Money-driven academia?

Hello again! It seems as if I've been reintroducing myself in each of my last few blogs...I think I'll just put up any articles I read in the off-writing days just to keep things ticking over. Anyhow, onto the good stuff...

I just stumbled across an article on BBC (link at bottom) about a head girl in an Australian school criticising the school for being "elitist" (among other things) in her end-of-year speech. When I read it, I thought it was certainly something that, had I been in a similar position, I would've definitely spent time considering saying myself! Nothing better than a bit of drama, and her speech caused controversy not just within the school and the country, but worldwide as well.

The "elitist" comments were linked to her belief that the school prioritised financial benefits and reputation above the needs of the students there. This got me thinking about where I am now and it just so happens that I had the best conversation I've had at uni yesterday with a few course mates. Unfortunately we are now in a system of education where money determines almost everything, and I can't help but think (as part of my ridiculous ideology) that a collaborative education system would solve many of the problems we have created for ourselves in recent times. Here goes my manifesto:

• Bring all universities under one name that simply has institutions distributed across the country. For example, naming it 'The University of Great Britain' and simply having colleges in all major towns/cities (maybe even less institutions than at present). This then has the following implications:
• With one university in the country, competition for places is vastly increased and instead of people getting in to university just to "fill up quotas" and "maximise income", students actually have to be good enough to go to university. There are reasons why there are too many graduates for graduate jobs and it is partly because almost everyone going to university (over half the current generation) are walking out with decent degrees. This also means that universities can actually select the people that they want and not just take as many as they can so they can fund their research.
• Speaking of research, this can now be a lot more inclusive and collaborative. Each institution could carry on with whatever research they liked, but having multiple institutions contribute to what would be an increased research output means that they can focus more on quality and not quantity. In science, I've read too many times about people just publishing papers as a need. Obviously money drives this again because if the financial input doesn't match distinguished output then the books won't balance. But publishing through one university that could comfortably be world-leading with the efforts of so many people in the country.
• The traditional universities will be extremely butt-hurt at losing their individual status but unfortunately "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few". Life in general would be much better if we worked together.
• A-levels and GCSEs have a big bearing on getting to uni and having multiple exam boards does students no good. Why not have one big exam board that is suddenly run by the best people from each of the current ones? Surely 5 clever people in the same room is better than 5 clever people individually? This means they can devote more people to getting the jobs done properly (overcoming subjectivity and marking inconsistency). Never again should I have to hear about teachers marking papers on buses or people gaining 20 marks in a Maths paper remark.

This has to be by far the most I've ever written in a blog but I hope it's been thought-provoking. I think I could write for days to come. Again I'm out of time for now but I'll be happy to discuss anything I've said :)

Thanks,

Oli

Twitter: @Chowerz

(That article on BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-34971956)

Thoughts after Paris

It's been about two or three days since the attacks on Paris on Friday and I've had plenty of time to think about everything that's happened and just reflect on things as they are, so here goes...

Firstly, I'll talk about the thing that really hit me personally on Friday night. I was at a gig on Friday, and to think that I was looking forward to it the same way - ready to enjoy myself and fully embrace the occasion - as those attending the Bataclan in Paris, before finding out after the concert about events over there, devastates me the most. Those concert-goers were in the same situation as myself yet things couldn't have turned out more differently.

On Saturday night, a question that came into my head was: "What do ISIS want?" I searched this exact question on Google and stumbled upon the longest article I have ever read, which I am about one-tenth into. I feel very uncertain as to what it's ideology is, and I think this makes it difficult to comprehend it's actions worldwide. I don't want to say much more on it until I have read everything I can to understand it all.

What is interesting is that a couple of Doctor Who episodes ago (spoiler alert!), the human race and an alien race that have been living together for years suddenly become embroiled in war, with both threatening the destruction of the other. The Doctor manages to solve their dispute by reconciliation, and I feel France's air strikes on Syria are not the correct response to this situation. However, I do understand that real life is not the same as a storyline of a Doctor Who episode and that ISIS seem extremely devoted to their ideology - so much so that there seems to be no way of changing their way of thinking. I have no idea what solutions there are to this problem, but all I know is that it'll be very, very complicated.

That's all I've got time for as I'm off to another lecture now. I'm going to another concert tonight and there'll be plenty more than just music on my mind. I'm just remembering that these attacks have been going on in many other countries, and they are all as important as each other.

Oli
Twitter: @Chowerz

University's Expectations

Yes, I'm back. It's been a while as I've been pretty busy settling in to university and doing more work than there is perceived to be from the word of those student ambassadors that take you round on open days telling you "first year is easy" and "you don't have to do anything". How wrong they were.

On arrival at university I had to do an "Expectations of University" survey whereby I detailed what I was expecting to get out of my degree, interests outside university, plans for balancing work and social life and my reasons for coming to university and picking my degree. However, during a student rep meeting last Wednesday I noticed that a lot of problems raised by other first year representatives could've been summarised under "The University's Expectations of Students".

Broadly speaking, the university expects you to understand what everything they're saying means in terms of finding information and keeping up-to-date with updates etc. This is an understandable demand, apart from the fact that they expect you to do this FROM THE DAY YOU ARRIVE. I don't recall a single person I've spoken to that is comfortable with using the online learning system and we're one month into the course. Something like this just takes time to get used to, and the demands of the university at these early stages should certainly be relaxed a little.

Another conclusion that I made from the aforementioned meeting was that students just need to get used to university life in general. Some of the issues raised were, in my opinion, both puzzling and baffling. A request for "more water fountains across campus" may have been raised because, as first year students, we haven't actually found out where the fountains are? There are probably plenty around and in logical places, it's just a case of finding out their locations. A couple more requests came in the form of "lower pre-lab grade requirements" and "online assessments having a greater influence on the final grade". To address the first, you get three attempts at pre-lab assessments and if you're getting it wrong three times in a row then you're almost certainly doing something wrong and should've asked someone for help a long time ago. As for the second, I am a supporter of continuous assessment but the university, along with almost every other in the country, have decided on a system that works and modifying proportions for personal preferences are just not going to work.

Hopefully I'll have more to say over the coming weeks!

Oli
Twitter: @Chowerz