University Would Be Better If…
With Christmas just weeks away, it’s time to reflect. Us university students are a third of the way through the university year, which is crazy. What’s crazier is that I personally am almost half way through my university career, full stop. I’m not gonna lie, not every second of it has been brilliant, but the majority of the time I’m having an amazing time, studying a subject I love, meeting awesome people and living it up the uni way: living off saver meals and shivering under a thousand blankets because the heating bills are too costly — ring any bells?!
With all this business in the media lately about the amount of money that senior positions in universities earn, it’s no surprise that at my university lately, in one of the weekly open lectures, the dean was hammered with questions about his own salary and, reportedly, was torn to shreds (I wasn’t there myself, persay). Change is on the cards, and change is what’s on my mind is I finish my first semester of this academic year.
Crippling debt and near starvation aside, uni is a blast. But could it get any better? I think it undoubtedly could. And not just because the extortionate costs could be a lot less extortionate.
So here are six changes I would make to university life if I was dean of my university, some of them serious and others not so serious. How many do you agree with?
Dress codes
The first change I would make would be to the dress code. One of the best things about university is the diversity. It’s an excellent space for expressing a little of the uniqueness in your identity, with no labels placed on anyone. And who knows how long the freedom will last, when our degrees are over and it’s time to go out into the big bad world and get ourselves a ‘real job’. Freedom of expression might not be so easy then, so now is the time to go as crazy and as wacky as you like.
That said, we all know there are some restrictions. No one would turn up in sexy underwear alone, suspenders and all. And I have yet, regretfully, to see someone in a full blown superhero costume (praise the day). Most of these, I understand (although I do hope to one day see Wonder Woman wandering the corridors and high five the Flash as they pass). But let’s talk pyjamas.
My pj’s are one of my guilty pleasures, and I know I’m not alone in changing straight back into them as soon as I get home. My roommate for one practically lives in his onesie. So why do we bother getting dressed in the first place? Why not just turn up in your comfiest, warmest pyjamas, pull your slippers out of your bag, and snuggle down for the warmest, comfiest lecture of your life?
Because of these damn restrictions. It goes without saying that you don’t wear your pj’s to uni. You’d risk getting sent straight back home, or worse, sent to the head doctors. This is the first thing that I would change. Freedom of expression is a basic human right, and as such, the freedom to express our exhaustion is key.
Travel
In this respect, I know I’m lucky. For me, uni’s within a ten minute walking distance, and I’m hardly ever late. But I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the number of times my friends have had to miss lectures and seminars, all because of traffic or train delays and cancellations. We’re in a time of a distressing transport crisis, and so, as soon as they’ve mastered levitating hover boards (the real things, where you can actually fly over houses and aren’t likely to cause accidents), I think they should then attempt the creation of portals.
Okay, so this reform is a little tongue in cheek (for now, although one-day technology will no doubt allow something like this), but just imagine how easy it would be to get to uni. There’d be no stressing about train delays or traffic jams.
In fact, the bonuses far outweigh to cons, 100 to 0. You could literally get up five minutes before your lecture begins, make your way to your nearest portal (university owned accommodation would naturally have their own) and portal into the exactly building you need to be in. Plus, in winter, you wouldn’t even need a coat. No freezing walks where you can’t find enough layers to keep warm, and your breath rising in a puff of smoke before you. No rain, either. Perfect!
Organization
This might not be an issue for everything, but my university is pretty crap at organization. I don’t get a lot of last minute room changes, which is a blessing, but when it comes to telling us term dates or exam timetables, reading lists even, they are notoriously bad.
This sucks on so many levels. I for one wanted to sign up for work over Christmas, but I kept having to hold off from committing to anything because I didn’t know when my exam would be after Christmas, or when we’d start back for the second term. Turns out, as of yesterday when I finally found out, my exam is nearer the end of January, and so I had plenty of time when I could have works, but unfortunately it was too late to organise anything with my old job at home, and as a result, next term is going to be really tight for money. Agh!
Coincidently, I’ve only just found what day I finish next week for Christmas too, which is annoying because it turns out I could have gone home much earlier than my train ticket is now booked for. Double agh!
Apparently this annoys everyone else to, and the other day my anger grew any more when I was talking to a fellow student that’s a single mother of a five-year-old boy. She told me that at the beginning of term, she wanted to be sorting out childcare for her son, but couldn’t because of not having her personal timetable until about three days before term started, and so everything was a mad panicked rush at the end. This isn’t good enough.
It seems the university administration or whoever the hell is in charge of these things are slacking. Well, we demand change!
Is this an issue at your universities too, or is this just our problem alone?
Music
Our generation is the generation of music. Let’s be honest, we all feel an intense connection with some kind of music or other. I for one have my music on almost all the time. So why should uni be an exception?
At the very least, I propose that we’re allowed to have quiet background on when we’re in lectures. But better than that, we should have music played around the corridors, in the food hall, the book shop and the coffee shops. They could have the university radio station piped around the entire university, and students could tweet song requests and stuff.
This suggestion has been closest to my heart over the last few weeks. We’re all exhausted and ready for Christmas at this point. So imagine if you had Christmas songs playing in your lectures and seminars. Would that or would that not perk you up considerably?!
Music around uni, all the time. Yes please!
Adulting Aid
Unless you’re some sort of adulating genius, this one would benefit everybody. How many times over your university career, whether its been just one semester or nearing three years, have you been confronted by something distinctly adult that you’ve had no idea how to deal with?
Organising housing, understanding contracts, knowing whether the deposits demanded are reasonable or not. Organising your bills, picking between bills packages and individual bills companies, having to call them up a hundred times when they try once again to charge you an unwanted bill. Dealing with the council over bins and tax. Understanding how to use a new cooker every single year.
There are so many confusing and stressful adult problems out there that are hitting us all at once now our parents aren’t around, and its one massive headache. So imagine if uni sent out regular emails explain what you should be thinking about every step of the way. How to make sure your landlord isn’t offering you a bad deal or your estate agents aren’t swindling you out of money. Or had an online chat service with actual, professional adults, where you can ask them for advice on what you need to think about to be bills wise.
These are all reasonable suggestions, actually. I think they could work, and I would definitely be using them if they came about.
Food
My final suggestion would be that they start a food delivery service around the university, so that you can get your coffee, or your slice of cake, or your pizza, delivered directly to your classroom. You’d never spend a lecture thinking more about how your stomachs rumbling louder than thunder rather than actually paying attention. It would be a productivity boost, really. Uni’s should consider it.
So there it is. That’s the list. What do you think of the suggestions? Are any of them already in place at your university? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
