show Friends, but it seems that the name had passed on through by then.
Our shared second name, Mary, was the number one name from 1880s through to the 1950s, and moved into number 2 spot in the 60s before falling sharply away. What's most interesting though, was that in the 1880s more than 30000 names per million were Mary - or more than 3 percent of the total. By the 50s, it was still the most popular name, but now had only 1%, pointing to either a more Multi-cultural America, or an increasing pool of names (and spellings) in use.
Warning: name voyager can be addictive!
16 June 2008
Throwing 3 caps over the wall.
In the West Wing, President Bartlet has a barnstorming speech which contained the story about "the Irish lads whose journey was blocked by a brick wall seemingly too high to scale. Throwing their caps over the wall the lads had no choice but to follow."
I've reached the point at the moment when it's time to "throw my cap over the wall", to take action and get moving on a few projects: to get my newsletter going, rent new business premises to coach from, and organise a Christchurch Creative's Meet Up.
In that spirit, here's a few quotes on commitment and courage to get out there.
"Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it" Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Indecision is the leading cause of roadkill." T Harv Ecker, quoted by Michelle Schubnel
"Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides" attrib Margaret Thatcher *.
"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare. It is because we do not dare that they are difficult" Seneca
"You will do foolish things, so do them with enthusiasm" Colette
It's going to be a great week!
I've reached the point at the moment when it's time to "throw my cap over the wall", to take action and get moving on a few projects: to get my newsletter going, rent new business premises to coach from, and organise a Christchurch Creative's Meet Up.
In that spirit, here's a few quotes on commitment and courage to get out there.
"Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it" Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Indecision is the leading cause of roadkill." T Harv Ecker, quoted by Michelle Schubnel
"Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides" attrib Margaret Thatcher *.
"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare. It is because we do not dare that they are difficult" Seneca
"You will do foolish things, so do them with enthusiasm" Colette
It's going to be a great week!
*I wouldn't often quote Maggie - I think Brian Walden summed her up: "Her strong points were her iron will. I've never known a will like it in politics and I've known a few politicians in my time in various countries. I've never known a man or woman faintly like her, she was as tough as they come, and anything that required guts and will she could do for you. Anything that required sensitivity, she couldn't, she had none."
I spent 3 weeks operating lighting and sound on a production of Sink the Belgrano, a blank-verse play by Stephen Berkoff, featuring the character Maggot Scratcher, based on Thatcher, and it didn't show her in a good light. The play itself was excellent, a great cast, superbly well acted - one of the best things I ever saw on the fringe, although sadly the audiences were small - even with a good review in Time Out. (That's fodder for another post, on how Theatre Companies take the "Product Concept" in marketing rather than a "Marketing" or "Societal Marketing" concept.)
I spent 3 weeks operating lighting and sound on a production of Sink the Belgrano, a blank-verse play by Stephen Berkoff, featuring the character Maggot Scratcher, based on Thatcher, and it didn't show her in a good light. The play itself was excellent, a great cast, superbly well acted - one of the best things I ever saw on the fringe, although sadly the audiences were small - even with a good review in Time Out. (That's fodder for another post, on how Theatre Companies take the "Product Concept" in marketing rather than a "Marketing" or "Societal Marketing" concept.)
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