1. Interview with Mr John Beckett
Mr John Beckett is the higher education advisor at Acland Burghley School. It will
be a great opportunity to interview him about going to university as an option
for young people today. In order to get a chance to interview Mr Beckett, I will
have to send an email clarifying the purpose of my documentary and the reason
why I am interviewing him. The reason why I am producing this documentary
because I want young people to be aware that going to university is not he only
option out there, and this documentary will show that there are a variety of
things available to young people today. The purpose of this documentary is to
help and influence young people into making the right decision that will not only
benefit them in the short-term, but also in the long-term.
I will now print-screen the email that I have sent to Mr John Beckett regarding a
time for me to interview him in the near future. It is very to send an email
request something at least a week before you intend on filming, as it will allow
you to have time to prepare for the interview questions along with all of the pre-
production documentation.
From the response received from Mr Beckett, I am now in a position where I will
be able to interview him. With the information provided, I will know be able to
plan out time. First and full most, it is very essential that I create a production
schedule outlining the tasks I have to complete right up until the interview with
Mr John Beckett. This will involve me having a conversation with my personal

2. assistant about the list of questions that I will be asking my interviewee. Now
that it has been approved, I will need to complete pre-production
documentations that will allow me to go forward with the interview. Below, I will
print screen the production schedule regarding the interview with Mr Beckett.
Interview Planning
Location of the interview – Higher Education Office
Date and Time – Monday 9th June 2014 at 12:30pm
As the producer of this documentary, It is very important that I stay very
organised and focussed on my work because I do not want to be in a situation
were I have an incomplete campaign on deadline day. The one thing that my
client will say is ‘why haven’t you stayed organised throughout the production
process. Not only that, this will give me a bad reputation to my production team
but other production teams in the future may not want me to work for them in
the future. Below, I will outline some of the questions that I will ask Mr John
Beckett.
1. What is your role as a higher education advisor?
2. Why do you advise students to go to university?
3. Going to university is an expensive option, what other options are there
for students?
4. How do students apply for university?
5. Is there a specific deadline students have to meet?
6. How do you prepare students in picking suitable universities for them?
7. How do tutors get involved with a students application?
8. A lot of students have criticised the quality of teaching and courses, do
you think you are misleading students?
9. Is university the best option for everyone?
The questions above are the ones that I have brief created. The purpose of this
interview is to provide my target audience of 16-19 year olds informative
answers from Mr John Beckett explaining going to university as an option. With
this, the majority of the interview will be me asking open questions and the last
question, ‘Is University the best option for everyone?’ will summarise the
purpose of this interview just to reassure students that it wither the good or not
the best option to take. In order to have very precise and good questions, I will
need the help of my personal assistant and my production team to help me
improve these questions, in order for me to get the best results from the
interviewee. I will now outline the redrafted question that will be used for the
interview.
1. What is your role as a higher education advisor?
2. Why do you advise students to apply to university?
3. Is going to university the most viable option for young people?
4. What other options are there for young people who do not wish to go to
university?

3. 5. A lot of students have criticised the quality of teaching and courses at
university, do you think these criticisms are justified? (Mac Manaway
(1970) reported that 84% of the students found 20-30 minutes to be the
maximum length of lecturing to which they could attend. There is
something of a consensus that about 25 minutes is a reasonable
maximum to expect attention during lectures.)
 If so, why do you think these criticisms exists?
6. What do you think the impact has been on the increase of tuition fees on
students applying to university?
7. The average debt students have when they finish university is £42,500;
do you think this plays a major role when it comes to students applying to
university?
8. Is a degree worth it in this day and age? (According to the Office of
National Statistics, they found that 20 per cent of graduates earn less than
£10 an hour, the amount they would have earned without a degree. Most
people are advised not to go for hard courses at university such as
Physics, Maths, Chemistry, Biology et al)
9. Is university the best option for everyone?
In order to get the best answers from my interviewer, John Beckett, I will need to
throw in some secondary research that he may or may not already know. As you
can see, the questions are fairly similar as to what they were before, but they
have been worded slightly different. Questions 5 and 8 will require me to
identify some key research that I have found that not only John Beckett will find
interesting but also for my target audience who wish to watch this to get some
ideas as to what they want for their future. Going back the first draft, I found that
questions 5-7 were irrelevant and these questions will not help me get any good
answers. With this part of the documentary focussing on university as an option,
it is essential for me to ask questions that will be considered the advantages and
disadvantages of going to university. Now that I have the questions ready, I will
now conduct some secondary research understanding the importance of the role
of a higher education and reasons why students go to university. This is very
important because I am aware that 7.9% of young people aged 16-24 are doing
nothing with their lives when they finish school, college or sixth form.
I have found website that specifically focuses on the ’10 reasons why students
should go to university’. These reasons include; to have a career (not just a job),
to have more money, to train your mind (independent thinker), to develop new
skills (practical & problem-solving skills), to be more independent, to gain
confidence, to follow up on what interests you have and most importantly, to
have the time of your life. All of the points mentioned are valid reasons on why
students should go to university. Going to university is a ‘priceless’ experience
that you wont get from anywhere else and it is a period of time were young
people start to become more mature. In addition, young people will be able to
develop their skills through social interactions, and this cannot be taught in
lectures or group work because it is a great chance to meet people nationally and
internationally. In terms of future earnings and income, graduates will have a

4. chance to earn a lot of money. According to Daily Mail, they published an article
that states 1 in 5 university graduates will be worth and earn £1m or more. The
Office for National Statistics has said that 20% of graduates will have earnings
around that figure.
For some people, going to university is not an option they wish to take. There are
many reasons why people do not want to go to university, with the main concern
being the amount of money you owe. By the time students finish their time at
university they will approximately owe around £42,500 and it is a figure that will
put people off going to university. Although, students will no have pay back the
amount owed until they income reaches £21,000 and above, some people are not
aware of this, which results in not going at all. According to the Office for
National Statistics, they found that 1 in 4 people drop out of university and the
percentage for this has increased over the last 5 years. For example a university
may receive about 400,000 applicants and after the first 2-3 weeks, 100,000
students will have dropped out of university. That figure will put people off
going, as they start to feel the quality of courses or the attitude and commitment
of teachers isn’t good enough. As students are paying a lot of money to go and
study, they will be considered as ‘consumers’ as they are paying for something
and they want something back in return. Lastly, there are many people who are
unable to find jobs, especially with graduates who wish to go into a particular
career for a job, they will found out there are none available.
For people who do not wish to go to university, the graph above show that students who
achieve grades between A*-C were about 6.6 million people. People who finish their time at
sixth form and leaving with A Levels are a total of 21%, which are about 6.7 million people.
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171776_337841.pdf
About 385 of people in the
UK in 2013, have graduated
from university, which is
estimated about 12 million
people. Although, 38% does
not sound a lot, but the UK
population is about 63.23
million people. But, this
graph still justifies that
students should go to
university.