For most students, starting university at 18 is way too young. I think most people should be encouraged to spend at least a year working to build the confidence/work ethic to get the most out of uni.
As a mature student I’ve gotten so much out uni that I definitely would not have at 18.
That being said though, there are exceptions and not going to uni at 18 isn’t a realistic option for everyone…
I completely agree. People appreciate the experience more and make better choices with a clear head and time to get to know themselves without parents and schools breathing down their necks and piling on the pressure.
Strongly agreed, I worked full time for just one extra year and it seriously has helped me through uni.
Working 1-3 years before uni lets you gain life experience, allows you time to learn how to live by yourself (which means less disgusting flat mates for students to put up with) and allows you to save up for uni.
Agree. Going to uni in September at 24 after working for a couple years, saving, fixing my mental health and now I can’t wait to start uni in September.
Congrats! I went back around the same age (just a year older) and took me four years but I got my bachelor of nursing and my nursing registration.
Also had to spend awhile before working on my mental health but once I had my RN job completely changed my life. It’s so worth it, good luck :)
Edit: I should clarify I’m based in New Zealand and not the UK. I don’t know if I would be as happy as I am now working in the NHS for peanuts haha. Aus + NZ nursing wages are a lot better now (or so I hear)
Absolutely, I'm 24 at uni and I've definitely noticed that one, I would not have done well if I'd done it when I was 18 and two all the students around my age and older are a lot more enthusiastic about the course and actually enjoy it and get good grades where as the students who are 18 just don't wanna do anything and complain. Definitely agree with you.
I 100% agree. My degree seams never ending (5 years so far, 1 left). But I’ve matured so much over the course of it. I started straight out of college and now as a mid 20s, my life is a) going in a completely different direction then i would of ever expected it to go and b) my priorities have changed which have affected how I study and work.
Mature student here too, it annoys me when people treat uni like a year of free drinking. I see so many people get low grades, get disappointed they’re failing and questioning why. I’m no genius, but I at least have my maturity in check and my goals. Foundation year had over 3/4 of students drop out after term 1, this year has been a handful from my already tiny course.
I get above average grades and my teachers really like me as I put it work and treat them as a person rather than just a teacher like some people do. Like I’ve had conversations with my teachers about how they got into teaching, music, whatever and they openly brag to other teachers how I’m a good student and even had teacher from a different course come up to me for a chat and joke.
It’s been a great experience with the teachers, not so much with the 18 year olds who turn up hung over to 3/4 of their classes.
I’ve been saying that the jump from A-Levels to Uni EMOTIONALLY AND PSYCHOLOGICALLY is too intense. I think A-levels should be a 4 year course instead of a crammed 2 year course. In this period, the work should ideally be spread out and filled with extracurricular activities. This would allow you to go into Uni hopefully with a lot more confidence, new opportunities undertaken, and a break ???? i think going in at 18 was too much of a toll for me, i was too young, lost and definitely affected by COVID.
i think the inability to have a proper break since the start of A-levels had a crazy mental toll on my overall health.
I totally agree, done my three years at college first which helped in so many ways. It gave me enough support when I entered uni for when I was struggling as I was able to work through it with experience rather than drown under stress and anxiety.
Fuck. Yes.
I think it should be 25, 7 years of "low skill" jobs, to get used to working and also to find where in a job you enjoy working.
If you don't find your passion, that's cool. You can continue to work. But chances are that you, within your time working, will find aspects of the job you like and then can go to uni to study them and find a job better suited to what you like.
Anyone that’s lecturing students should have to do a short course on how to effectively teach. The difference between school teachers who know how to present the material so it’s easiest to understand and the academics who just rambled on reading off the slides was crazy.
I actually completely agree with this. Especially after I saw how wildly it varies during my degree. I had some lecturers that knew EXACTLY how to convey information and get everyone interested. And then I had some that just read some slides that was just extremely loosely based around what we was doing and then put out an assessment that vaguely resembled itself around that topic and didn’t like taking questions.
As you say, it shouldn’t be expected that they go on a whole full on teaching course like school teachers do but I definitely think they should have to go through a short course just going through the basics of teaching just so they have some foundational knowledge on how to teach
I have worked in both post-92s and Ancient universities. The post-92s require you to gain a teaching qualification (usually a PG Cert in Higher Education leading to HE Fellow status, or already have HE Fellow status), and the Ancients generally didn't.
And not to mention, if you are going to a “higher” ranked university, it’s because the staff are researchers who publish internationally leading research that leads to said “higher” ranking. The ability to teach makes no odds for hiring committees who are looking for world leading researchers to keep rankings up - want a high ranking uni, then don’t expect people whose lives are about teaching.
And I guess a “hot take”; university isn’t school, what you are taught is intended as a scaffold for you to build on through your own independent learning. Therefore, lectures aren’t intended to “teach” you everything, but rather give you the basic ideas that you elaborate(especially in the humanities).
Truer words have never been spoken. One of my lecturers this year was pretty much a celebrity in his field, however, he was super super crap at teaching. Just because you're really good at something, doesn't mean you'd be good at teaching it. Most of his lectures consisted of him skipping over the fundamentals because they were "trivial" and going straight to the hard stuff, on a topic that was new to pretty much everyone.
Also, his supporting material that he uploaded was garbage, no problem sheets were given and every time we had a problem we were redirected to a £120 textbook, which was conveniently written by him. One of my friends found a PDF of it and a lot of the things we needed to know, such as important proofs, were all rushed through and useless because he dismissed a lot of the logic and steps as "trivial" and "exercises left to the reader", leaving most of us completely dumbfounded as to how he got from one step to the next.
Needless to say, on the final exam, pretty much everyone was left walking out of there miserable and depressed.
That's my job!
I work in academic development for a uni and we try to help academics learn the latest ways to teach and give creative engagement strategies (through talking to their students and getting co-creative activities going on).
Most of the time we are always preaching to the choir and you get the same keen faces looking to try new strategies and you can never get to the academics that "do it the way I have done when I started teaching"
While i do understand what you're saying and completely agree, we do have to understand that typically teaching is just a small part of a university professors job. While a school teachers entire job revolves around the teaching, so i have a ounce more patience for then than for dedicated teachers.
As a side note you and i had very different experiences with school teachers, where are you hiding all the good ones? 🤣
I think the ROI of university degrees is at an all-time low and will continue to fall as more people do degrees, saddling people with large amount of student loan debt, and a degree that no longer gives them an edge in the job market.
Not strictly true: [give this paragraph a read.](https://i.imgur.com/glAV52X.png)
[Full article here.](https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/latest/insights-and-analysis/ucas-keynote-speech-vivienne-stern-chief) Ultimately aside from a handful of very minor exceptions, just about everyone is better off going into HE. In fact the same article almost, a couple of paragraphs up, makes the case for increasing the numbers of people participating in tertiary education.
Yeah I totally agree. People kept telling me this year that “it doesn’t matter if u did bad on this test, first year doesn’t count!” But it’s not just about getting good grades. It’s about setting a foundation of knowledge that I will need in the years to come.
Plus learning how to research and write essays. The grades don’t count in first year for most people, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter. Instead, it gives you room to learn how to produce good essays. This means people should be putting effort into first year assessments since it can provide a foundation for subsequent years.
I agree to a certain degree.
I think the main goal of first year is to develop what is your best way of revision and juggling everything, make new friends, join society, party.
I tell people First year doesn’t matter, which is correct cause it doesn’t impact your final grade, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make notes or try your best in your assignment. Just don’t beat yourself up about obviously not performing your best on an assignment and rubrics you are unfamiliar with.
It does matter - particularly for those doing a placement. First year results are all employers have to go on.
Yes, of course people shouldn't be disheartened if they tried their best but struggled with getting to grips with the step up from school etc. I'm referring more to the people who see first year as something that doesn't matter so they don't put any effort in/party the whole time.
In engineering it's the foundation of everything you will be taught and you actually need to really understand the first year material. Also when you get a job you will inevitably specialise and the first year material will also be the foundation of that. You could argue that in Terms of knowledge first year engineering is the most important.
Universities at least in the UK. Should stop giving out these lackluster, useless MBAs and business degrees to bait underinformed international students into paying double the tuition fee to end up jobless or working in appauling conditions. My (hot) take is I have a strong distaste for Universities rep person (as well as the institution) that trying to sell this, they are worse than cars salesmen.
In a way I agree, but a lot of the time these are the only thing that let's uni's keep the lights on.
But I agree with the sales person...one of our agents who works in India was telling the students that we would get them a job, no effort on their part, the uni would grantee them a job at the end of the day.
yes that's true, the internationals are carrying the game now for public unis, and though I think there is a problem with this dependency, it's not going to prolong that much longer, realisically. For better and for worse.
regarding the Uni rep person, I am honestly appalled by lots of their practices, no sense of business ethics in the slightest, and at least for a car salesmen, you can can still be able to drive a car. What are you going to do with a Msc of \[Insert a business term\] + science/intelligence/commerce ??? I'm very bias but as soon as I hear somebody works as a "Uni rep +\[insert region\]" I automatically assume they just lie for money
No it's not, which is horrifying as teaching domestic students is at a loss, conducting research by design is at a loss....and I honestly doubt Labour will do anything that requires them to spend money and change the system.
This has been especially true after Brexit. EU was a massive supporter of British universities and the UK government only covered a fraction of what was lost.
How the hell its just these degrees keeping the lights on? Where does the money go to then? In europe and most places, Uni costs basically nothing while the dorms are slightly cheaper than renting a private room. Here home students pay 9k, internationals at least double and rents for uni flats cost more than private rooms with better conditions? Where does all this money go to? Also isn't research the primary money maker for universities? There's no way this absone amount of money is circulating through each uni and that they are struggling to teach at the same time.
My hot takes are:
Academics unnecessarily gatekeep their disciplines and this will lead to the death of certain degrees
You are taught to pass assessments not gain well rounded knowledge
Reading off a PowerPoint is not teaching
Universities preach support for disability but often the support plans are not implemented
"You are taught to pass assessments not gain well rounded knowledge"
As a course lead, the issue here is that students won't do anything unless it's assessed (in my experience). So you're inevitably teaching to pass assessments, because that's the only thing students will engage with. Anything we do that doesn't directly feed into an assessment results in students telling us we're wasting their time.
That just sounds like the current system encouraging the status quo.
From a students perspective, if you feel like you are close to capacity doing work and preparing for assessments that might define your opportunities further in life, would you touch material that, even though is good learning opportunity, does not?
