University - Summer is officially over!

[GarthVader449]

So here;s the thing...
As you probably know I'm studying at University, well a bunch of us were thinking a while back about the how we are taught and learn at uni.

For some back ground, in high school (or whatever the equivalent is) there is practically zero self-learning. So everything you need to know to pass exams/learn about the subject is taught to you by a teacher. You still have to do self-study out of school, but essentially zero self-learning.

Now, when you go to uni this balance drastically changes, self-learning but comes a very large chunk of your learning - around 30-40% and in some cases it can be as high as 60%! There is a lot of evidence that self-learning material is much better for retaining and understanding information, but, on the other hand it can twice as long if not much longer to process this information.

Let me get to the point now... I don't think this is fair - especially if you pay tuition fees! If you are learning around half the course yourself, you might as well learn the other half yourself too and cut all the other crap that comes with attending a uni. I feel 90-100% should be taught to you. I agree a lot with self-study... self-learning is good if you want more depth on a subject but I feel earning from the best, is always the best.

Anyways, thats my view. Uni starts back on Monday, the chaotic Saga continues....

[Dr Frook]

uni's r poor, they wants to suck the money out of everyone. Tis the nature of things.

[Lamb]

Meh, how else are my professors going to have their six digit salaries?

[Excalibur]

Reason: time constraints. There's only so much a professor can fit into 160 minutes a week. For you to be able to graduate in four years and be competent in whatever field of study you picked, you will have to dedicate self learning time to cover material not covered in class.

If they taught everything from point A to B you wouldn't graduate for years. Also this is a good way to cull the population. If everyone had degrees, degrees would be worthless. Making it harder to get a degree, gives your degree more value.

The time for spoon feeding information to your brain is over, it's time to pick up the spoon yourself.
- Current Uni Student.

[Flobalob]

A-levels/6th Form/College should really be what prepares someone for self-learning. You're supposed to teach yourself sort of ~25% of your college courses, and whatever school you do it at treats like you instantly matured into an adult in the 2 months or so between terms. So a lot of college students just enjoy their new freedom and rarely turn up to school or study because that's obviously what they're going to do. Colleges don't prepare people well enough for Uni.

Also, Unis are extortionate and always will be. I know an awful lot of people that went to Uni because they just felt like they had to, like everyone else did. The reality is that you shouldn't go to Uni without a plan of what you're doing when you get out of it, because then you basically just wasted 9k a year for no reason if you don't actually end up using that degree. Too many people go to Uni for no reason.