Who's Going To Uni?

[BFTD]

Just now, scottsdad said:

I have been to that campus three times - once for a meeting and twice to get my vaccine. It is excellent. The old campus was well past it - my dad was there in the 60s. 

Generally speaking, students who come to uni from college look at their timetables and think "10 hours of classes, eh? That's 30 hours in the library then." The students who come from school often look at the same timetable and see 10 hours of classes, and 30 hours to do whatever they like. 

Yeah, I remember thinking like that! The first couple of weeks at college in the US absolutely murdered me, until I got the idea that I'd be coming home and studying every night or crash & burn. You'll be able to spot the folk who are going to struggle to adapt quite quickly, I'd have thought.

Everyone so far has been very quick to reassure me in particular (as the auld fart) that I'm not to panic and drop out because I'm struggling. Thankfully, everything so far appears to be a refresher of stuff I did twenty years ago, so hopefully it'll be all good.

[scottsdad]

3 minutes ago, BFTD said:

Yeah, I remember thinking like that! The first couple of weeks at college in the US absolutely murdered me, until I got the idea that I'd be coming home and studying every night or crash & burn. You'll be able to spot the folk who are going to struggle to adapt quite quickly, I'd have thought.

Everyone so far has been very quick to reassure me in particular (as the auld fart) that I'm not to panic and drop out because I'm struggling. Thankfully, everything so far appears to be a refresher of stuff I did twenty years ago, so hopefully it'll be all good.

I had the same experience when I did a semester in Sweden. Classes were 8am-6pm, five days a week. No study leave, just an exam on the last Friday. If you're willing to work, you will manage. That is really what it boils down to. 

Students who have dropped out over the years that I have dealt with have done so for a few reasons. Losing interest a few weeks into the course is the most common one. We get in our programme, say, 50 new first years. By week 6 we will have lost five of them who tried it and then thought that it just wasn't for them. We tend not to spot them - often they just disengage and we never hear from them again. 

Next highest is medical (including mental health) - people struggling to cope. By this, I mean not just with studying but their whole life - they might have issues at home, financial issues, bereavements and worse. Uni can add pressure at a time when it isn't needed. Again, it depends very much on the student - I had a case a few years ago of a female student whose husband committed a terrible assault on her mid-semester. He ended up in jail but try to imagine the stress of having that violence, the marriage break up, criminal proceedings, house moves and so on whilst having the likes of me setting coursework for you to do. She took time out, came back the next year and finished her degree. Strong woman. 

Then we get the odd cases - kicked out for cheating, moved to another degree somewhere else, and so on. The number who simply fail all their exams and can no longer proceed on the programme is very small indeed, and this is the one that tends to worry students.

I reckon about 85% of students who start a degree with us graduate from it. 

[welshbairn]

Mentioned this before but the only stress free and productive time I had at Uni was when I stuck to 9-5 M-F for a couple of months. The rest of the time I spent doing nothing but worrying about missing deadlines and ended up having to cram ridiculously to scrape through.

[Bonksy+HisChristianParade]

In my experience, uni in North America was a piece of piss compared to Scotland, mainly because I’m so undisciplined that it suited me much more. Compulsory classes to attend, which were almost 9-5, with a ridiculously easy ‘quiz’ in most of them which made up part of your overall grade (maybe ~10%). A further ~10-15% of the overall grade was made up of contribution marks, there was usually a presentation, a couple of essays/projects, and a ‘mid-term’. This meant that the final exam only made up around 20-25% of your overall grade, which is far less pressure than here where it was often 75-100%. 

It suited me much more as it was like school in that I did all my learning in class and didn’t need to study much outwith that. At Glasgow I barely went to classes and ended up cramming for exams, which was a shit way to learn tbh.
 

Edited September 3, 2021 by Bonksy+HisChristianParade

[scottsdad]

First Freshers Week session done. Now working on rotas and the like for students coming on campus. I am really pleased that this semester I won't be just talking into my laptop. 

One class has (so far) 340 students and a classroom that can take 50. So I'll be broadcasting from the campus to the majority of students. Created a booking system for students to come - I suspect that only half the class will be available to come to campus, the rest being overseas. 

The other class is easier. 46 students and two rooms, one that can take 18 and the other 23. A handful of students are not coming to campus at all so I can just about split the class in two and have all students who can be here on campus weekly. 

As usual the week before semester can be quite nerve-wracking for staff and students. But by week 2 everyone knows the score. 

Best of luck to the new and returning students - this year will be very different to last year, an experience I hope never to repeat.

