One of the interesting, and slightly disturbing themes has been that of competition. I have never really been aware of this as anything more than a fringe issue, but students from across the under grad. have raised it in conversation. There seems to be a general protectionism, confining their interactions within small friendship groups for fear that someone will "steal my idea". This seems divisive, even destructive, and students did acknowledge this, but gave specific examples of what they view (rightly or wrongly) as plagiarism.
There does however appear to be a greater willingness to explore verticality, that is draw in support from higher up the school into the lower years. A "parenting" scheme that students have set up assigns a volunteer from stage 2 a small following of stage 1 students. The relationship that they form is inevitably varied, as is the type of help that individual "parents" are able to offer those shadowing them. There was no real consensus as to what students felt was "enough" in this respect, reflecting I think a general difference in how comfortable individuals are discussing or presenting their work. For instance some felt having peers in the room for a crit. was supportive, whilst others felt intimidated by the presence of students from higher up the school who they saw to be judging them.
There also seems to be a desire to attend critiques higher up the school to see how more experienced students go about structuring and delivering a presentation. I worry how much of the impression I am getting is based on the stronger, or certainly more vocal students, as they are the ones more likely to turn up to interviews or focus groups. One statement, suggesting that the individual had no concerns approaching "passers by" within the school, whilst in some ways encouraging, did not entirely ring true.
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