You only get out of university what you are prepared to put in. The lecture program that the university organises should consume 20% of your time as a student in a computer related degree. The other 80% being filled with your own personal research, including reading books and periodicals, watching videos, attending conferences, writing code and working with frameworks.
Universities have a hard time keeping up with the rapid progression of technologies in the web industry. This can mean that many web based syllabuses are out of date and many students will go through university learning about things that have little or no use post graduation. This is especially true of those students who only go to lectures and never venture outside the classroom.
There are many initiatives to improve this situation, but if you really want to be prepared for the world of work then conferences like PHPNW12 are a brilliant start. At PHPNW12 you will learn what tools and practices professional developers use and what frameworks and CMS are currently being used extensively. This knowledge will prepare you for life in a professional computer environment and will help you land a job once your degree has finished.
If you are a student and are thinking of going along to PHPNW12 then you should be aware of our student concession tickets which are only £65. Please contact conference@phpnw.org.uk for more information on these. We only have a limited number of these tickets though, and they are running out quickly!