Alarming Statistics On 2011 Admissions

I have recently discovered an online BBC News Article which has shown me some alarming statistics on the admission for students going to planning on going to university in 2011.

The headline read:

'250,000' to miss university places this year

Almost a quarter a million people applying for university this year are going to miss out on a place, university leaders are forecasting.

"Many highly-qualified young people with good A-levels will not get a place at university," says Professor Green.


"The same students, with the same qualifications, applying for the same university two years ago, would have got a place."

This in itself is shocking that the same students with the same qualifications applying to the same university would of undoubtedly received a university placement whereas this year they are most likely to be turned away, this is not only due to the rise in tuition fees but also the governments cuts on places available for undergraduates.

How can the government justify slicing the potential of a quarter of a million students future?

How will this benefit the future of the country with the academic population being forced to waste their potential?

What is the government thinking?

This has provided me with a brilliant topic of conversation to potentially include in my documentary, however I am at the point in time where I have almost come to the end of my product but i think this is too vital to miss out as this will strongly reinforce me arugment.

Library Footage

Library of footage has allowed me to illsutrate and reinforce my arguement within my documentary by using vital footage which I myself either could not create or film.

For example the main soruce I used you youtube.com as it enabled me to gain key footage of the student riots which took place in London, also the news reel at the very beginning of my documentary is library footage as I would not only been unable to recreate the scene but it would have appeared highly unrealistic and fake.

However I found most of the library footage I found was far too disruptive and blury as the main aim of using footage was to view the riots, this led to me using only basic clips of library footage.

Radio Advert Ancillary Text

I have attempted to make my ancillary text and this is what I would like to call my 'first attempt' this is because I am happy with the overall aspect of the advert however issues have risen since creating the advert due to being unable to adapt the sound of each individual clip making it hard to hear each individual clip. Another issue which I have found during editing together my clip is that I am not entirely sure it conveys the aim of my documentary despite forcefully getting across my argument.

These are all issues which I will have to investigate further to ensure my radio advert lends itself ideally to me overall project.

Ancillary Text

I aim to capture the anger and discontent which has been caused by the increase in university tuition fees, I hope to use Pink Floyd's Another brick in the Wall remix by Eric Prydz this brings a very youthful aspect to a classic song and as i aim to bring a youthful perspective to an issue which has been decided by those not in a student position i think it lends itself well.

I also aim to use not only this soundtrack and my brief commentary I will hopefully include audio clips from my documentary and from the telephone interview which I recorded with the Head of Brunel Student Union.

I hope to achieve a layered effect on my Radio advert not only to give it texture but also to draw a younger audience to the 'documentary' as students are my main target audience.

Commentary On Progress

I have made a commentary of my progress almost to create an audio diary to not only display a range of skills but also to keep a constant up date of my documentary.

Music Choice

I have since my last soundtrack post found a song which I feel is more ideal for my documentary, this song is called Tricky by Black Steel.




I feel this would be more appropriate for my documentary as there is a tribal theme within the song after about 8 seconds which fits perfectly with my editing as it introduces the riots; this tribal theme reinforces the animal like behaviour of the students.

Also as I draw the focus on the government the lyrics within the song are "I got a letter from the government the other day, opened it, read it, it said they were suckers." This I feel lends itself to my production as my overall aim is to prove how the government have made a foolish decision by introducing the tuition fees.

Facts on Fee Increases.

I have gathered a few facts on the increase in fees and what it holds for future students to build the foundations of my production upon. I find many of these shocking which I feel will reinforce my arguement within my documentary that the increase in fees are wrong.


These are from the Guardian:

"We are not scaremongering when we talk of a lost generation of learners," they write, adding that 70% of colleges are planning to cut courses and 200,000 qualified applicants look set to be denied a place at university this year.

Four out of five young people in England and Wales currently think they will probably go on into higher education, but that figure would drop to just 45% if fees doubled to £7,000 a year, and to a third among those whose with unemployed parents, the poll found.

David Willetts told the Guardian that students should consider fees 'more as an obligation to pay higher income tax' than a debt.

David Willetts