Spot The Student

Some of my lectures and seminars have been so empty that it’s either down to an outbreak of plague or the students just feel that attending is a low priority option. One lecturer did suggest to me that this was all down to the impending Easter Holiday. That appears to be enough of an excuse for many of my peer group. But why?

This week isn’t all that unique where attendance at seminars and lectures is concerned. Many times I’ve walked into a room or lecture theatre and wondered where everyone is. Part of the answer may be the fact that the first year of our university education will NOT count towards our final mark. I overheard one student saying: “This year I’m taking the P***. Next year I’ll do some work.” If the first year of university is not deemed important enough to count towards the final degree mark then, perhaps, it shouldn’t exist at all. Instead, we might have a two year course. It would be cheaper, shorter and still contain the marked elements that contribute to our final mark.

It does seem to me that many of my fellow students don’t take their first year seriously. They may well have the right idea. What benefit does a student derive from working hard during the first year? Those students who rarely attend lectures and seminars appear to get away with it. Students who never take notes, complete seminar pre-work or attempt to contribute don’t seem to suffer for it. So the real question is why should I put myself out when they don’t?

Answering my own question is pretty straightforward. I’m at university to learn and to put that learning to commercial use. I’m motivated to get the most from my course and to put what I learn into practise. I want to squeeze the university to get the most value for my money. I could just sit back and do little or nothing, but then I wouldn’t be able to justify to myself the costs involved. Or the time I am dedicating to my course.

It’s important that a serious student should not consider the opinions or attitudes of what appears to be a majority of ‘slackers’. Let them waste their time and money. Let them fritter away a golden opportunity. My advice would be to ignore the ‘slackers’ and keep on learning, working and improving yourself and your prospects.

Why Did I Go To University?

My reasons for attending university were a mixture of personal, financial and aspirational. One of those reasons was the hope that I’d encounter an eclectic group of people who would open my eyes to new opinions and attitudes. People who would aid me in broadening my intellectual horizons.

For the most part this has not been the case. The majority apparently being obsessed with celebrities, excessive drinking, nights out and “fun”. Not what I would call suitable subjects for intellectual discourse.

There are a few diamonds amongst the student body of the University of Lincoln. I won’t name them, as I would not want to cause them any upset at being selected for praise, but they are worth talking to.

One of these diamonds is a young man hailing from the same part of North London that I once called home. We do not agree on practically every subject imaginable. But he is capable of holding his own in a debate, of presenting his opinions clearly and concisely and demonstrates that he has acquired real knowledge. He also has the strength of character to argue his case in the face of my own vitriolic style of delivery.

Another diamond, or to put it more accurately a group of diamonds, is a small group of Dutch students. They stand out like pearls in a bucket of pig swill. Their opinions on our academic work, the British and everything else are uniquely their own. They say that travel broadens the mind but here I am able to broaden my mind just by talking to this small group. They have struck me as having a real interest in what they are doing and a desire to learn. The fact that they are Dutch puts an interesting spin on what they have to say for themselves. Most unlike many of the British students I encounter.

Perhaps I am being unfair to the majority of my peer group? Possibly the fact that I am a mature student puts them off from conversing with me? Or maybe, just maybe, it’s all down to the fact that they are the products of an educational system that seems to have failed so many. The potential of these young people is there it just hasn’t been realised.

Martin Bell Lecture

Last Tuesday I was lucky enough to attend a short lecture given by Martin Bell. That’s the Martin Bell who once graced our screens on the evening news reporting from war zones like Bosnia and the same Martin Bell who defeated Neil Hamilton and became the first independent MP since 1951.

Mr Bell’s speech was built around the death of news. The withdrawal of journalists from the real world. He was particularly scathing of what he termed “rooftop journalism”. Referring to the coverage of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Mr Bell said: “They (the journalists) don’t know what’s going on.”

Mr Bell spoke of his own experiences as a journalist working in war zones. His advice was that to truly understand the situation you needed to cover the conflict from amongst the people. Get amongst the action and meet with the key players of the conflict. And yes, that meant the “bad” guys as well as the “good” guys. Something that I feel current Western governments would disapprove of given their desire to control the media.

Obviously there’s a risk in this for the journalist and for those around them. But the alternative is a journalistic world where the news stories are drip fed to the journalists and those stories are decided on by the military and our governments. We might as well not have any journalists in war zones if all they do is cover just one side of the conflict, repeating the government line to the masses.

Perhaps the rise of citizen journalists, through the medium of Blogging, is the only answer to the current situation we find ourselves in. Real people, on the ground in a conflict zone, are the witnesses to real events. Although not trained, or backed by global news organs, they may be the nearest we can get to the old ideal of the war correspondent.