Lisa Harris Marketing

Funded studentships are available at Southampton’s Doctoral Training Centre (linked above) for people who wish to study for a 4-year PhD in Web Science. The programme consists of a taught year (equivalent to an MSc in Web Science) followed by 3 years of research training to facilitate an interdisciplinary investigation into web phenomena. You’ll need a first class degree or high 2:1, but computer programming experience is NOT required. For more information, check out this video “Why study the web? Social machines and the web revolution” with contributions from Sir Tim Berners Lee and Dame Wendy Hall.

As  Gordon Brown announced on Monday,  a new Institute for Web Science is to be developed by the Universities of Southampton and Oxford  – thanks to a £30 million grant provided through the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. The Institute will build on the foundations of existing, complementary strengths at the two universities, and the significant investment made by both universities in Web Science and its societal and governmental implications. On the University of Southampton’s website it explains that:

The contribution from the University of Southampton will be:
* Research leadership and expertise in a wide range of computer science and software engineering developments as they relate to the Web, especially semantic technologies and their exploitation.
* The existing Doctoral Training Centre in Web Science that integrates the information economy and social sciences into a technological context, and will be graduating a next generation of Web developers, entrepreneurs and researchers.
* The University also houses the Web Science Trust that seeks to help coordinate Web Science research internationally and encourage the development of curricula in this new emerging interdisciplinary area.

The contribution from the University of Oxford will be:
* Research leadership and expertise in how people use the internet and Web and the social and economic costs of digital inclusion – in particular research by the Oxford Internet Institute.
* The Oxford Internet Institute’s research and expertise in analysing the behaviour of government, business and citizens on the web, thereby enabling the design of successful policy intervention.
* The James Martin 21st Century School, an interdisciplinary school which fosters innovative thinking and collaborative activity to harvest new opportunities of the 21st century, including research that provides new approaches to understanding technological and social change.

If you are a graduate with high grades, initiative and enthusiasm, studying the implications of Web developments within the emerging discipline of Web Science is a fantastic opportunity to kick start your career.

A number of career-related links have built up in my inbox over the past few days, so I thought I’d pull them together into a post:

1. According to a recent article in the Independent, Masters students are more likely to find a job in the recession than their first-degree counterparts. Postgraduate unemployment, now at 4.1 per cent, is almost half the graduate unemployment rate of 7.9 per cent. But, according to the researchers, the qualification itself is not enough – it’s what you do with it that counts.

"A postgraduate course will not automatically solve your employment issues," says Charlie Ball, deputy research director of the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (Hecsu), which conducted the research. "A bit of paper is not of enormous value to employers – but what you do with that year is. Postgraduate degrees buy time to think about the employment market, make contacts, do some work experience and develop the practical skills you need to get hired."

Postgraduate applications are also set to increase next year as students continue to put off entering the jobs market. According to a survey of university careers advisers by Hecsu in September, 81 per cent said undergraduates were considering further study because they didn’t believe they would be able to get a job, even though many expressed employment as a preference. With even more postgraduates flooding the jobs market, developing vocational skills and links to employers looks set to become even more important for students seeking to distinguish themselves from the crowd.

2. How distinctive is your CV, really? Have a good look at this one, based on Google Maps: http://tinyurl.com/ycvcfcx Also interesting is the author’s blogpost describing how his CV went viral, with a few facts morphing into fantasy along the way…

3. Particularly relevant to Marketing Analytics students, some information about DunnHumby’s summer internship programme.

So what are YOU doing to make yourself stand out in the job market?