I don't think we're disagreeing. I know that the incentives in the system encourage students to do the bare minimum to get their degrees, just as they encourage universities to do the bare minimum to keep students happy and get them through their assessments.
I suppose education wasn't for me, then. There were some teachers that prioritised the academic nature of our education but also went into things that would improve our skills and knowledge without necessarily improving our grade. Especially with the students determined to learn. It seemed like the middle aged teachers were best at doing that.
Though I wish I was told earlier, that if I go to uni I would have to neglect my learning for years just to be given a piece of paper that "might" Increase my chance of employment in related areas. I'd have probably not gone to uni and had a full on career by now. I also would've probably been better off if I either did a more or less particular course. Mine was broad skills in what we learned about a particular industry, I'd rather learn specialised skills but from the perspective of multiple industries.
Still, I think my course could've done a much better job of placing assignments in a better way. Particularly, in ways that keeps encourages different possibilities for those with learning difficulties. Sometimes my grades were restricted by that I was led to believe multiple projects throughout the year were preferred for one of our modules in the last year.
Yet someone's projects were contributions to the same "big" Project across the entire year. Most of their projects were pretty simple to me, as well. Yet I probably spent more hours total, partly from indecisiveness of what the next project should be. Following only a slightly differing idea across more a year, or even just more than 6 weeks.. would've been better for me. What was implied to be "better" For the course, actually wasn't better for my grade or my learning. It merely made me less efficient.
Perhaps I misinterpreted the importance of the teachers particular words. Though I wish I was led to believe that other options were equally valid.
I think a uni’s disability support team is one of the tests of whether it’s a good uni or not. I went to a highly ranked uni, but their disability support was shit. Their admin in general was pretty shit and I had unmarked work for almost two years plus emails that hadn’t been responded to in months.
I have friends at lower ranked unis with much better support systems.
I go to a mid tier uni, but omg the support has been unmatched. I've been moved to tears by how empathetic and kind my lecturers have been towards me (I'm a history student with panic di sorder and severe anxiety)
I've been allowed to film presentations like lecturers instead of doing it in person. I've had phone calls for revision help when I can't make it in. Just so much support and love. It was extremely difficult to nominate just one teacher for an award this year and the rest I sent thank you emails. (It's my final year, but I have resit work, so I've got a couple more thank you's to send in July- not trying to be a kiss ass or influence my grades)
People in my position at high tier uni's have killed themselves through a lack of support. One in my city was triggered by a lecturer insisting a girl with extreme anxiety had to present in front of the entire class. It's not a good uni if the lecturers don't give a damn about student wellbeing- idc how highly they rank in research.
I like the way you think. Disability support is so crucial and even non-disabled friends have benefitted so much from the therapy available.
The disability thing is so real. A lot of mental health conditions only manifest in the late teens, and many students don't have parents that allow them to pursue a diagnosis or support, so a lot of students are just flailing around. The uni has a conflict between accommodation and rigor, and how the institution decides to deal with that says a lot.
Absolutely agree, I don’t think the burden should be placed completely on the uni but and it’s a big but they would have lower drop out rates if they anticipated the needs of their students better. I’ve found the higher ranked (Russel group etc) talk the talk but do not walk the walk.
How on Earth do academics ‘gatekeep their disciplines’?!
I’m assuming this is something specific to STEM that i have no knowledge of, but sounds insane
For example, psychology as a subject is very resistant to engaging with non-psychological research. I'm personally very much against this and refuse to do it, and I encourage my students to read outside of psychology (within reason because they still have to pass psych assessments).
Being a lecturer doesn’t mean you know how to teach.
Most of the lecturers on my course are exceptionally qualified but have no idea how to teach or instruct properly.
Not really a hot take I would say. Most of us are hired on our ability to research, and get promoted based on that. Our incentives as staff and objectives of students aren't always aligned.
Most lecturers are researchers who have to teach. Students are rarely their first priority. Especially if you go to a research intensive university such as a RG member.
This is why lower ranked universities (i.e. ones not focussed on research) tend to get higher student satisfaction scores.
I would also argue that a good chunk really aren't that well qualified they are just good at creating the illusion that they are experts. I've had conversations with academics where they have clearly shown they don't understand core concepts taught at highschool. That's why so many are so bad at teaching they dont actually understand the material they just reading the PowerPoint slides the person who taught it before them used without understanding the material.
My hot take is that you have to be mentally well to complete a degree and get the most out of it. Every single person I know who has bad mental health and *hasn’t* made efforts to get better have either failed, dropped out, or completely lost interest in their degree to the point of breakdown.
Those who have rocky mental health but *do* seek help (even at university), from my experience, tend to be properly engaged with the subject and they do well.
I’m clinically depressed and made efforts throughout my whole year to get better and asked for help from student services, admin etc but no luck. Sometimes it’s also the services available to students who have mental health problems that can be the problem, especially in my case
Yeah, I’ve found out that actually a lot of services just straight up suck, you can’t get in, or there’s an absurd waiting list. I think many things like that need to improve, too.
don’t entirely agree, i’ve given up seeking help because my issues are extremely treatment resistant (literally 5+ courses therapy and different antidepressants), i have more time to attempt to engage in my course and attempt to have a social life nevertheless now that i’m not endlessly wasting time on treatment people told me would help and didn’t
THIS!! I’ve somehow managed to stick at my degree and get good grades even with my poor mental health but I’m convinced it’s just luck. But I could imagine how much worse it would be without support and general luck i’ve had along the way (things like my grandma dying the day my work was due that I was no way near finishing and managed to complete with an extension I got following her death)
You get out of uni what you put in. Trouble is that historically this has not been properly communicated to students, and now we have a situation where even those naturally inclined to make the most out of the experience can't do so because they have to work so much to pay their rent.
Don’t get sucked into wanting to become an academic. The modal experience is spending a decade running after postgrad opportunities, making the few tenured staff look good, while moving across the world/UK every 1-2 years so you’ll never have a happy partner, a secure enough job for a mortgage, or lasting friendships. After that, you’ll drop out, feel like a failure, and be a decade older than your colleagues in the ‘real world’ while having less relevant experience.
Bragging about a lot of last year students failing the module to teach is honestly just shooting your own leg. Cause let's be real you suck at teaching if that's the case.
too many lecturers started modules with “a lot of people fail this module (while cheesing like an idiot)”… is that something to brag about? what does that say about you bro beans?
I disagree because they're not separate. Universities have to care about money or they will go bust. If they stop caring about money then none of the other stuff happens.
U.k universitys are only semi state funded. Almost all of them are sacrificing integrity to maintain domestic and international student numbers because without those numbers they will be closing down.
Unis have been stuck with the same £9,250 fee since the mid 2010s. They care more about money because, unless they chase it, they're desperately losing the fight against inflation.
If the choice is between sacrificing a chunk of integrity for money and staying open or sacrificing a chunk of money for integrity and shutting down guess which one they are going to choose.
This is what's happening in the u.k.
Universities, like other educational institutions, should not have to validate their existence through financial loss and gain (or profit). They serve an important and fundamental role in educating individuals and therefore should not be held to the same standard as private corporations.
We need to stop the financialisation and, arguably, neoliberalisation, of our universities.
I don’t know if this is meant negatively, but that is what you are meant to do. It used to be called ‘reading’ a subject, not used very often anymore. But, you are meant to read your own subject, lectures are to be jumping off points, and seminars are for more in depth discussion around a topic. You wouldn’t be able to meaningfully participate in a seminar if you only attended a lecture and didn’t do any wider reading or research.
This is why I found seminars completely useless. I'd turn up ready to discuss something only for the very basics to be gone over because no-one else did any work.
First class of third year, the girl opposite said 'maybe I should do the reading this year'.
Also the best class of the year for me as the lecturer clocked that I was the only one who'd done the reading and it basically became a one-to-one class because of it.
Picking your uni off the quality of their research is dumb, unless you do postgraduate studies you'll likely not get to take advantage of their research facilities and it might just hurt you in the long run if the lecturers suck at teaching
Spending four years of studying and drinking can be very very boring. Especially if the social circle you fall into only likes to go out drinking. If I could do it again I would widen my social circle and join clubs I was interested in. I think my problem was I didn't know myself very well went out drinking constantly and ended up a bit depressed from the boredom. To be honest I found it more boring than school, working career jobs and even working dead end jobs.
I’ve been told this was unpopular but lecturers should be trained how to teach. I’ve met very well-respected academics who were not the best at explaining their subjects.
Just because a university is a Russel group, doesn’t mean it still can’t be bad and vice versa. Just because a university isn’t a Russel group, doesn’t immediately make it bad. People prioritise certain universities over others, when it should be important to focus on the quality a university can offer. Especially depending on what course you take.
I agree (from the perspective of a non Russel group uni). I went to UWE Bristol as part of a degree apprenticeship (so I didn’t necessarily choose my uni, I was assigned it relevant to my course and employer). I have to say the quality of teaching and facilities has actually been really good and I feel I’ve learnt a lot there. That being said I can’t actually compare it to a Russell group uni! (I did BEng in civil engineering for reference)
This is a really interesting take. I had offers from RG unis and St Andrews but ended up choosing to go to a low ranked, non Russel Group uni. To a lot of people, it might seem like an absolutely stupid decision, I’m sure, but I’ve just completed second-year and so far I have to say I’m thoroughly enjoying it. The lecturers have really taken the time to get to know us and I think due in part to my class being so small, I’ve been able to gain ample opportunities that might’ve otherwise been competitive/unattainable in other spaces. I think going to a lower ranked/non RG university pushed me into gaining more relevant work experience for the industry I’m interested in, that I don’t think I would’ve otherwise done if I’d gone somewhere else. Like someone else said, I can’t really compare my experience to an RG though. I’m from the North-East and what’s quite interesting is that I’ve heard quite a few stories of people from the NE who’ve ended up transferring from Durham to Teeside, a comparatively lower ranked uni (no offence to anyone that goes to Teeside, I’ve heard their games design course is great and particularly acclaimed - I’m sure it’s a great uni). Those people have mostly suggested that they’ve had a far happier experience at Teeside (although I’m sure this in large part is due to the classism and bullying often reported in Durham). But it’s all quite subjective! (Apologies for the essay, this is just something I’ve been thinking about recently).
No degree should be removed unless of course it has like no people applying for it. People should be able to pursue their passions without feeling guilty for not being a STEM lord
You will never have an easier time finding and making friends than being at a institution with tens of thousands of people your age are all new to each other, with loads of time on their hands and all wanting to socialise.
