The spring term is shaping up nicely as the term on which the bulk of my degree will be decided. As well as having six assignments to hand in, I have to also carry out the primary research on my dissertation and then analyse and interpret the results.
After last term when I only had two assignments and a gentle welcome back to university life after 15 months away, it is clear that work is the name of the game this term; but I guess it's supposed to be challenging, who ever said university was easy?
As part of one of my modules, as small groups within the Harper Adams entry, we are entering the Farm Planner of the Year Competition, organised by the Institute of Agricultural Management which this year is being held at Overbury Farms Estate in Gloucestershire on the 5th February.
This attracts entries from most of the agricultural universities across the country, and Harper has occupied the top positions for the past few years consistently, so this is a tradition we hope to continue this year.
This should provide a good opportunity to dig out the wellies, as I have found that the Agriculture course at Harper tends to be very theoretical; of course this is higher education so there is an academic rather than vocational bias, however a couple more external farm/agri-business visits would have gone down well.
I will also be conducting interviews and sending out questionnaires for my dissertation which aims to explore factors that impact on the growth and success of small scale local agri-food businesses in Lancashire. It is proving to be a very interesting topic, and I hope to be able to take away ideas and theories for later life as ideally I see myself running my own business, whether that will be within the agri-food industry or not.
I chose my dissertation topic myself before I returned to Harper last September as I didn't want to be stuck with a topic that would neither interest me nor provide me with any motivation. There are too many students who seem to pass off the importance of the actual area of focus as trivial, yet they are the ones now who are complaining that they are finding it hard to connect with the subject.
In the wider picture, although academic work is really a test of being able to synthesise ideas coherently and concisely, I am making more of an effort not to let my final few months of university life be controlled by work.
If for this reason solely, the final year is about taking full advantage of a student lifestyle before heading into the real world; however for me I am planning to defer this entry into routine for a fair while yet by doing a ski season next winter, so this will entail a bit of work and lots of skiing. Why live your life if you can't have fun doing it?!
Just a point in reference to my previous blog about returning home during term-time, we have been back a week now and already there are students returning home for the weekend.
I seriously cannot fathom how this is going to advance their development in independence, but then again each to their own. I guess some people just can't resist, which is why whenever I hear them complaining about the amount of work they have to do I have little sympathy for their plight.
I see too many students who seem to tie themselves in knots worrying about trivial matters. Yes university is an advancement of learning, yes university challenges you to think for yourself, and yes the classification of your degree will reflect the amount of effort you have put in over the four years, but related stress is a dangerous consequence of losing focus of the aim of university.
It is supposed to be a matrix of social, sporting and work matters which will help to define direction and purpose; however this is easily said and perhaps more difficult to do when seduced by a disproportionate weighting of social excess.
On that issue though, there is a trip down to London later this month for a night out due to our close relations with the Royal Veterinary College. Last time they came up to Harper, so thus it is now our turn to sample the bright lights of the big city. There is also a night out to Birmingham this month on the social calendar, so I would challenge anyone who states there is not a lot happening to look again.
The onus is definitely on you personally to take advantage of all that is on offer, socially and academically, and for me this autonomy is ideal preparation for the future.
