Have your say!

Hi everyone,

I have recently finished my 7 week internship and wanted to see how you all felt about the following proposition:

Do you think PR393 Professional Practice should be a 50 credit unit?

I strongly feel that it should be 50 credits given the following:

• TIME DEMANDS: Being at my work placement three days a week (leaving home at 7am to get home at 6.30 pm) and uni for my other units the remaining two days left very little time for employment outside uni without my studies suffering as a result.

• PAYING THE BILLS: I'm lucky to still live at home but I imagine studying full time while doing a placement and trying to pay the bills would be near impossible. I think it's only fair to people in this position that the uni factors their circumstances in.

• STUDY DEMANDS: I like most people chose to do work placement in my last semester so other units are also particularly demanding. This left very little time for extra study or preparation outside office hours to really show how well i could excel in the areas of placement.

• DOUBLE BOOKING:There were days where I had to attend uni on scheduled placement days for group work/other units. Most times I was notified last minute (as is the nature of journalism) so only being able to give my supervisor hours notice that i would be unavailable felt highly unprofessional. I really didn't feel like i was putting my best foot forward as a possible future employee which is one of the main aims of the unit.
  
  


• REQUIRING EXTENSIONS: I had to seek an extension on my journalism placement because although only 10 days there simply wasn't enough time in the semester to work during week days without it being a hindrance to the media outlet to try and fit me in to begin with

• PRECEDENT: I have completed a 50 credit unit before that required less time and dedication than my internship.

• PRICE: I also feel the cost of the unit considering the amount of time actually spent on campus would be better weighted if it were worth 50 credits not 25.

So do you guys agree? I'd love to know what you think and if i was the only one that felt the demands of this unit outweighed the credits allocated

Hopefully we can make change for the future! :)