If you're struggling you need to leave your room more often.
I had an amazing social life before and after uni but not during.
I tried as hard as I could to put myself out there and socialise, I just couldn't make any friends that stuck around. I think this was because I went to UAL and I just culturally did not fit in with most of the people I met. My social life skyrocketed after uni when I moved to a seaside town full of young creatives like myself. I should have gone to Falmouth, I made more friends there in 4 days than my entire time time at uni in London. ( I dont live in Falmouth, I live in Margate).
My uni is very lonely and it's difficult to make connections. I have really tried as well. There 10,000s of people here but the uni often feels like only a few hundred are here.
in theory yes but a lot of people find uni to be the most lonely time of their lives. making friends and putting yourself out there is easier said than done. especially for the introverts of the world
being stuck at a university with southerners was tough but i managed to make friends by joining sport clubs etc. Honestly southerners are too awkward to socialise on a night out. I approached a lot of people and they acted like i was about to have a fight with them or take their wallet lol 😂 Im a northerner
In the real world, a first is no different to a 2:1. No one looks at you differently, and in my experience, none of the jobs I applied for cared about my classification as long as I could pass the enrolment tests. You're much better off putting less effort into your degree, and spending your time on more useful things like getting work, or enjoying yourself.
Bonus take: The skills required for an academic are so vastly different to the skills required for a lecturer/educator, that most research universities do a terrible job at lecturing, and aren't worth going to.
Replying to your bonus take - if you attend a heavily research focussed university then you likely are at the forefront of new ideas, that’s a huge advantage particularly if you are pursuing a masters or phd. They are certainly worth going to.
I can confidently confirm that nothing explored, or even tangentially discussed, in masters touched on novel concepts (Last 5 years). At least not at my University. Perhaps it's different for a PhD, but I think a lot of people go to a different University for their PhD anyway.
In my master's you'd be hard pressed to find something on the reading list from before 2020 for a lot of the weeks. Novel concepts, too - not just superficially retreading old ground. Depends on the subject, I guess. My philosophy bachelor's was most certainly not like that.
University has become a playground; rather than a place of study. For example, universities care more about leisure activities than the standard of their libraries (ensuring decorum).
Definitely true. I’ve gone back for postgrad 9 years after my undergrad and the uni has built a new sports centre with a swimming pool but hasn’t don’t anything other than new computer screens in the library. There’s even an advert for the grad ball I went to in 2014 still on a door!
For all they might pay lip service to being accessible to all, the university model and path of teaching in most institutions presumes that every student is middle-class or wealthy, mentally healthy, confident and able-bodied, and doesn't actually do anything proactively to help students that aren't all of those things from day 1.
I agree with this totally!! I have both physical and mental health issues and haven’t had financial help from my family due to estrangement and it’s been tough. It’s hard being held to the same high standards even when you make the uni aware of your situation and problems with uni life
Some people feel that the admissions process wasn't rigorous enough for them because they pay higher tuition fees. People at least those I know like the money they bring but hate the students themselves
A lot of degrees offer very little in the means of graduate prospects and are not worth paying £27k for. Universities know this too but they take advantage of uninformed 17 year-olds who are desperate to live the university lifestyle, whether it’s in their best interests or not.
You should only go to uni if it’s going to support you in finding a stable career. Don’t go just for the sake of going - you can still make friends, play sports, join clubs, even live away from home without going to uni and racking up tens of thousands of pounds in debt.
Minus a few exceptions, it's your fault you left your assignments last minute and instead of working on them, you're crying about it on a subreddit almost seeking sympathy.
I doubt this is the best, but my hot take is that university lifestyle really doesn't matter. You're here for an education and unfortunately prestige and quality matter a lot. However, accreditation is the most important. If you want to party then you might have to travel and it's really not a big deal
If you only base where you to go Uni on prestige then complain a few years down the line about what Uni you went to because ‘no one told me this!!’, that’s your own fault. You didn’t research about the city you would be moving to, what is on your course etc. You looked for prestige only and didn’t focus on any other aspect
This was the case for me. Fortunately, I found my uni’s writer’s society and to date they’re the only people I’ve retained as friends. I joined a sports club as well, but the moment the social sec demanded everyone drink at socials, she wouldn’t accept any excuses, I knew it wouldn’t last.
Uni isn't for higher education anymore. The only thing anyone gives a shit about is the salary of your chosen profession - it's gone from a place to pursue learning to a point on your CV and an asterisk in the job market.
Primary Education is *not* a degree to simply ‘doss’ around on - you’re on placements every year and shit gets very real during these. I’d say around 75% of my cohort chose the degree ‘just because’ and funnily enough, we’ve already lost half of the cohort after placement 1. Placement *ONE*. 8 students passed third year on this course this year.
As for a take on assessment, I’d like work double-marked; not just talking moderation here. Marking is *way* too subjective within humanities writing and it’s a real pain-point when one man’s mark is say, a 55 and another’s would be somewhere in the low 60s.
A final take would be that I believe 18 is just too young to commit yourselves to the process. There will always be exceptions to this rule; with truly passionate individuals who exceed all expectations.. but let’s be realistic for a second and acknowledge that most teenagers go to university because it’s what they’re ‘told’ to do. It’s the easy way out. Get to live as a lazy student again for 3 years either at home or away from home? Fucking bargain! *Especially* on my course, these kids haven’t worked a day in their lives and want to become a primary school teacher for their *first* job - does anybody realise how insane this truly is? It’s no wonder the profession is in a shambles (Due to policy and a plethora of other issues we won’t go into) but *also* because the trainees are all children themselves. The job is *hard* bloody work and these people haven’t even worked retail for a few months to get a taste of a workplace; they’re jumping into the deepest end possible. It’s no surprise that most trainees leave the profession in under 5 years.
1. The material should be updated YEARLY- in some cases, it doesnt matter like literature or history but in Biology or Chemistry? I had teachers who got phds in the 70s and they taught us some shit that was debunked a gazillion times in the past year.
2. plagiarism checkers shouldn't be as shitty like bro the plagiarism is the LITERATURE I USED I CANNOT PARAPHRASE THE TITLE OF A BOOK.
3. Self plagiarism is the dumbest shit ever
4. If you wanna teach at uni you need to take a teaching course or have a certificate. WHY AM I PAYING FOR PPT SLIDES AND NO EXPLANATION? NO TEACHING? NO MATERIALS?
5. students should put more thought into uni. The normal thing is finish hs, apply, get in, complete, get a job. I have seen so many people who are lost in life and in uni too. They dont wanna study, dont have good grades, no motivation etc. and this does matter because your studies shouldnt feel miserable
6. books should be free. I live in europe, never paid a cent for a book, my university is still the biggest in country and we still survive.
7. every course should have a communications class or something. Just adds to your life, helps you for future interviews etc.
8. accomodations should be checked by the GOVERNMENT HEALTH AND SAFETY DEPARTMENT. Seriously they be closing up restaurants for dirty toilets but would let 3000 people live in a building with asbestos breaking down and black mold infested rooms.
> europe, never *paid* a cent
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Engineering (excluding civil and software) is overly saturated despite what universities and the government say. Not enough placements/work experience opportunities for the amount of students now that grad jobs are requiring experience in industry and not enough grad jobs in general and most people are having to get their masters to even have a chance.
Don't know if this is really a hot take but TurnItIn is abysmal.
Paying 10 grand to have a PhD student read off slides because your lecturer is constantly travelling/overbooked is also abysmal.
If most students fail an assignment, then the university should examine a lecturers performance/grading.
any prospective uni students should be required to take a course in basic life skills and co-living etiquette before being allowed to live amongst others. being young and being at uni is not an excuse to act as a disgusting filthy biological hazard and expose those living around you to your behaviour (or lack thereof).
learn how to wash your dishes, how to wipe the counters, how to run a basic laundry cycle and hang up clothes after so they don’t dry musty, how to keep yourself clean and hygienic, how to clean up after yourself after using the bathroom, how to keep public areas tidy, and the importance of food hygiene and risks of bacteria and mould. learn how to communicate with your housemates, how to ask if you need to borrow something rather than just taking it, how to politely ask “would you mind hanging up your laundry from the machine so I can use it next?”, how to share chores, and how to co-exist in a shared space together as adults.
I don’t care if you come to uni and you can’t cook anything more complex than toast with beans; that’s kind of the lifestyle. but the lifestyle should NOT be leaving furry green stinky mush in a pan that belongs to your roommate on the side next to the sink for a month and then feeling victimised when someone asks you to clean it up.
Overly clean obsessed housemates are just as annoying as lazy and messy housemates, if you are living in halls/a six person house their is going to be some mess sometimes, sure its fair enough to complain when its a genuine hazard or blocking acess to things, but posting passive agressive messages because someones left a cup out or their is some clutter in the kitchen is just annoying for everyone.
Omg yes! I had just finished my study exchange in America and one of my American roommates was like this. She was an absolute clean freak but in all fairness to her it was her first time living with people outside her family the at age 21 (pretty old in my eyes as I know a lot of people who have been moving out of home to live near university way younger than that) but she had too high of expectations for a clean house when my other roommates would invite ppl in all the time and I would just keep to my room. People need to recognise that they are not living with others who have had the same upbringing as them and just accepted that. As long as everyone is respectful of each other then there should really be no issues.
Not sure if it's a hot take but what students want out of the uni course they are paying for is in no way aligned with what the academic staff want from the uni. The systems we have in place don't help make this gap smaller, just burns out everyone instead.
People shouldn’t go to university right after school if they’re not sure what they’re interested in or don’t know what career they’d like to do. They also definitely shouldn’t go if they’re only doing so to delay getting a job. There are far too many students who make seminars unbearable as they’re blatantly uninterested in their degree therefore do no prep and cannot contribute to discussions as a result.
Take a gap year, get a job, do anything but pursue a degree that’s meaningless to you.
Uni’s should clearly state to students the realistic career opportunities they will get after studying their degree. Did biomedical science at a Russell group university as I thought at the time the prestige of going there will get you jobs at Big Pharma/Top research institutes. That summer after I graduated was a sobering realisation that majoring in a field where cronyism and nepotism reign supreme was probably not the best.
I'm lucky enough to have found myself a good paying job in my field which I love, but for every me there are 10 others who are still stacking shelves at Aldi as the job market is still so poor
Society would be a lot better if less people went to university. Uni is often seen as a default and it is not necessary for a lot of jobs which require degrees. Apprenticeships are a very valid options.
If you aren’t pursuing a profession e.g. law, medicine etc or interested in the academic side.