[BFTD]

On 03/09/2021 at 17:31, Bonksy+HisChristianParade said:

In my experience, uni in North America was a piece of piss compared to Scotland, mainly because I’m so undisciplined that it suited me much more. Compulsory classes to attend, which were almost 9-5, with a ridiculously easy ‘quiz’ in most of them which made up part of your overall grade (maybe ~10%). A further ~10-15% of the overall grade was made up of contribution marks, there was usually a presentation, a couple of essays/projects, and a ‘mid-term’. This meant that the final exam only made up around 20-25% of your overall grade, which is far less pressure than here where it was often 75-100%. 

It suited me much more as it was like school in that I did all my learning in class and didn’t need to study much outwith that. At Glasgow I barely went to classes and ended up cramming for exams, which was a shit way to learn tbh.
 

Presumably it depends on where you attend, as it was brutal in comparison to college here, at least. For most of them, you missed a class and you were fucked for the next one, with a lot of "get chapters x & y learned by Thursday, 'cause I'm not covering it". You'd see a lot of folk dropping out of classes because they couldn't catch up and decided to re-sit in the next trimester. Grading sounds similar to where I went, though.

I was terrible with organisation when I was younger too, so it kicked my arse into gear as if I fucked up I'd be back home with no wife or qualification  

[BFTD]

Anyway, curious to see if anyone else has lecturers who are absolutely terrified that we'll end up back in lockdown. Presumably last year must have been an absolute shitshow with the online learning, as virtually all of them so far have the thousand-yard stare of a haunted Vietnam vet, and seem convinced we'll be back in lockdown again before the end of the year.

[scottsdad]

1 hour ago, BFTD said:

Anyway, curious to see if anyone else has lecturers who are absolutely terrified that we'll end up back in lockdown. Presumably last year must have been an absolute shitshow with the online learning, as virtually all of them so far have the thousand-yard stare of a haunted Vietnam vet, and seem convinced we'll be back in lockdown again before the end of the year.

I had this conversation with the wife last night. She is convinced I'm going to catch Covid from a student. Every year on campus I get the cold about 3 weeks in. A few years back I caught the flu that left me in bed for 4 days. So this year might be the same, but I doubt it. With the limited class sizes and the like I'm hopeful of not coming down with the lurgy.  But Freshers Flu is a perennial issue and this year we have Covid in the mix. 

I am worried that the cases will shoot up and the Government will, once again, send us back to the purgatory of online-only teaching. I've got 3 classes next week in person and am looking forward to a step back towards normality. The thought of going back to Collaborate Ultra as the sole means of teaching gives me the fear. It was painful and, when teaching something complex, I couldn't tell when a student was struggling or not as they mostly had cameras and microphones off. So I really, really do not want to go back to that. 

Not only that, the impact it had on the students was immense. By the middle of semester 2, student anxiety was through the roof. I was fielding panicked emails from students worried about what would normally be small stuff.  Had to hold meetings with classes to calm down the situation. The student wellbeing service saw referrals to them treble last year. Students put in their MC forms citing mental health in a way that was like a tidal wave. So many submissions. 

So yes - add me to the thousand-yard-stare club. We have as much mitigation as possible on campus and I'd rather teach my way through it. 

[BFTD]

34 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

I had this conversation with the wife last night. She is convinced I'm going to catch Covid from a student. Every year on campus I get the cold about 3 weeks in. A few years back I caught the flu that left me in bed for 4 days. So this year might be the same, but I doubt it. With the limited class sizes and the like I'm hopeful of not coming down with the lurgy.  But Freshers Flu is a perennial issue and this year we have Covid in the mix. 

I am worried that the cases will shoot up and the Government will, once again, send us back to the purgatory of online-only teaching. I've got 3 classes next week in person and am looking forward to a step back towards normality. The thought of going back to Collaborate Ultra as the sole means of teaching gives me the fear. It was painful and, when teaching something complex, I couldn't tell when a student was struggling or not as they mostly had cameras and microphones off. So I really, really do not want to go back to that. 

Not only that, the impact it had on the students was immense. By the middle of semester 2, student anxiety was through the roof. I was fielding panicked emails from students worried about what would normally be small stuff.  Had to hold meetings with classes to calm down the situation. The student wellbeing service saw referrals to them treble last year. Students put in their MC forms citing mental health in a way that was like a tidal wave. So many submissions. 

So yes - add me to the thousand-yard-stare club. We have as much mitigation as possible on campus and I'd rather teach my way through it. 

Bit grim. I'm a hermit, so being stuck in the house sounds fine to me, but it really seems to cause a lot of problems for a lot of people.

