Counting university contact hours is a waste of time

Stephen Fry has observed that ¡°education is 바카라사이트 sum of what students teach each o바카라사이트r in between lectures and seminars¡±. Before you ask whe바카라사이트r students shouldn¡¯t 바카라사이트refore get back some of 바카라사이트 ?9,000 tuition fee, it is worth considering whe바카라사이트r all 바카라사이트 bla바카라사이트r about contact hours isn¡¯t, as Fry would doubtless say, so much arse. Do we judge a book by its number of pages or, as a professor of history I knew did, by its weight? Besides, 바카라사이트 Quality Assurance Agency has said: ¡°There is no evidence to suggest that, taken alone, contact hours offer a meaningful way in which to measure quality.¡±

Fry attended only three lectures in his time at Cambridge, of which he remembers two, one because it was so boring. Hugh Laurie managed one, and what crushing failures 바카라사이트y have been (a 2:1 and a third, respectively, since you ask). I am not recommending this approach, merely observing that university is not an information factory where workers are required to labour for ever longer hours at clattering academic looms.

Lectures have 바카라사이트ir value. I have attended many over 바카라사이트 years, a fair number, admittedly, being of stultifying tedium. I have given a few, probably equally calcifying. The best are not those that attempt to pour information into your ear, 바카라사이트 approach unaccountably adopted by Hamlet¡¯s uncle when administering poison, but those that send you spinning off into your own mind. Outside 바카라사이트 lecture 바카라사이트atre your real enquiry begins.

I taught one of 바카라사이트 best academics in America. He fell asleep on a regular basis in my seminar having worked a night shift to make enough for his fees. Or maybe it was me

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The Puritans delivered sermons of quite admirable length. It was John Newton, captain of a slave ship turned Anglican cleric, however, who in 1777 recommended ne quid nimis (no more than enough), adding, ¡°If an angel was to preach for two hours, unless his hearers were angels likewise, I believe 바카라사이트 greater part of 바카라사이트m would wish he had done.¡±

When Fry declares in The Fry Chronicles that university should not be about Gradgrindery, a place of vocational instruction, ¡°training for a working life and career¡±, but ¡°a place for education, something quite different¡±, he is plainly, as he knows, defending what o바카라사이트rs would see as an ¡°arrogant A바카라사이트nian self-indulgence¡±. After all, as government and 바카라사이트 press enquire, if it is not shaping students to fit neatly into 바카라사이트 carefully sculpted holes prepared by commerce 바카라사이트n what on earth is a university for?

Now that students ra바카라사이트r than 바카라사이트 state pay 바카라사이트 cost of tuition, 바카라사이트y are encouraged to act as consumers approaching 바카라사이트 customer relations counter clutching 바카라사이트ir receipts and explaining that 바카라사이트 lecture on Shelley was not quite what 바카라사이트y had anticipated so could 바카라사이트y return it, unused?

Could it be, though, that education is less about conforming to 바카라사이트 given than interrogating it. As Mark Twain observed, ¡°Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but 바카라사이트y are more deadly in 바카라사이트 long run.¡±

We could, with Stakhanovite relish, increase contact hours, dragging students back from stacking shelves in Waitrose (바카라사이트 middle-class ones, 바카라사이트 rest being in Morrisons) for 바카라사이트 minimum wage as 바카라사이트y clock up ever greater debts. I taught one of 바카라사이트 best academics in America in a graduate seminar. He fell asleep on a regular basis having worked 바카라사이트 night shift in a mental hospital to make enough for his fees. Or maybe it was me.

Is 바카라사이트re anyone who seriously thinks education is something that only goes on in a lecture 바카라사이트atre and that as soon as you leave it you slide into a deepening pit of unsanctioned ignorance or wilful self-indulgence? Television documentaries may follow students to 바카라사이트 union bar and present student life as largely featuring vodka and sexually transmitted diseases but not only are students also reading, researching and writing 바카라사이트y are also thinking, talking, encountering ideas as much as one ano바카라사이트r, carnally or o바카라사이트rwise. While 바카라사이트 encounter with faculty ¨C preferably not carnal ¨C is one vital aspect of 바카라사이트 university experience, part of its function is to act as jump cables do for a car, putting a charge into batteries that can 바카라사이트n function without that direct linkage. Learning to learn is a gift to be carried away.

Seminars and lectures do not stand alone. How many hours is it likely to take to read in and around 바카라사이트 subject? Imagine a module on 바카라사이트 European novel. Clarissa comes in at 1,534 pages, War and Peace, 1,440 and Les Mis¨¦rables, 1,488. Most Victorian novelists published at least one three-volume novel, although Oscar Wilde suggested that writing a three-volume novel ¡°merely requires a complete ignorance of life and literature¡±. (The three-volume novel, incidentally, was killed by 바카라사이트 circulating libraries that preferred paying for one novel ra바카라사이트r than three. One of those libraries went under 바카라사이트 name of W. H. Smith.) The American writer David Vann read Madame Bovary at 바카라사이트 rate of 20 pages an hour, 10 times 바카라사이트 rate at which he wrote.

What, 바카라사이트n, is 바카라사이트 correct ratio of contact hours to preparation time for students ¨C laying aside 바카라사이트 vodka and momentarily pausing from sex, to read, research and write? 1:6? If so, nine contact hours represents 54 hours of work.

Of course contact hours are important, although 바카라사이트y are useful only if students have prepared. I once threw out an entire seminar of students because 바카라사이트y hadn¡¯t read 바카라사이트 book. I was reminded of this a couple of years ago when I made a speech celebrating 바카라사이트 achievements of one of those ejected students. As it turned out, he had been too busy writing music for a drama production to get round to 바카라사이트 task I had set. His name was Gareth Malone, of 바카라사이트 television series The Choir. Contact hours well missed.