JOBS FOR ARTS GRADUATES SIR,—As a recent graduate in arts
from the youngest of the universities, may I express my astonishment at the disillusionment so vividly described by Penelope Houston in her article Dead End ? Surely the qualities which should characterise any student, man or woman, are enterprise and the ability to keep a long-term objective in view. The first of these does not require " influential friedds," nor does the second , imply "infinite patience." Of course, there are attractive careers in journalism, broad- casting, publishing and tht film industry—perhaps even "on the fringes of the civil service "—but is it not reasonable to expect an applicant for one of these posts to Possess a wider range of experience than that which is usually provided by.a ersity arts course? Would it not be far better to examine from the male one of the " neat pigeon-holes " of teaching, welfare work, secretarial work or the civil service—with the firm resolve to do one's best at the job? Surely a would-be writer can find congenial work outside the sphere of her immediate intellectual interests.
At my university it is generally understood, both by men and women, that an arts degree does not by itself fit one to occupy such obviously desirable posts as are listed by the writer. May it be that the older universities have too much confidence in the magical power of degrees, and that students there apt lulled to sleep by visions of themselves in the B.B.C. studio or the editor's chair?. If so, they cannot help but have a
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