We have a couple of online classes to start and, yes, I'm the only eejit who turns his camera on. I was joined by one of the cats at one point this week, so I'll maybe keep it on and see if they get a Smudger-style cult following.

[scottsdad]

3 minutes ago, BFTD said:

Bit grim. I'm a hermit, so being stuck in the house sounds fine to me, but it really seems to cause a lot of problems for a lot of people.

We have a couple of online classes to start and, yes, I'm the only eejit who turns his camera on. I was joined by one of the cats at one point this week, so I'll maybe keep it on and see if they get a Smudger-style cult following.

For a lot of students it wasn't just that classes were online. Think back to the start of year lockdown and what it was like, and you had students (often teenagers) living away from home, in rented accommodation and very much alone. First time away from the family home and it was a miserable experience. Loneliness was a huge issue then. For more mature students living at home this would have been less of a problem.

I remember speaking to one of my students who was really, really struggling with it. My advice to him was to hop on a train and go back to his parent's house. Even worked out that he could be in their living room in about 90 minutes if he left right away. The classes were online so it made no difference to the studying where he was. 

[scottsdad]

I have been making the rota for students to attend my class. For the new students (currently 337 of them for one of my classes alone) I'm assigning them together in alphabetical order. And it just reminded me of a time when I was a student. So taking a "school stories" slant, and being a bit bored on a Friday, thought I would share it.

I started my degree and at the beginning, like every new student, I knew nobody. We were all strangers. I was a bit shy and a bit awkward (still am). Looking around a biggish class, there were the sports guys all clustered together, there were the girls who were hanging around with them. There were the really geeky ones, the ordinary ones - just like every new class, people of all backgrounds and personalities. 

I had a lab practical class and the lecturer, sensing that as new students nobody knew anyone, put us into pairs. This was done alphabetically. And so I looked at the list and I was paired with a girl called Veronique. I found her soon enough. Even now she is quite possibly the most stunning girl I have met in real life. Blond hair, blue eyes, statuesque, I can picture her now. And she was bubbly and outgoing. And towards me she was very friendly. 

I had no flirting qualities in those days and think she took a bit of pity on me. We became friendly and I remember sitting in the library with her going over the lab report for the practical when a friend of mine passed by. I introduced Veronique, and my friend just stood and drooled. 

She invited me to a party after a few weeks at her flat. By this time she had taken it upon herself to introduce me to her friends. She was, looking back, trying to hook me up. But two problems remained. Firstly, her friends were all complete stunners as well, and miles out of my league. And I was still shy and awkward. 

For the first year at Uni we got on well. She was the only person I ever met from Luxembourg, though she was originally American. I went to a few more of her parties which were fun but I was a real fish out of water. It was a party of the beautiful people and me. 

The second year saw our courses diverge. She was doing marine biology, and I wasn't. We had the odd coffee together when we bumped in to each other but by the time I graduated we were just acquaintances. 

I had forgotten about her until a couple of weeks ago. My friend and I were chatting, and he asked me about Veronique. She had certainly made an impression on him! So I looked her up, and it wasn't difficult. She moved to the States, and went on to produce documentaries on marine biology and has won 2 Emmys. She has a pretty decent social media 

 

[Monkey Tennis]

Having literally not set foot in uni once during her first year, despite being encouraged early on to move next door, I understand now that my daughter will be in class about 5 times between now and November as she starts her second year.

It's a piece of bloody nonsense, that what she's being offered is still so far from normality.  If it was costing her or us £9K, I think I'd be less happy yet.

Edited September 10, 2021 by Monkey Tennis

[Eric's Cantina]

7 hours ago, BFTD said:

Anyway, curious to see if anyone else has lecturers who are absolutely terrified that we'll end up back in lockdown. Presumably last year must have been an absolute shitshow with the online learning, as virtually all of them so far have the thousand-yard stare of a haunted Vietnam vet, and seem convinced we'll be back in lockdown again before the end of the year.

A big problem was the online learning platform , The GCU one was up and down more times than a prostitutes knickers

[scottsdad]

Quick shout out to @Richey Edwards, @BFTD and all the other students here on the P&B forum - how did the first week go for you?

[Richey Edwards]

5 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

Quick shout out to @Richey Edwards, @BFTD and all the other students here on the P&B forum - how did the first week go for you?

We've had two weeks of induction. This is the final day of induction before the actual coursework begins.

A lot of the induction material was Health & Safety, Fire and Moving & Handling related. I worked in healthcare for 10 years so have done about a million training courses on those subjects over the course of my career, so they are pretty boring and samey. They're necessary though, so I was glad to get them out the way.

