Dear all,
With regards to student participation at MDSG, and looking at it as someone who over the past 8 years has attended as a student, as an industry geologist, and now as an academic and careers tutor, I'd like to voice a few points I feel should be considered when looking at the future direction of MDSG.
1. At no point should we ever discourage genuinely interested students from attending the MDSG meetings. They are the future of our industry and research and healthy numbers of enthusiastic youngsters are paramount to achieving the long term success of this. Student numbers have increased over the years and this is good to see from all viewpoints. From an industry point of view, it is great to see young, keen students at such events, and get the chance to chat to them, and these are exactly the people we would like to see join companies as junior geologists, as graduates or as summer placement students. Although they do get bursaries, students who travel to the meetings do so still at considerable costs to themselves, with accommodation and train fares. Anyone not really interested won't do that and I think all of the students who attend do so for the right reasons. I don't think it is our job to vet any registration applications as they are open and don't go through the universities.
2. I agree that the current bursary system is not sustainable, but that can simply be changed by offering less, and/or only to postgraduates, and/or only postgraduates and final year students, and/or presenters, whichever fits best.
3. A key part of MDSG is providing a forum for students to present research in progress. This is continually growing, as seen by the number of student talks now basically taking up the entire first day. This aspect of the meeting is very healthy indeed, and buoyed by plenty of poster presentations by MSci/MGeol/MSc students as well. I don't feel that larger audiences take away from the experience of presenting at all, and actually help in making students feel their presentation is being heard by more people, at an increasingly important event.
4. The incresed amount of undergraduates is a reflection on the numbers of students studying applied geology in the UK and I feel is also due to a 'word-of-mouth' spread from year group to year group. Undergraduates have been going for several years now. They obviously get something out of it and word gets passed on to the next years. Adam Jones is a perfect example of why undergraduates should go to MDSG, and what they can get out of it. Adam went to the meeting in Glasgow in 2010 as a second year undergraduate, saw a talk given by Empire Mining, went to talk to the speaker at coffee break, got himself work experience with the company as a direct result from that, developed a link with the company such that he then came back this year and delivered the company's corporate presentation at MDSG - so well, he gained an honourable mention during the awards presentation. This brings me on to my final point...
5. If we are to move forward effectively, we need to adapt to current aspects of our industry/university structures that are important at this time. Yes, MDSG is for presenting research. It should continue to be so. But undergraduates see MDSG as a networking opportunity to get to know more about the industry, to decide whether they want to do a PhD, and to pick up contacts for work placements, MSc or PhD opportunities. In our current situation as university departments, employability of our students is becoming so important in terms of graduate success, and, by a circular relationship, for recruitment. Students being exposed to events like this gives them a fantastic opportunity to develop networking skills, and see how conferences work. If they get work experience out of it, then the benefits are ten-fold. This has been going on for several years now and I think we need to recognise that one of the purposes of the meeting these days is for later-year undergraduates and postgraduates to pick up opportunities for work experience and careers. The number of young geologists now in industry who attended this year, and who were products of the MDSG experience over the past few years, are testament to this.
Cheers
Dave
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Dr David Holwell
Lecturer in Applied and Environmental Geology; Careers Tutor
Department of Geology,
University of Leicester,
University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
Direct Tel: +44 (0)116 252 3804
Fax: +44 (0)116 252 3918
Web: http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/geology/extranet/staff/academic-and-research-staff/copy_of_map2
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Geo-mineralisation is administered by the Mineral Deposits Studies Group (UK)
(www.mdsg.or.uk)
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