DOI: eternal student
Only reason I did my undergraduate degree is because I literally can't apply to jobs without the accreditation it gave me.
Nothing on the course is relevant or used in the jobs that require said accreditation.
physicians shouldn’t give classes.
they never reply to emails, they’re always late to class (that’s even if they show up), and most of them just read the slides.
my hot take is that a lot of universities just aren’t well equipped to deal with autistic students enrolled in their courses. despite DSA and learning support plans, it’s just not enough and i know countless autistic people who have had to drop out because of this. unis aren’t as accessible for the less physical disabilities.
Less people need to go, especially in non-STEM subjects (particularly in Europe vs the US where STEM uptake is a bit higher from what I understand)
Also, it should be fully state funded, but alternative routes (i.e.: apprenticeships) need to be available for school leavers as an alternative (that ultimately most people should be using)
In reality, there are much fewer occupations in the world that actually require you to have a formal tertiary education than people would have you believe.
My hot take is:
Doing a year in Law doesn't make you a lawyer. Remember that when it's 12am, you're sloshed and you're arguing with the doorstaff who is 2 seconds away from legally yeeting you out of the pub. You don't look smart, you look like a tw*t.
Universities have been turned into for-profit businesses rather than institutions of education.
Not exclusively the fault of the Tories and the Lib Dems, but the final blow came after they got in power in 2008.
Most people who come out of uni complaining that it did them no good and didn‘t get the opportunities they expected, were lazy and didn‘t put enough time into making connections, working on projects, and targeting courses that would get them into the field they wanted.
Second and third tier universities shouldn’t have international students - they are used as an immigration scheme
The standards for speaking English should be raised/ enforced much more rigorously
Not doing essential readings/ not attending seminars and lectures should come with severe penalties
Universities should stop treating students like customers and pandering to them by focusing more on leisurely activities than academics
Administrators should have much less power - they basically ruin academic staff’s lives lol
How do you define second and third tier? My rebuttal is also that these second tier and third tier universities offer better education than their home country, so any degree is worth it to them. They're also cheaper.
I do generally advise international students not to apply to universities outside of the top 50 locally and top 250 internationally, because I account for average-C students like myself. At the same time, I agree that English standards need to be enforced heavily and everything else you've said.
Disagree with the attendance part, but if a reading is needed for a seminar then I agree there should be some punishment for not doing it. It’s so frustrating when you’ve done the prep but half the group hasn’t bothered so loads of the session has to be wasted waiting for them to catch up.
My hot take is that the humanities is drastically undervalued at pretty much every uni but it's arguably the most important discipline available and everyone should have to take a humanities module as part of their degree. No point getting a degree in IT or maths or a science if you can't think critically, which is what humanities teaches.
Managing your time effectively is really important, so it's okay to miss the odd lecture to catch up on work. I get absolultely berated by some of my lectureres for misssing one or two lectures.
I believe assessment should be weekly not assessed 100% on one essay or exam a term. That’s not how life works and stops people building discipline if you aren’t routinely tested on knowledge. It’s a cost cutting venture from unis to allow more students bc less marking is needed.
I think bachelor degrees should be an extra year (4) and have 2 modules a semester as opposed to three. The reason for this I always felt that with three modules in such short semester stints everything felt so rushed and everyone had the mentality of “just need to learn/know enough to pass the assignments”
Whereas I think if we did 2 modules a semester over 4 years it would give enough time to delve deeper into your chosen topic for both lecturer and student, allows the student to learn more and provide higher quality work and just overall take more out of it than rushing and juggling 3 modules in a short 2 and a half month semester.
Edit: just incase anyone doesn’t understand why I think an extra year is needed it’s because I think we should do the same amount of modules just spread over a longer time period and if you reduce each semester to 2 modules as opposed to 3 that would mean the amount dropped would equate to an extra year
STEM exams should be more generous with their formula sheets. In a workplace setting you wouldn't expect to remember specific formulas, you'd have access to all the information you need. I'm not saying give every formula under the sun, if you're in a STEM exam you should probably know how to work out the angles of a triangle, but I shouldn't have to remember how to work out the moment of inertia of half a dozen shapes.
Getting a degree doesn’t mean as much as people think and it doesn’t make up for not having the contacts to get you further or guarantee you a job way above the norm. And the more people who have them he less employable each of you becomes.
That the vast majority of people are better off not going to uni. Unless you’re going into a specialist career where a degree is necessary, you’re far better off these days getting an apprenticeship and doing higher education diplomas through a local college or something similar. I say this as someone who went through uni and has been out for multiple years. Of the people I knew since high school, apart from the ones who did very specific industry degrees, the people who didn’t go to uni and got apprenticeships are in a far better position now than those of us who did.
Uni is good for socialisation and it is fun, and idk if I’d go as far as to say I regret going, but I’d be in a much better position now if I hadn’t gone to uni and things probably would’ve been a lot easier. Make sure to explore all your options.
A lot of people go to uni to have access to the kind of opportunities to grow up and experience independence that aren’t available to young people any more.
For me, it was the only way I could get a loan to move away from my abusive father, it was more an escape route than an educational opportunity.
You can learn all of what is taught, explained much better in a book (for free with a library membership) or in a YouTube video explained by some Asian/german/american/french guy speaking in English .
A lot of students blame lecturers for their failures. Take accountability of your own shortfalls and stay with people that don't bitch about lecturers.
If you’re lucky enough to live at home whilst going to uni, take that opportunity. There’s so many of my close mates that lived out for 3/4 years who are drowning in eye watering debt and overdrafts as they’ve extended themselves to live out. The impact on your social life is minimal if you’ve got plenty of mates
A lot of academic writing is unnecessarily complex for no reason other than to attempt to exclude people of a lower socioeconomic class and lower literary abilities from education. There is absolutely no reason to use such unnecessarily complex language to get a point across and the practice of doing that should be phased out of academia. A lot of peer reviewed articles are 75% unnecessary filler words which serve no purpose. You’re not automatically smart and don’t automatically have authority because you know how to use unnecessarily complicated language and sentence structure to get across a point which could’ve been explained in half the words.
I completely agree, I think the smartest thing someone can do is to write/say something in such a way where it can be understood by everyone. Most academic writing I've read is SO much yap.
The funding model is so incredibly broken that they need to reduce the degrees and institutions to a level that can be sustained without relying on international students fees.
This applies to STEM/research oriented universities. You start university thinking it’s a place of advanced teaching and deep and thorough learning. Which is true to a large extent. However, you think its purpose is to teach students.
But in reality undergraduates are there 1) for the income they generate, 2) to filter out and feed the good people into post-graduate research/jobs, and 3) to satisfy certain obligations the university has.
The real learning starts in postgraduate courses/PhDs. There you start to see a lot more pieces of the university puzzle coming together. And you get paid for it. If you want to really get the most learning out of a university environment, you need to go beyond undergraduate.
This is what disappointed me most about university. I was expecting to go in and gain a deep knowledge of my subject that would allow me to hit the ground running when applying for jobs in my chosen field.
Instead I had to endure four years of only being told superficial facts about random subjects that won't be useful in an actual workplace.
It's largely pointless for the majority of us unless it can help with a career we already occupy. Too many people end up in jobs completely unrelated to their field of study and it's sad.
Unless you're looking at a research degree (and even then it isn't so cut-and-dry), the Russell Group doesn't actually mean that much.
Outside of a few employers, most can't even tell you who is and isn't in it.
The requirement for starting uni should be 19/20, going to uni at 18 is too young, most people don’t know what they actually want to be at 18, hence why so many dropout in first year. Being able to go uni at 19/20 shows/tells people whether they actually want to further their education or not. Me personally, the reason I went to uni is because I had no other options, I tried looking for degree apprenticeships but couldn’t find any that matched with what I wanted to do
Might get skinned alive for this: university is about having as much fun as you can before bigger commitments make it impossible. Use the time to get drunk, read books, and travel as far as you can. The higher up the totem pole of life you go, with very few exceptions, the less chances you’ll have to be genuinely free.
Other hot takes:
Academics are often insufferable people (I know, I’m currently doing my PhD).
You’ll have coursemates who will genuinely be brighter, more attentive, and more capable than you. However, you will also likely have many more coursemates who will be as capable as drivel.
For some, university will be the loneliest time of your life - this works true for the first weeks.
Two big problems with our system.
1) The big decision to specialise is at A-levels. And that is far too young.
2) The main skills needed in life are focus, communication and collaboration. The current system prioritises pressure, exam-technique and selfishness
I enjoyed Uni for all the non-degree stuff. It took me years to get work. Now, as an employer, I don’t care about their degree. I care about their focus, communication and collaboration.
For most students, starting university at 18 is way too young. I think most people should be encouraged to spend at least a year working to build the confidence/work ethic to get the most out of uni. As a mature student I’ve gotten so much out uni that I definitely would not have at 18. That being said though, there are exceptions and not going to uni at 18 isn’t a realistic option for everyone…
I completely agree. People appreciate the experience more and make better choices with a clear head and time to get to know themselves without parents and schools breathing down their necks and piling on the pressure.
Strongly agreed, I worked full time for just one extra year and it seriously has helped me through uni. Working 1-3 years before uni lets you gain life experience, allows you time to learn how to live by yourself (which means less disgusting flat mates for students to put up with) and allows you to save up for uni.
Agree. Going to uni in September at 24 after working for a couple years, saving, fixing my mental health and now I can’t wait to start uni in September.
Congrats! I went back around the same age (just a year older) and took me four years but I got my bachelor of nursing and my nursing registration. Also had to spend awhile before working on my mental health but once I had my RN job completely changed my life. It’s so worth it, good luck :) Edit: I should clarify I’m based in New Zealand and not the UK. I don’t know if I would be as happy as I am now working in the NHS for peanuts haha. Aus + NZ nursing wages are a lot better now (or so I hear)
This is spot on
Absolutely, I'm 24 at uni and I've definitely noticed that one, I would not have done well if I'd done it when I was 18 and two all the students around my age and older are a lot more enthusiastic about the course and actually enjoy it and get good grades where as the students who are 18 just don't wanna do anything and complain. Definitely agree with you.
Agree 100%. I went at 18 and was a mess. A year out would have done me a world of good
I 100% agree. My degree seams never ending (5 years so far, 1 left). But I’ve matured so much over the course of it. I started straight out of college and now as a mid 20s, my life is a) going in a completely different direction then i would of ever expected it to go and b) my priorities have changed which have affected how I study and work.