We also had to sign up for loads of different apps and websites, as we will be using them a lot during the next three years. This includes the university app and websites for placements etc.

My classmates all seem very nice, and we have a groupchat on the go.

I am very much looking forward to getting started with the coursework. It will be very interesting. 

I have some knowledge of the subjects we shall be studying, which I feel is a decent starting position. It will be great to be able to build upon that.

[BFTD]

58 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

Quick shout out to @Richey Edwards, @BFTD and all the other students here on the P&B forum - how did the first week go for you?

It's grand. Thoroughly enjoying myself.

Most of the first term is a refresher for me, including some stuff that I really couldn't wrap my head around twenty years ago, but it's making sense now that I've got more work experience. I really didn't see the need for the in-depth planning when I was younger, but I'm all over that shit like a rash now!

Our lecturers keep apologising for the workload, but this is nothing compared to my last few jobs, so I feel like I'm on holiday. It's a four-hour round trip journey for me to get in to campus, yet I'm still home earlier than when I was working. We've also been signing up for a hundredweight of different websites and services, but they're all very useful. This is so much better than when I was a teenager at college - our first classes back then all involved showing us how to use the internet, as literally none of us had been online before. Even then, that was pretty much only to use email - research was still a case of trotting down to the library. Absolutely everything is done online now, from course materials and submission of assignments, to full-fledged classes on Teams, cloud apps, matriculation, the whole shebang.

All the folk in my classes seem much more serious-minded than I was at that age, or my classmates from years gone by. Good for them; hope they do well. They've set up a WhatsApp too, mainly to make fun of the lecturers during class. Everyone was quite quiet during the first week, but they're starting to open up a bit about when they're struggling and are getting help from the people around them. I seem to be becoming the go-to for lecturers to chat to, as I'm closer to their age and they're frankly curious about how I've ended up there. I got a laugh the other day as one lecturer was explaining how he was starting to remember our names and stammered a bit when he got to me, so I filled in "the old man?" for him 

I shouldn't keep harping on about it, but another sign of my age is that I'm the only one who takes notes on paper. I found the whole active listening thing very useful back in the day, so I'm always scribbling away, re-phrasing the lecturer's words and writing them down. It helps my comprehension and memory greatly. If I'm struggling, I'll make a note of the general concepts and do some further study afterwards, then re-word what I've picked up from that. We've had a few mind-boggling maths classes so far, and I think I'd be in trouble without making written notes, but maybe typing everything out works just as well? Don't know, but I'm sticking with what's working for me!

The only downside is that, because I was a late applicant, it'll likely be a few weeks before SAAS process my application for fees/loan/grants, so I'm absolutely shitting myself that I'm going to be knocked back. No reason why I would be, but it's a terrifying thought. If/when I get the green light from them, I intend to take an evening off to get absolutely mortal by way of celebration  

I'm supposed to be eligible for a certain amount of Universal Credit as well, as I have a dependant child, but the DWP were utterly useless about that. Wouldn't give me an answer about it, said I'd just need to apply and see what happens. When I told them I needed to be able to plan my finances to see if I could afford to do this, I was just told "if we don't give you anything then you can just drop out", which was a great help. Seems to be a real grey area, as external advice sources like the CAB couldn't give precise help either; just a matter of "it looks like you're eligible, but we can't say for how much".

Between these things and some part-time work I'm still able to do, I should be fine, but I'm really wishing this had all happened a month earlier so I wouldn't be having to worry about this stuff now  

[scottsdad]

7 minutes ago, BFTD said:

They've set up a WhatsApp too, mainly to make fun of the lecturers during class.

So that's what they have been doing on their phones...

[BFTD]

1 minute ago, scottsdad said:

So that's what they have been doing on their phones...

I'm sure your students will be much kinder!

Spoiler

 

[Dan Steele]

19 minutes ago, BFTD said:

I seem to be becoming the go-to for lecturers to chat to, as I'm closer to their age and they're frankly curious about how I've ended up there.

Lecturers are (usually) delighted to have older students with life experience in a class. Guaranteed go-to to break any awkward silences in tutorials, bring so much to class, but you might find you're also the "go to" being volunteered to introduce trickier or more difficult concepts in tutorials. Education, eh? Wasted on the young

[scottsdad]

3 minutes ago, The Skelpit Lug said:

Lecturers are (usually) delighted to have older students with life experience in a class. Guaranteed go-to to break any awkward silences in tutorials, bring so much to class, but you might find you're also the "go to" being volunteered to introduce trickier or more difficult concepts in tutorials. Education, eh? Wasted on the young

Class reps tend to be the more mature students in the class, too.