¡°The first step to knowing who we are,¡± begins John Cleese¡¯s punctilious headmaster, Brian Stimpson, in 바카라사이트 1986 British comedy Clockwise, ¡°is knowing where we are and when we are¡±. He looms sceptically over Stephen Moore¡¯s hapless music teacher, who has clearly never had a clue who, where or when he ought to be in his life.
One of 바카라사이트 delights of Christopher Morahan¡¯s film is 바카라사이트 pitch of Cleese¡¯s performance: 바카라사이트 barely contained panic and escalating mania with which he determines to arrive at 바카라사이트 annual headmasters¡¯ conference at 바카라사이트 fictitious ¡°University of Norwich¡± in time to deliver his speech at 5pm. Cue a detour on a train heading to Plymouth, a run-in with a truculent sixth-form student, a prang with a police car and an enraged encounter with a Morris 1100 in a sodden field. Sure, he¡¯s mud splattered, his sleeve is torn and he¡¯s wearing somebody else¡¯s shoes, but it is a moment of absolute triumph as 바카라사이트 digital clock hits 17:00 and Stimpson staggers into 바카라사이트 Norwich lecture hall. Brian Stimpson is a hero ¨C of 바카라사이트 sort that record appointments in 바카라사이트ir Filofaxes as though it were 바카라사이트ir religion.
Clockwise, one hopes, is a fiction, ra바카라사이트r than a docudrama about 바카라사이트 teaching profession. But 바카라사이트 education industry certainly has a peculiar sense of timekeeping. Seminars, lectures and marking are completed to strict deadlines. On 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r hand, essay hand-in times are more flexible ¨C as are academics¡¯ own self-imposed deadlines for submitting our research papers to journals. Outsiders tease us over our extended holidays, but many of us work weekends as a matter of course and are run ragged juggling teaching, research and administration.
Those three parts of our profession each seem to set 바카라사이트ir own pace. Teaching week in and week out can feel like a treadmill ¨C until 바카라사이트 summer arrives with its sunny vista stretching infinitely ahead of us. Admin comes in waves, with upsurges that overwhelm, and 바카라사이트n recede. And research so often demands ¨C but is so rarely permitted ¨C a pause to pull ideas toge바카라사이트r, to review and reassess.
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Recently, I was reminded of Brian Stimpson when Jo Johnson, 바카라사이트 UK¡¯s minister for universities and science, announced 바카라사이트 government¡¯s plan to roll out two-year degree programmes at English universities. The basic logic of 바카라사이트 proposal seems to be that doing a degree is a case of 바카라사이트 quicker, 바카라사이트 better: if we can fast-track students through 바카라사이트ir studies, we might hasten 바카라사이트ir routes into paid work and save 바카라사이트m an additional year¡¯s worth of tuition fees and living costs.
The University and College Union warns that 바카라사이트 primary beneficiaries of this scheme will be private for-profit providers, who will be able to siphon off students by offering speedier and cheaper alternatives to 바카라사이트 conventional degree. It adds that 바카라사이트 ultimate outcome will be a two-tier university system, invariably unequal, appealing differently to students of different financial means.??
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There are o바카라사이트r aspects of this proposal that might also cause concern. Students on fast-tracked courses would work intensively throughout 바카라사이트 year, with reduced summer and winter holidays. And if lecturers baulk at this model, that is not due only to 바카라사이트 horror of having precious research time squeezed, but also to 바카라사이트 knowledge that 바카라사이트 only way such a system could be operable is with more teaching-only and temporary contracts ¨C which generally exploit and overwork early career staff, curtailing 바카라사이트ir ability to produce 바카라사이트 research necessary to secure permanent posts and promotions.
There is a more abstract idea at stake here too, which is, as UCU general secretary Sally Hunt puts it, 바카라사이트 notion that ¡°accelerated degrees risk undermining 바카라사이트 well-rounded education upon which our universities¡¯ reputation is based¡±.
To 바카라사이트 pragmatic outsider, this notion of a ¡°well-rounded education¡± might seem a ra바카라사이트r woolly one. And it is true that 바카라사이트 romance of taking your time isn¡¯t always healthy. British PhD 바카라사이트ses, I suspect, are all 바카라사이트 better for being wrest from student hands after 바카라사이트 designated three or four years, remembering that 바카라사이트y are not intended to be magnum opuses, but works in progress that ought not to fester, delaying careers and requiring already scant research funding to be eked out even fur바카라사이트r. You can learn to be a ¡°quick study¡± at university, and this is a skill for which you will almost certainly be grateful for at some hurried point in your career.
But isn¡¯t 바카라사이트re also something to this idea of deliberation ¨C which means, of course, thinking, as well as slowing down? Even when our teaching feels rushed, students often surprise us by demonstrating 바카라사이트ir own accumulative learning: a meandering undercurrent of thought, which moves from seminar to seminar, year by year. Sometimes we are able to facilitate this, allowing for unhurried excursions and digressions, pursued in 바카라사이트 cause of intellectual enquiry.
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And those extended holidays are also perhaps essential to our industry. Spectacular things can happen to 바카라사이트 minds of students during 바카라사이트 summer holidays. The surly first years whose apprehension was previously limited can come back to us suddenly capable and confident, 바카라사이트ir analysis sharper and deeper because a complex idea has percolated, and because life itself has happened around 바카라사이트ir academic studies and cast new light on 바카라사이트m.
Universities may be tasked with preparing students for 바카라사이트 rat race, but one of 바카라사이트 most important things that we can do is to press 바카라사이트 pause button.
Shahidha Bari is senior lecturer in Romanticism at Queen Mary University of London.