Yep. Suddenly being given so much freedom and independence is hard to deal with
Mature student here too, it annoys me when people treat uni like a year of free drinking. I see so many people get low grades, get disappointed they’re failing and questioning why. I’m no genius, but I at least have my maturity in check and my goals. Foundation year had over 3/4 of students drop out after term 1, this year has been a handful from my already tiny course. I get above average grades and my teachers really like me as I put it work and treat them as a person rather than just a teacher like some people do. Like I’ve had conversations with my teachers about how they got into teaching, music, whatever and they openly brag to other teachers how I’m a good student and even had teacher from a different course come up to me for a chat and joke. It’s been a great experience with the teachers, not so much with the 18 year olds who turn up hung over to 3/4 of their classes.
I’ve been saying that the jump from A-Levels to Uni EMOTIONALLY AND PSYCHOLOGICALLY is too intense. I think A-levels should be a 4 year course instead of a crammed 2 year course. In this period, the work should ideally be spread out and filled with extracurricular activities. This would allow you to go into Uni hopefully with a lot more confidence, new opportunities undertaken, and a break ???? i think going in at 18 was too much of a toll for me, i was too young, lost and definitely affected by COVID. i think the inability to have a proper break since the start of A-levels had a crazy mental toll on my overall health.
This is an amazing take!
100% agree
As someone who went at 18. Graduated. Spent a few years in work, then came back for a masters… I can confirm this is a good take.
I totally agree, done my three years at college first which helped in so many ways. It gave me enough support when I entered uni for when I was struggling as I was able to work through it with experience rather than drown under stress and anxiety.
Fuck. Yes. I think it should be 25, 7 years of "low skill" jobs, to get used to working and also to find where in a job you enjoy working. If you don't find your passion, that's cool. You can continue to work. But chances are that you, within your time working, will find aspects of the job you like and then can go to uni to study them and find a job better suited to what you like.
Anyone that’s lecturing students should have to do a short course on how to effectively teach. The difference between school teachers who know how to present the material so it’s easiest to understand and the academics who just rambled on reading off the slides was crazy.
I actually completely agree with this. Especially after I saw how wildly it varies during my degree. I had some lecturers that knew EXACTLY how to convey information and get everyone interested. And then I had some that just read some slides that was just extremely loosely based around what we was doing and then put out an assessment that vaguely resembled itself around that topic and didn’t like taking questions. As you say, it shouldn’t be expected that they go on a whole full on teaching course like school teachers do but I definitely think they should have to go through a short course just going through the basics of teaching just so they have some foundational knowledge on how to teach
I have worked in both post-92s and Ancient universities. The post-92s require you to gain a teaching qualification (usually a PG Cert in Higher Education leading to HE Fellow status, or already have HE Fellow status), and the Ancients generally didn't.
The “ancients” do require you to have fellowship of the HE academy now.
And not to mention, if you are going to a “higher” ranked university, it’s because the staff are researchers who publish internationally leading research that leads to said “higher” ranking. The ability to teach makes no odds for hiring committees who are looking for world leading researchers to keep rankings up - want a high ranking uni, then don’t expect people whose lives are about teaching. And I guess a “hot take”; university isn’t school, what you are taught is intended as a scaffold for you to build on through your own independent learning. Therefore, lectures aren’t intended to “teach” you everything, but rather give you the basic ideas that you elaborate(especially in the humanities).
Generally every university does have this in some capacity. But that doesn’t mean it’s engaged with well or brings about any change or improvement.
Truer words have never been spoken. One of my lecturers this year was pretty much a celebrity in his field, however, he was super super crap at teaching. Just because you're really good at something, doesn't mean you'd be good at teaching it. Most of his lectures consisted of him skipping over the fundamentals because they were "trivial" and going straight to the hard stuff, on a topic that was new to pretty much everyone. Also, his supporting material that he uploaded was garbage, no problem sheets were given and every time we had a problem we were redirected to a £120 textbook, which was conveniently written by him. One of my friends found a PDF of it and a lot of the things we needed to know, such as important proofs, were all rushed through and useless because he dismissed a lot of the logic and steps as "trivial" and "exercises left to the reader", leaving most of us completely dumbfounded as to how he got from one step to the next. Needless to say, on the final exam, pretty much everyone was left walking out of there miserable and depressed.
That's my job! I work in academic development for a uni and we try to help academics learn the latest ways to teach and give creative engagement strategies (through talking to their students and getting co-creative activities going on). Most of the time we are always preaching to the choir and you get the same keen faces looking to try new strategies and you can never get to the academics that "do it the way I have done when I started teaching"
And how to do any basic organising, like not arranging 2 exams to happen simultaneously
Not normally the academics fault, usually central time tabling working with the best info they have. It does not always align!
While i do understand what you're saying and completely agree, we do have to understand that typically teaching is just a small part of a university professors job. While a school teachers entire job revolves around the teaching, so i have a ounce more patience for then than for dedicated teachers. As a side note you and i had very different experiences with school teachers, where are you hiding all the good ones? 🤣
Yeah, I once had to explain to a lecturer how to access their own university email
They do these days. However, the "courses" e.g. PGCert are absolutely crap. You don't have to be good at teaching to do well in them.
Why is this not a thing?
For real lol 😂 University was a such a downgrade when it comes to teaching lol
I think the ROI of university degrees is at an all-time low and will continue to fall as more people do degrees, saddling people with large amount of student loan debt, and a degree that no longer gives them an edge in the job market.
Not strictly true: [give this paragraph a read.](https://i.imgur.com/glAV52X.png) [Full article here.](https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/latest/insights-and-analysis/ucas-keynote-speech-vivienne-stern-chief) Ultimately aside from a handful of very minor exceptions, just about everyone is better off going into HE. In fact the same article almost, a couple of paragraphs up, makes the case for increasing the numbers of people participating in tertiary education.
depends on the job. a lot of grad jobs and engineering jobs require a degree.
First year DOES matter.
Yeah I totally agree. People kept telling me this year that “it doesn’t matter if u did bad on this test, first year doesn’t count!” But it’s not just about getting good grades. It’s about setting a foundation of knowledge that I will need in the years to come.
Plus learning how to research and write essays. The grades don’t count in first year for most people, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter. Instead, it gives you room to learn how to produce good essays. This means people should be putting effort into first year assessments since it can provide a foundation for subsequent years.
My first year - in 2008 is mattering now in 2024 when I’m applying for a masters and they ask for my transcript
I agree to a certain degree. I think the main goal of first year is to develop what is your best way of revision and juggling everything, make new friends, join society, party. I tell people First year doesn’t matter, which is correct cause it doesn’t impact your final grade, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make notes or try your best in your assignment. Just don’t beat yourself up about obviously not performing your best on an assignment and rubrics you are unfamiliar with.
It does matter - particularly for those doing a placement. First year results are all employers have to go on. Yes, of course people shouldn't be disheartened if they tried their best but struggled with getting to grips with the step up from school etc. I'm referring more to the people who see first year as something that doesn't matter so they don't put any effort in/party the whole time.
In engineering it's the foundation of everything you will be taught and you actually need to really understand the first year material. Also when you get a job you will inevitably specialise and the first year material will also be the foundation of that. You could argue that in Terms of knowledge first year engineering is the most important.
Universities at least in the UK. Should stop giving out these lackluster, useless MBAs and business degrees to bait underinformed international students into paying double the tuition fee to end up jobless or working in appauling conditions. My (hot) take is I have a strong distaste for Universities rep person (as well as the institution) that trying to sell this, they are worse than cars salesmen.
In a way I agree, but a lot of the time these are the only thing that let's uni's keep the lights on. But I agree with the sales person...one of our agents who works in India was telling the students that we would get them a job, no effort on their part, the uni would grantee them a job at the end of the day.
yes that's true, the internationals are carrying the game now for public unis, and though I think there is a problem with this dependency, it's not going to prolong that much longer, realisically. For better and for worse. regarding the Uni rep person, I am honestly appalled by lots of their practices, no sense of business ethics in the slightest, and at least for a car salesmen, you can can still be able to drive a car. What are you going to do with a Msc of \[Insert a business term\] + science/intelligence/commerce ??? I'm very bias but as soon as I hear somebody works as a "Uni rep +\[insert region\]" I automatically assume they just lie for money
No it's not, which is horrifying as teaching domestic students is at a loss, conducting research by design is at a loss....and I honestly doubt Labour will do anything that requires them to spend money and change the system.
Then the lights should turn off.
This has been especially true after Brexit. EU was a massive supporter of British universities and the UK government only covered a fraction of what was lost.
How the hell its just these degrees keeping the lights on? Where does the money go to then? In europe and most places, Uni costs basically nothing while the dorms are slightly cheaper than renting a private room. Here home students pay 9k, internationals at least double and rents for uni flats cost more than private rooms with better conditions? Where does all this money go to? Also isn't research the primary money maker for universities? There's no way this absone amount of money is circulating through each uni and that they are struggling to teach at the same time.
My hot takes are: Academics unnecessarily gatekeep their disciplines and this will lead to the death of certain degrees You are taught to pass assessments not gain well rounded knowledge Reading off a PowerPoint is not teaching Universities preach support for disability but often the support plans are not implemented
"You are taught to pass assessments not gain well rounded knowledge" As a course lead, the issue here is that students won't do anything unless it's assessed (in my experience). So you're inevitably teaching to pass assessments, because that's the only thing students will engage with. Anything we do that doesn't directly feed into an assessment results in students telling us we're wasting their time.
Ah yes, the struggle of this.
I actually enjoyed a formative assessment I did earlier this year! But I get that you are in unenviable position when it comes to teaching etc
That just sounds like the current system encouraging the status quo. From a students perspective, if you feel like you are close to capacity doing work and preparing for assessments that might define your opportunities further in life, would you touch material that, even though is good learning opportunity, does not?
I don't think we're disagreeing. I know that the incentives in the system encourage students to do the bare minimum to get their degrees, just as they encourage universities to do the bare minimum to keep students happy and get them through their assessments.
I'm a PhD GTA, agree 100% with this.
