Students connect to careers on Net

Three-quarters of Britain's students already use the Internet and 30 per cent of them seek careers advice in this way according to research by the Manchester-based Central Services Unit.

The CSU, which offers careers information on its own Web site, Prospects Web, says that 90 per cent of students are interested in using the Internet for careers advice.

The site is enjoying an upsurge of popularity, especially in the past two months, according to Mike Williams, manager of CSU (Software). He told a conference in Florence on information systems in higher education that the increase had been noticeable in the past two months.

The site is receiving 25,000 "hits" a week, 30 per cent of them from overseas.

Prospects Web is on http://www.prospects.csu.man.ac. uk

* United Kingdom academics will have free use of NetFirst, an index to the Internet recently launched by OCLC of Dublin, Ohio. Unlike other Net indexes and search engines, NetFirst uses the Dewey Decimal classification familiar to librarians.

NISS, the non-profit information service run by staff at the universities of Bristol and Southampton, has negotiated a discount equivalent to more than 90 per cent off the usual site licence price of Pounds 670 a year. There is a free trial available at http://www.netfirst.ac.uk