Will ‘Secret Life of Students’ damage career prospects?

With scenes of Leicester freshers being ‘smashed and dashed’, contracting STDs and inserting vodka soaked tampons into themselves, is this really the representation of campus life that the University of Leicester was hoping to portray?

I hope I’m not alone in thinking that ‘The Secret Life of Students’ did not represent who the average Leicester student is or what everyday life is like for them. Why on earth you would agree to have your every move and communications documented for the nation to see is beyond me.. but I respect that these twelve students were willing to do so. However, I do not respect the university’s decision to lend its campus, name and reputation to this type of programme.

GMS providing a scenic backdrop to Josie’s shame

The university press office released a statement before the programme aired, calling it ‘a fantastic opportunity’ for Leicester to ‘showcase the high quality living and learning experience we offer’. It’s safe to say that the programme did not exactly live up to that eloquent definition.

Several reviews of the programme have surfaced online and it’s a mixed bunch so far. Metro went for the headline ‘Insecure, fame hungry and countless one night stands’, The Telegraph called the programme ‘an opportunity to despair’ and Digital Spy went for the slightly more upbeat ‘Gross, painful… and utterly brilliant’.

It is not however, just the university’s reputation that is now somewhat questionable to Channel 4 viewers. Leicester students could now potentially face being tarnished with the same brush. The show reportedly drew in nearly one million viewers and I’m wondering, how many of those viewers are responsible for hiring graduates?

My worry is that at some point in the future, someone in HR is going to look at a CV and see ‘University of Leicester’ and have a quick flashback to that terrible programme they watched a few months back when there was nothing else on TV. If this programme leads to just one Leicester graduate missing out on a job, the university have let us down.

Although things can sometimes get out of control on nights out, it’s never the type of scene you want filmed and shown to future employers. It would be nice to think that employers, or people in general, do not hold preconceptions but the fact is there are already enough negative perceptions of ‘students’ without ‘Leicester students’ now being a specification in those ideas.

I appreciate that Channel 4 are not going to make an entertaining series about students sitting in bed watching TV series or leaving Red Leicester early to get first in line at the burger van. I simply do not understand why the University of Leicester was ‘keen to open its doors to the documentary team’ in the first place.

There are plenty of other universities, arguably less reputable ones, who would have hosted the series for some kind of well-needed publicity boost. The University of Leicester already has (or had) a respected reputation and it was a completely unnecessary to become involved with the project. I’m currently failing to see any positive outcomes or benefits of the collaboration.

The second episode of The Secret Life of Students airs tonight at 10pm on Channel 4.  I sincerely hope for all of our sakes that the characters included tonight have more to them than the lad that text “Got chlamydia. Banter.” to practically every contact in his phone. Over-compensating much?