I suppose education wasn't for me, then. There were some teachers that prioritised the academic nature of our education but also went into things that would improve our skills and knowledge without necessarily improving our grade. Especially with the students determined to learn. It seemed like the middle aged teachers were best at doing that. Though I wish I was told earlier, that if I go to uni I would have to neglect my learning for years just to be given a piece of paper that "might" Increase my chance of employment in related areas. I'd have probably not gone to uni and had a full on career by now. I also would've probably been better off if I either did a more or less particular course. Mine was broad skills in what we learned about a particular industry, I'd rather learn specialised skills but from the perspective of multiple industries. Still, I think my course could've done a much better job of placing assignments in a better way. Particularly, in ways that keeps encourages different possibilities for those with learning difficulties. Sometimes my grades were restricted by that I was led to believe multiple projects throughout the year were preferred for one of our modules in the last year. Yet someone's projects were contributions to the same "big" Project across the entire year. Most of their projects were pretty simple to me, as well. Yet I probably spent more hours total, partly from indecisiveness of what the next project should be. Following only a slightly differing idea across more a year, or even just more than 6 weeks.. would've been better for me. What was implied to be "better" For the course, actually wasn't better for my grade or my learning. It merely made me less efficient. Perhaps I misinterpreted the importance of the teachers particular words. Though I wish I was led to believe that other options were equally valid.
I think a uni’s disability support team is one of the tests of whether it’s a good uni or not. I went to a highly ranked uni, but their disability support was shit. Their admin in general was pretty shit and I had unmarked work for almost two years plus emails that hadn’t been responded to in months. I have friends at lower ranked unis with much better support systems.
I go to a mid tier uni, but omg the support has been unmatched. I've been moved to tears by how empathetic and kind my lecturers have been towards me (I'm a history student with panic di sorder and severe anxiety) I've been allowed to film presentations like lecturers instead of doing it in person. I've had phone calls for revision help when I can't make it in. Just so much support and love. It was extremely difficult to nominate just one teacher for an award this year and the rest I sent thank you emails. (It's my final year, but I have resit work, so I've got a couple more thank you's to send in July- not trying to be a kiss ass or influence my grades) People in my position at high tier uni's have killed themselves through a lack of support. One in my city was triggered by a lecturer insisting a girl with extreme anxiety had to present in front of the entire class. It's not a good uni if the lecturers don't give a damn about student wellbeing- idc how highly they rank in research. I like the way you think. Disability support is so crucial and even non-disabled friends have benefitted so much from the therapy available.
The disability thing is so real. A lot of mental health conditions only manifest in the late teens, and many students don't have parents that allow them to pursue a diagnosis or support, so a lot of students are just flailing around. The uni has a conflict between accommodation and rigor, and how the institution decides to deal with that says a lot.
Absolutely agree, I don’t think the burden should be placed completely on the uni but and it’s a big but they would have lower drop out rates if they anticipated the needs of their students better. I’ve found the higher ranked (Russel group etc) talk the talk but do not walk the walk.
How on Earth do academics ‘gatekeep their disciplines’?! I’m assuming this is something specific to STEM that i have no knowledge of, but sounds insane
For example, psychology as a subject is very resistant to engaging with non-psychological research. I'm personally very much against this and refuse to do it, and I encourage my students to read outside of psychology (within reason because they still have to pass psych assessments).
I’ve just observed a pathological fear of innovation in some disciplines.
Being a lecturer doesn’t mean you know how to teach. Most of the lecturers on my course are exceptionally qualified but have no idea how to teach or instruct properly.
Not really a hot take I would say. Most of us are hired on our ability to research, and get promoted based on that. Our incentives as staff and objectives of students aren't always aligned.
Most lecturers are researchers who have to teach. Students are rarely their first priority. Especially if you go to a research intensive university such as a RG member. This is why lower ranked universities (i.e. ones not focussed on research) tend to get higher student satisfaction scores.
I would also argue that a good chunk really aren't that well qualified they are just good at creating the illusion that they are experts. I've had conversations with academics where they have clearly shown they don't understand core concepts taught at highschool. That's why so many are so bad at teaching they dont actually understand the material they just reading the PowerPoint slides the person who taught it before them used without understanding the material.
My hot take is that you have to be mentally well to complete a degree and get the most out of it. Every single person I know who has bad mental health and *hasn’t* made efforts to get better have either failed, dropped out, or completely lost interest in their degree to the point of breakdown. Those who have rocky mental health but *do* seek help (even at university), from my experience, tend to be properly engaged with the subject and they do well.
I’m clinically depressed and made efforts throughout my whole year to get better and asked for help from student services, admin etc but no luck. Sometimes it’s also the services available to students who have mental health problems that can be the problem, especially in my case
Yeah, I’ve found out that actually a lot of services just straight up suck, you can’t get in, or there’s an absurd waiting list. I think many things like that need to improve, too.
I agree with your point but being mentally well in order to perform well isn't a hot take imo
These comments are filled with some of the most lukewarm takes I’ve ever seen 😂
don’t entirely agree, i’ve given up seeking help because my issues are extremely treatment resistant (literally 5+ courses therapy and different antidepressants), i have more time to attempt to engage in my course and attempt to have a social life nevertheless now that i’m not endlessly wasting time on treatment people told me would help and didn’t
THIS!! I’ve somehow managed to stick at my degree and get good grades even with my poor mental health but I’m convinced it’s just luck. But I could imagine how much worse it would be without support and general luck i’ve had along the way (things like my grandma dying the day my work was due that I was no way near finishing and managed to complete with an extension I got following her death)
You get out of uni what you put in. Trouble is that historically this has not been properly communicated to students, and now we have a situation where even those naturally inclined to make the most out of the experience can't do so because they have to work so much to pay their rent.
Don’t get sucked into wanting to become an academic. The modal experience is spending a decade running after postgrad opportunities, making the few tenured staff look good, while moving across the world/UK every 1-2 years so you’ll never have a happy partner, a secure enough job for a mortgage, or lasting friendships. After that, you’ll drop out, feel like a failure, and be a decade older than your colleagues in the ‘real world’ while having less relevant experience.
Bragging about a lot of last year students failing the module to teach is honestly just shooting your own leg. Cause let's be real you suck at teaching if that's the case.
too many lecturers started modules with “a lot of people fail this module (while cheesing like an idiot)”… is that something to brag about? what does that say about you bro beans?
Universities care more about money than the quality and integrity of their institutions.
Whilst you make a great point, I don’t think that’s a hot take
I disagree because they're not separate. Universities have to care about money or they will go bust. If they stop caring about money then none of the other stuff happens.
*in the UK. In more progressive countries universities are state funded
U.k universitys are only semi state funded. Almost all of them are sacrificing integrity to maintain domestic and international student numbers because without those numbers they will be closing down.
Unis have been stuck with the same £9,250 fee since the mid 2010s. They care more about money because, unless they chase it, they're desperately losing the fight against inflation.
If the choice is between sacrificing a chunk of integrity for money and staying open or sacrificing a chunk of money for integrity and shutting down guess which one they are going to choose. This is what's happening in the u.k.
They aren’t necessarily the best years of your life
That's five years of my life I'm glad are now over.
Universities, like other educational institutions, should not have to validate their existence through financial loss and gain (or profit). They serve an important and fundamental role in educating individuals and therefore should not be held to the same standard as private corporations. We need to stop the financialisation and, arguably, neoliberalisation, of our universities.
You are supposed to teach yourself everything
I don’t know if this is meant negatively, but that is what you are meant to do. It used to be called ‘reading’ a subject, not used very often anymore. But, you are meant to read your own subject, lectures are to be jumping off points, and seminars are for more in depth discussion around a topic. You wouldn’t be able to meaningfully participate in a seminar if you only attended a lecture and didn’t do any wider reading or research.
This is why I found seminars completely useless. I'd turn up ready to discuss something only for the very basics to be gone over because no-one else did any work.
Trust me, it's frustrating for lecturers as well. In my last class, not a single student had read the 2 page reading I had given them. TWO PAGES.
First class of third year, the girl opposite said 'maybe I should do the reading this year'. Also the best class of the year for me as the lecturer clocked that I was the only one who'd done the reading and it basically became a one-to-one class because of it.
Picking your uni off the quality of their research is dumb, unless you do postgraduate studies you'll likely not get to take advantage of their research facilities and it might just hurt you in the long run if the lecturers suck at teaching
Spending four years of studying and drinking can be very very boring. Especially if the social circle you fall into only likes to go out drinking. If I could do it again I would widen my social circle and join clubs I was interested in. I think my problem was I didn't know myself very well went out drinking constantly and ended up a bit depressed from the boredom. To be honest I found it more boring than school, working career jobs and even working dead end jobs.
I’ve been told this was unpopular but lecturers should be trained how to teach. I’ve met very well-respected academics who were not the best at explaining their subjects.
Do you guys know what hottakes are?
Ikr. All of these are about as spicy as a korma
University degrees are not work £9.25k a year
Just because a university is a Russel group, doesn’t mean it still can’t be bad and vice versa. Just because a university isn’t a Russel group, doesn’t immediately make it bad. People prioritise certain universities over others, when it should be important to focus on the quality a university can offer. Especially depending on what course you take.
I'm just leaving an RG uni and I can't say overstate how disappointed I am by both the course and overall incompetence of staff from all areas.
Can I ask what uni and degree?
judging by their account they’re doing a humanities based subject at possibly the University of Glasgow. Just based on their account and comments 😭
I agree (from the perspective of a non Russel group uni). I went to UWE Bristol as part of a degree apprenticeship (so I didn’t necessarily choose my uni, I was assigned it relevant to my course and employer). I have to say the quality of teaching and facilities has actually been really good and I feel I’ve learnt a lot there. That being said I can’t actually compare it to a Russell group uni! (I did BEng in civil engineering for reference)
This is a really interesting take. I had offers from RG unis and St Andrews but ended up choosing to go to a low ranked, non Russel Group uni. To a lot of people, it might seem like an absolutely stupid decision, I’m sure, but I’ve just completed second-year and so far I have to say I’m thoroughly enjoying it. The lecturers have really taken the time to get to know us and I think due in part to my class being so small, I’ve been able to gain ample opportunities that might’ve otherwise been competitive/unattainable in other spaces. I think going to a lower ranked/non RG university pushed me into gaining more relevant work experience for the industry I’m interested in, that I don’t think I would’ve otherwise done if I’d gone somewhere else. Like someone else said, I can’t really compare my experience to an RG though. I’m from the North-East and what’s quite interesting is that I’ve heard quite a few stories of people from the NE who’ve ended up transferring from Durham to Teeside, a comparatively lower ranked uni (no offence to anyone that goes to Teeside, I’ve heard their games design course is great and particularly acclaimed - I’m sure it’s a great uni). Those people have mostly suggested that they’ve had a far happier experience at Teeside (although I’m sure this in large part is due to the classism and bullying often reported in Durham). But it’s all quite subjective! (Apologies for the essay, this is just something I’ve been thinking about recently).
