Ashleigh picks up some concerns with the structure of the subject. I’d suggest killing two birds with one stone. Blogging, or if you’re serious, use Medium for your writing, is where you learn how to write, get a profile, a voice. There are already people in the course who have paid gigs writing online content. As the journalism teacher said, there are no jobs, and experience is what counts. They might say work placement, but you’ll have to take it on trust that these days a lot of people get their first gigs based on what they’ve proved they can do, online. So your blog posts are your rehearsal for the journalism position you want. Or, at the end of three years, get some people together and create the online journal you and your friends would read. Hook up with advertising and marketing students, build the entire team, now.

And no, being present to a lecture matters. Yes, it is old fashioned. The experience of it matters. However we can’t run a symposium with no one there, co-presence is an important part of the model, and of learning – which is why you have enrolled in a degree with classes and not just doing your course via Open University. But just ask someone to hit record on their phone, and the job is done. Again, you don’t need me to do this. I have asked you to attend, as has the university. If you can’t, the responsibility is yours to ask someone to record it. I don’t understand why this is no different to getting you ready for your professional careers. If you can’t get to your job you are expected to find a way to get the work done. later, by someone else, it all depends. But you don’t expect your employer to just solve this for you.

Yes, we expect a lot. The argument I’d like to hear is why we shouldn’t.