St Andrews in Focus Issue 22 - May June 2007

St Andrews in focus • shopping • eating • events • town/gown • people and more

the award winning magazine for St Andrews www.standrewsinfocus.com May / June 2007, Issue 22 £1.50

TOWN & GOWN Abi Dunn, from Kent and studying for an Honours Degree in English Literature and Biblical Studies, contemplates the next stage,

“Into my future...”

I am soon to become that great and terrible thing – an Arts graduate of St Andrews. In June I will join the procession and stumble my way across a stage and into my future. But I will not just be graduating from the University – for if there is one lesson every student knows, it is that you cannot separate the gown from the town. Indeed for most of my friends it is St Andrews itself they will miss; no more cobbled streets or turreted skylines; no more beach or sweeping coastline. But how describe the essence of a place? How describe the way three streets become a world? Graduates suspect there will never again be a time when you can walk the length of one street and in the space of five minutes meet a wet-suited surfer, a spike-haired punk, and a chap fully clad in tweed beneath a billowing gown. Never again will I leave Tesco’s and see King James I hastily hitching up his tights, while pipers march over daffodils lost from a cartwheel. Nowhere else will such personalities collide on such historic streets, treading the same cobbles as martyrs and Kings, past and future (!) St Andrews is truly a uniquely inspiring place; which leaves one blanching at the idea of life beyond the bubble.

As an ‘almost graduate’ I feel I leave with more questions than I arrived with; I feel the limit of my learning as much as the magnitude of what I have learnt. And I think this is a good attitude to have – it would be naïve to face the world like my graduate scroll – never to be unrolled and written on again. Life will continue to teach and lessons will continue to be learnt, about myself and about the ‘academics’.

‘Academics’ have been a subject of some controversy within my four years, resulting from a complete polarity of attitudes between me and a friend. It is easy to see ‘University’ as my friend does, and I suspect some St Andrews residents do; as a rather pale, paralysis of life, huddling round dull, dusty books, largely irrelevant and incomprehensible. Four years of hard slog at a grindstone of granite!

I could not disagree more. As a student of English Literature and Biblical Studies, I have been an academic, studying ancient books and maybe dusty ideas. I have often felt my face against the granite, but I remain convinced of the value of this so-called ‘education’. I have learnt about ways to look at life, by looking through the eyes of others; learnt how to understand a little more the inexplicable areas of living – by exploring how others have sought to understand.

Most importantly I have listened to the questions they have asked and been forced to ask them myself. I have not found these to be abstract, immaterial questions, but fundamental paradoxes: the relation between introspection and involvement; between one and another; self and society, past and present; humanity and divinity.

These may sound abstract, but I am amazed at how they impact on daily life and how a poem written four centuries ago can parallel a feeling I have in Starbucks. How awe-inspiring that an individual in First Century Palestine can have asked my question!

St Andrews as a town invites an acknowledgement that past is present and continues to be so. We live in the thoughts of those who preceded us, our very buildings reflecting the questions and experiences of both religious and academic pilgrims who sought answers and evolved questions. I leave taking that spirit of respect for the opinions of those past and present, and the continuing relevance of their questions and philosophies. I hope I don’t forget these bigger questions when life is about debating school runs and sandwiches instead. Indeed, the amount education costs these days demands we consider its worth.

The mounting cost of University is a decided downside and lest this article be a unanimous song of praise – the difficulties are there.

Rent is high, and loans are a particularly weighty millstone; you do have to ask if it is really ‘value for money’ when access to the library and three hours with a tutor costs you £600 in tuition fees (you can quadruple that for an overseas student). These fees make for an uneven University, which demands the wealthy (especially from

I also want to thank the residents for being so welcoming and for so often reflecting the sunny disposition of their town

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overseas) and seals the bubble in a new, maybe detrimental way. Although I have not begun loosening the shackles of paying for the privilege, I do value it as a privilege to have studied and lived here. There is still a little part of me that feels, as a woman, I must not waste the reward so hard won and must look at other unfair barriers to true freedom of thought and therefore of person, that good education brings.

I can leave safely assured that this will continue, thankful to have passed through doors that will remain open for others. Kate Kennedy will still ride in her chariot and bejants will continue to be welcomed into a unique experience, which makes the past relevant and inspiring, whether in a raisin tea-party (I use the term loosely!) or a tutorial.

I also want to thank the residents for being so welcoming and for so often reflecting the sunny disposition of their town. I have been fortunate enough to get to know a cluster of wonderful St Andreans at the Wednesday club. They are one of the many things that have made St. Andrews a very special time.

So, long live the laughter, long live the learning; long live the diversity and the challenges. Such a heady mix of past and people makes for a very interesting present, which I hope will continue to teach me in the big wide world.

Evening Degree Programme Keen to get a degree?

Too busy to study full-time?

Try the flexible route to your MA General degree at the University of St Andrews via the Evening Degree Programme • • • • •

One or two evenings of classes per week Broad range of subjects Minimum age 21 Flexible entry requirements Fee Waiver scheme for people on low income or State benefits

Find out more from: Alison Andrews Evening Degree Co-ordinator Telephone: 01334 462203 Email: parttime@st-andrews.ac.uk