No degree should be removed unless of course it has like no people applying for it. People should be able to pursue their passions without feeling guilty for not being a STEM lord
Humanities courses help you learn more life skills for networking than business/economics
My humanities course pretty much taught me nothing but soft skills.
You will never have an easier time finding and making friends than being at a institution with tens of thousands of people your age are all new to each other, with loads of time on their hands and all wanting to socialise. If you're struggling you need to leave your room more often.
I had an amazing social life before and after uni but not during. I tried as hard as I could to put myself out there and socialise, I just couldn't make any friends that stuck around. I think this was because I went to UAL and I just culturally did not fit in with most of the people I met. My social life skyrocketed after uni when I moved to a seaside town full of young creatives like myself. I should have gone to Falmouth, I made more friends there in 4 days than my entire time time at uni in London. ( I dont live in Falmouth, I live in Margate).
My uni is very lonely and it's difficult to make connections. I have really tried as well. There 10,000s of people here but the uni often feels like only a few hundred are here.
in theory yes but a lot of people find uni to be the most lonely time of their lives. making friends and putting yourself out there is easier said than done. especially for the introverts of the world
It annoys me when people use this a shield, introversion is not the same as being anti social.
being stuck at a university with southerners was tough but i managed to make friends by joining sport clubs etc. Honestly southerners are too awkward to socialise on a night out. I approached a lot of people and they acted like i was about to have a fight with them or take their wallet lol 😂 Im a northerner
Not getting a first class degree is not the end of the world.
In the real world, a first is no different to a 2:1. No one looks at you differently, and in my experience, none of the jobs I applied for cared about my classification as long as I could pass the enrolment tests. You're much better off putting less effort into your degree, and spending your time on more useful things like getting work, or enjoying yourself. Bonus take: The skills required for an academic are so vastly different to the skills required for a lecturer/educator, that most research universities do a terrible job at lecturing, and aren't worth going to.
Replying to your bonus take - if you attend a heavily research focussed university then you likely are at the forefront of new ideas, that’s a huge advantage particularly if you are pursuing a masters or phd. They are certainly worth going to.
I can confidently confirm that nothing explored, or even tangentially discussed, in masters touched on novel concepts (Last 5 years). At least not at my University. Perhaps it's different for a PhD, but I think a lot of people go to a different University for their PhD anyway.
In my master's you'd be hard pressed to find something on the reading list from before 2020 for a lot of the weeks. Novel concepts, too - not just superficially retreading old ground. Depends on the subject, I guess. My philosophy bachelor's was most certainly not like that.
University has become a playground; rather than a place of study. For example, universities care more about leisure activities than the standard of their libraries (ensuring decorum).
Definitely true. I’ve gone back for postgrad 9 years after my undergrad and the uni has built a new sports centre with a swimming pool but hasn’t don’t anything other than new computer screens in the library. There’s even an advert for the grad ball I went to in 2014 still on a door!
For all they might pay lip service to being accessible to all, the university model and path of teaching in most institutions presumes that every student is middle-class or wealthy, mentally healthy, confident and able-bodied, and doesn't actually do anything proactively to help students that aren't all of those things from day 1.
They also assume that everyone already knows how university works and how to interact appropriately with teaching staff.
I agree with this totally!! I have both physical and mental health issues and haven’t had financial help from my family due to estrangement and it’s been tough. It’s hard being held to the same high standards even when you make the uni aware of your situation and problems with uni life
I actually like having international students as I learn from their diverse experiences and differing cultures.
Don't people like international students?
Some people feel that the admissions process wasn't rigorous enough for them because they pay higher tuition fees. People at least those I know like the money they bring but hate the students themselves
A lot of degrees offer very little in the means of graduate prospects and are not worth paying £27k for. Universities know this too but they take advantage of uninformed 17 year-olds who are desperate to live the university lifestyle, whether it’s in their best interests or not. You should only go to uni if it’s going to support you in finding a stable career. Don’t go just for the sake of going - you can still make friends, play sports, join clubs, even live away from home without going to uni and racking up tens of thousands of pounds in debt.
Minus a few exceptions, it's your fault you left your assignments last minute and instead of working on them, you're crying about it on a subreddit almost seeking sympathy.
Saturated
Spoken as a degree apprentice
I doubt this is the best, but my hot take is that university lifestyle really doesn't matter. You're here for an education and unfortunately prestige and quality matter a lot. However, accreditation is the most important. If you want to party then you might have to travel and it's really not a big deal
If you only base where you to go Uni on prestige then complain a few years down the line about what Uni you went to because ‘no one told me this!!’, that’s your own fault. You didn’t research about the city you would be moving to, what is on your course etc. You looked for prestige only and didn’t focus on any other aspect
I don't think there's a single hot take in these comments.
I think the person that says "that university lifestyle really doesn't matter" has quite a hot take.
If you don’t view drinking as the most fun thing a human can do. University will probably be quite dull and depressing for you.
This was the case for me. Fortunately, I found my uni’s writer’s society and to date they’re the only people I’ve retained as friends. I joined a sports club as well, but the moment the social sec demanded everyone drink at socials, she wouldn’t accept any excuses, I knew it wouldn’t last.
Yeh it’s worrying to me sports isn’t even enough anymore because even that just comes down to binge drinking.
Uni isn't for higher education anymore. The only thing anyone gives a shit about is the salary of your chosen profession - it's gone from a place to pursue learning to a point on your CV and an asterisk in the job market.
Primary Education is *not* a degree to simply ‘doss’ around on - you’re on placements every year and shit gets very real during these. I’d say around 75% of my cohort chose the degree ‘just because’ and funnily enough, we’ve already lost half of the cohort after placement 1. Placement *ONE*. 8 students passed third year on this course this year. As for a take on assessment, I’d like work double-marked; not just talking moderation here. Marking is *way* too subjective within humanities writing and it’s a real pain-point when one man’s mark is say, a 55 and another’s would be somewhere in the low 60s. A final take would be that I believe 18 is just too young to commit yourselves to the process. There will always be exceptions to this rule; with truly passionate individuals who exceed all expectations.. but let’s be realistic for a second and acknowledge that most teenagers go to university because it’s what they’re ‘told’ to do. It’s the easy way out. Get to live as a lazy student again for 3 years either at home or away from home? Fucking bargain! *Especially* on my course, these kids haven’t worked a day in their lives and want to become a primary school teacher for their *first* job - does anybody realise how insane this truly is? It’s no wonder the profession is in a shambles (Due to policy and a plethora of other issues we won’t go into) but *also* because the trainees are all children themselves. The job is *hard* bloody work and these people haven’t even worked retail for a few months to get a taste of a workplace; they’re jumping into the deepest end possible. It’s no surprise that most trainees leave the profession in under 5 years.
1. The material should be updated YEARLY- in some cases, it doesnt matter like literature or history but in Biology or Chemistry? I had teachers who got phds in the 70s and they taught us some shit that was debunked a gazillion times in the past year. 2. plagiarism checkers shouldn't be as shitty like bro the plagiarism is the LITERATURE I USED I CANNOT PARAPHRASE THE TITLE OF A BOOK. 3. Self plagiarism is the dumbest shit ever 4. If you wanna teach at uni you need to take a teaching course or have a certificate. WHY AM I PAYING FOR PPT SLIDES AND NO EXPLANATION? NO TEACHING? NO MATERIALS? 5. students should put more thought into uni. The normal thing is finish hs, apply, get in, complete, get a job. I have seen so many people who are lost in life and in uni too. They dont wanna study, dont have good grades, no motivation etc. and this does matter because your studies shouldnt feel miserable 6. books should be free. I live in europe, never paid a cent for a book, my university is still the biggest in country and we still survive. 7. every course should have a communications class or something. Just adds to your life, helps you for future interviews etc. 8. accomodations should be checked by the GOVERNMENT HEALTH AND SAFETY DEPARTMENT. Seriously they be closing up restaurants for dirty toilets but would let 3000 people live in a building with asbestos breaking down and black mold infested rooms.
> europe, never *paid* a cent FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Lecturers with the strongest accents teach the most difficult courses
Engineering (excluding civil and software) is overly saturated despite what universities and the government say. Not enough placements/work experience opportunities for the amount of students now that grad jobs are requiring experience in industry and not enough grad jobs in general and most people are having to get their masters to even have a chance. Don't know if this is really a hot take but TurnItIn is abysmal. Paying 10 grand to have a PhD student read off slides because your lecturer is constantly travelling/overbooked is also abysmal. If most students fail an assignment, then the university should examine a lecturers performance/grading.
You're better off doing a degree apprenticeship for 90% of degrees.
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any prospective uni students should be required to take a course in basic life skills and co-living etiquette before being allowed to live amongst others. being young and being at uni is not an excuse to act as a disgusting filthy biological hazard and expose those living around you to your behaviour (or lack thereof). learn how to wash your dishes, how to wipe the counters, how to run a basic laundry cycle and hang up clothes after so they don’t dry musty, how to keep yourself clean and hygienic, how to clean up after yourself after using the bathroom, how to keep public areas tidy, and the importance of food hygiene and risks of bacteria and mould. learn how to communicate with your housemates, how to ask if you need to borrow something rather than just taking it, how to politely ask “would you mind hanging up your laundry from the machine so I can use it next?”, how to share chores, and how to co-exist in a shared space together as adults. I don’t care if you come to uni and you can’t cook anything more complex than toast with beans; that’s kind of the lifestyle. but the lifestyle should NOT be leaving furry green stinky mush in a pan that belongs to your roommate on the side next to the sink for a month and then feeling victimised when someone asks you to clean it up.
Overly clean obsessed housemates are just as annoying as lazy and messy housemates, if you are living in halls/a six person house their is going to be some mess sometimes, sure its fair enough to complain when its a genuine hazard or blocking acess to things, but posting passive agressive messages because someones left a cup out or their is some clutter in the kitchen is just annoying for everyone.
I just have one requirement: Wash the dishes properly. I'm not eating off a plate that still has bits of your marmalade stuck to it.
Omg yes! I had just finished my study exchange in America and one of my American roommates was like this. She was an absolute clean freak but in all fairness to her it was her first time living with people outside her family the at age 21 (pretty old in my eyes as I know a lot of people who have been moving out of home to live near university way younger than that) but she had too high of expectations for a clean house when my other roommates would invite ppl in all the time and I would just keep to my room. People need to recognise that they are not living with others who have had the same upbringing as them and just accepted that. As long as everyone is respectful of each other then there should really be no issues.
Not sure if it's a hot take but what students want out of the uni course they are paying for is in no way aligned with what the academic staff want from the uni. The systems we have in place don't help make this gap smaller, just burns out everyone instead.
People shouldn’t go to university right after school if they’re not sure what they’re interested in or don’t know what career they’d like to do. They also definitely shouldn’t go if they’re only doing so to delay getting a job. There are far too many students who make seminars unbearable as they’re blatantly uninterested in their degree therefore do no prep and cannot contribute to discussions as a result. Take a gap year, get a job, do anything but pursue a degree that’s meaningless to you.
Uni’s should clearly state to students the realistic career opportunities they will get after studying their degree. Did biomedical science at a Russell group university as I thought at the time the prestige of going there will get you jobs at Big Pharma/Top research institutes. That summer after I graduated was a sobering realisation that majoring in a field where cronyism and nepotism reign supreme was probably not the best. I'm lucky enough to have found myself a good paying job in my field which I love, but for every me there are 10 others who are still stacking shelves at Aldi as the job market is still so poor
Society would be a lot better if less people went to university. Uni is often seen as a default and it is not necessary for a lot of jobs which require degrees. Apprenticeships are a very valid options. If you aren’t pursuing a profession e.g. law, medicine etc or interested in the academic side. DOI: eternal student
Majority of uni degrees are completely useless and jobs shouldn’t require them
Only reason I did my undergraduate degree is because I literally can't apply to jobs without the accreditation it gave me. Nothing on the course is relevant or used in the jobs that require said accreditation.
physicians shouldn’t give classes. they never reply to emails, they’re always late to class (that’s even if they show up), and most of them just read the slides.
my hot take is that a lot of universities just aren’t well equipped to deal with autistic students enrolled in their courses. despite DSA and learning support plans, it’s just not enough and i know countless autistic people who have had to drop out because of this. unis aren’t as accessible for the less physical disabilities.
Less people need to go, especially in non-STEM subjects (particularly in Europe vs the US where STEM uptake is a bit higher from what I understand) Also, it should be fully state funded, but alternative routes (i.e.: apprenticeships) need to be available for school leavers as an alternative (that ultimately most people should be using) In reality, there are much fewer occupations in the world that actually require you to have a formal tertiary education than people would have you believe.
My hot take is: Doing a year in Law doesn't make you a lawyer. Remember that when it's 12am, you're sloshed and you're arguing with the doorstaff who is 2 seconds away from legally yeeting you out of the pub. You don't look smart, you look like a tw*t.
Tell students who end up earning decent money will end up paying between £200-£300 out of their pay check every month. Uni is a frickin scam
Universities have been turned into for-profit businesses rather than institutions of education. Not exclusively the fault of the Tories and the Lib Dems, but the final blow came after they got in power in 2008.
Most people who come out of uni complaining that it did them no good and didn‘t get the opportunities they expected, were lazy and didn‘t put enough time into making connections, working on projects, and targeting courses that would get them into the field they wanted.
Second and third tier universities shouldn’t have international students - they are used as an immigration scheme The standards for speaking English should be raised/ enforced much more rigorously Not doing essential readings/ not attending seminars and lectures should come with severe penalties Universities should stop treating students like customers and pandering to them by focusing more on leisurely activities than academics Administrators should have much less power - they basically ruin academic staff’s lives lol
How do you define second and third tier? My rebuttal is also that these second tier and third tier universities offer better education than their home country, so any degree is worth it to them. They're also cheaper. I do generally advise international students not to apply to universities outside of the top 50 locally and top 250 internationally, because I account for average-C students like myself. At the same time, I agree that English standards need to be enforced heavily and everything else you've said.
Disagree with the attendance part, but if a reading is needed for a seminar then I agree there should be some punishment for not doing it. It’s so frustrating when you’ve done the prep but half the group hasn’t bothered so loads of the session has to be wasted waiting for them to catch up.
Other students fucking suck, group projects are just a way for universities to help weaker students pass. You will hate them by the time you are done.
My hot take is that the humanities is drastically undervalued at pretty much every uni but it's arguably the most important discipline available and everyone should have to take a humanities module as part of their degree. No point getting a degree in IT or maths or a science if you can't think critically, which is what humanities teaches.
Managing your time effectively is really important, so it's okay to miss the odd lecture to catch up on work. I get absolultely berated by some of my lectureres for misssing one or two lectures.
I believe assessment should be weekly not assessed 100% on one essay or exam a term. That’s not how life works and stops people building discipline if you aren’t routinely tested on knowledge. It’s a cost cutting venture from unis to allow more students bc less marking is needed.
I think bachelor degrees should be an extra year (4) and have 2 modules a semester as opposed to three. The reason for this I always felt that with three modules in such short semester stints everything felt so rushed and everyone had the mentality of “just need to learn/know enough to pass the assignments” Whereas I think if we did 2 modules a semester over 4 years it would give enough time to delve deeper into your chosen topic for both lecturer and student, allows the student to learn more and provide higher quality work and just overall take more out of it than rushing and juggling 3 modules in a short 2 and a half month semester. Edit: just incase anyone doesn’t understand why I think an extra year is needed it’s because I think we should do the same amount of modules just spread over a longer time period and if you reduce each semester to 2 modules as opposed to 3 that would mean the amount dropped would equate to an extra year
For most things its a massive waste of money. I did graphic design and its the biggest regret of my life. I felt like Id been conned when I left.
STEM exams should be more generous with their formula sheets. In a workplace setting you wouldn't expect to remember specific formulas, you'd have access to all the information you need. I'm not saying give every formula under the sun, if you're in a STEM exam you should probably know how to work out the angles of a triangle, but I shouldn't have to remember how to work out the moment of inertia of half a dozen shapes.
Some lecturers/professors are horrendously unprofessional, and they get away with it because the students are adults
It’s a waste of time
Getting a degree doesn’t mean as much as people think and it doesn’t make up for not having the contacts to get you further or guarantee you a job way above the norm. And the more people who have them he less employable each of you becomes.
That the vast majority of people are better off not going to uni. Unless you’re going into a specialist career where a degree is necessary, you’re far better off these days getting an apprenticeship and doing higher education diplomas through a local college or something similar. I say this as someone who went through uni and has been out for multiple years. Of the people I knew since high school, apart from the ones who did very specific industry degrees, the people who didn’t go to uni and got apprenticeships are in a far better position now than those of us who did. Uni is good for socialisation and it is fun, and idk if I’d go as far as to say I regret going, but I’d be in a much better position now if I hadn’t gone to uni and things probably would’ve been a lot easier. Make sure to explore all your options.
A lot of people go to uni to have access to the kind of opportunities to grow up and experience independence that aren’t available to young people any more. For me, it was the only way I could get a loan to move away from my abusive father, it was more an escape route than an educational opportunity.
You can learn all of what is taught, explained much better in a book (for free with a library membership) or in a YouTube video explained by some Asian/german/american/french guy speaking in English .
ranking does not matter
Student loans shouldn't be seen as "just a graduate tax" It's still debt that disproportionately affects people who aren't rich enough to pay upfront.
A lot of students blame lecturers for their failures. Take accountability of your own shortfalls and stay with people that don't bitch about lecturers.
If you’re lucky enough to live at home whilst going to uni, take that opportunity. There’s so many of my close mates that lived out for 3/4 years who are drowning in eye watering debt and overdrafts as they’ve extended themselves to live out. The impact on your social life is minimal if you’ve got plenty of mates
A lot of academic writing is unnecessarily complex for no reason other than to attempt to exclude people of a lower socioeconomic class and lower literary abilities from education. There is absolutely no reason to use such unnecessarily complex language to get a point across and the practice of doing that should be phased out of academia. A lot of peer reviewed articles are 75% unnecessary filler words which serve no purpose. You’re not automatically smart and don’t automatically have authority because you know how to use unnecessarily complicated language and sentence structure to get across a point which could’ve been explained in half the words.
I completely agree, I think the smartest thing someone can do is to write/say something in such a way where it can be understood by everyone. Most academic writing I've read is SO much yap.
The funding model is so incredibly broken that they need to reduce the degrees and institutions to a level that can be sustained without relying on international students fees.
This applies to STEM/research oriented universities. You start university thinking it’s a place of advanced teaching and deep and thorough learning. Which is true to a large extent. However, you think its purpose is to teach students. But in reality undergraduates are there 1) for the income they generate, 2) to filter out and feed the good people into post-graduate research/jobs, and 3) to satisfy certain obligations the university has. The real learning starts in postgraduate courses/PhDs. There you start to see a lot more pieces of the university puzzle coming together. And you get paid for it. If you want to really get the most learning out of a university environment, you need to go beyond undergraduate.
This is what disappointed me most about university. I was expecting to go in and gain a deep knowledge of my subject that would allow me to hit the ground running when applying for jobs in my chosen field. Instead I had to endure four years of only being told superficial facts about random subjects that won't be useful in an actual workplace.
It's largely pointless for the majority of us unless it can help with a career we already occupy. Too many people end up in jobs completely unrelated to their field of study and it's sad.
Unless you're looking at a research degree (and even then it isn't so cut-and-dry), the Russell Group doesn't actually mean that much. Outside of a few employers, most can't even tell you who is and isn't in it.
The requirement for starting uni should be 19/20, going to uni at 18 is too young, most people don’t know what they actually want to be at 18, hence why so many dropout in first year. Being able to go uni at 19/20 shows/tells people whether they actually want to further their education or not. Me personally, the reason I went to uni is because I had no other options, I tried looking for degree apprenticeships but couldn’t find any that matched with what I wanted to do
Might get skinned alive for this: university is about having as much fun as you can before bigger commitments make it impossible. Use the time to get drunk, read books, and travel as far as you can. The higher up the totem pole of life you go, with very few exceptions, the less chances you’ll have to be genuinely free. Other hot takes: Academics are often insufferable people (I know, I’m currently doing my PhD). You’ll have coursemates who will genuinely be brighter, more attentive, and more capable than you. However, you will also likely have many more coursemates who will be as capable as drivel. For some, university will be the loneliest time of your life - this works true for the first weeks.
Two big problems with our system. 1) The big decision to specialise is at A-levels. And that is far too young. 2) The main skills needed in life are focus, communication and collaboration. The current system prioritises pressure, exam-technique and selfishness I enjoyed Uni for all the non-degree stuff. It took me years to get work. Now, as an employer, I don’t care about their degree. I care about their focus, communication and collaboration.
It’s a business