AIBU to sneak into uni lectures even though i'm not a student

[Lecture]

I am in fact a SAHM . We live in a university town and every Wednesday my DM has the baby for the morning so I get a break. About a month ago I ordered a book from waterstones and picked it up from the university branch. I'd never been on the campus before and couldn't believe there was no security or need to show any student ID. After i'd been to Waterstones I got a cup of coffee at one of the cafes and had a wander round the grounds.

Its lovely there, lots of (cheap) restaurants and cafeterias and you don't need to show ID to use them

The next week I went there for lunch and looked around the library for a few hours.

Today I was wandering around and sat on the bench outside the lecture hall. There were hundreds of students milling around and the lecture schedule on a big flat screen TV on the outside wall. Anyway i watched them going in to each room and there were loads of spaces in the halls (big double doors open so i could see in). Then I was looking at the schedule and there were lots of interesting sounding lectures on. It suddenly occurred to me that i could probably just go in and sit in on one without being noticed by anyone. There were quite a few mature students so I don't think i'd stick out too much.

Now i'm home I think I might be being a bit mental (and possibly a bit post natal) to consider essentially stealing lectures I haven't paid for. I haven't told DH or DM i've been hanging around the uni

AIBU (or do you think I could get away with it)

BTW, can't believe the username Lecture wasn't taken!

Have you actually looked at the university's website and tried to find their policy on this? Might be there is a standard procedure.

I used to be a university lecturer. I wouldn't have minded, personally, as long as any 'bogus' students didn't take their excursion to the extent of trying to get a tutorial, or handing in essays (and if anyone tried that, they'd obviously be discovered fast). Some lecturers take a register at the start of a lecture (handing round a piece of paper for students to sign in on) partly because they are bloody fed up of students not being bothered to attend the lectures, and then complaining when they can't make sense of essay requirements.

Having said that, students now pay through the nose for their presence at universities and some of them might be disgruntled. As I say, if I were still lecturing, I would have absolutely no problem with sharing my knowledge (or in the case of a few of the courses I had to teach, my frantically revised from the next chapter of the textbook information - we're not all perfect or all-knowing) with anyone who was interested and not disruptive. I'm all for democracy of information.

However, what I'm getting from the OP is more of a yearning to be part of campus life generally, to escape from being a SAHM and 'borrow' a different identity. I totally get that and I don't think there's anything wrong with that either, but I'd urge you to see what free courses your local university offers.

Most good universities will also offer adult education courses/diploma classes taught in the evenings (well, they used to. Buggers have cut a lot of funding for this now) so that's an option.

There's no reason why you shouldn't be a student, just because you're currently a SAHM (but if you want to go the whole hog and accredited courses, you're going to need to set aside a lot of time, particularly in the evenings for coursework, etc, when you might be feeling knackered. (I tried to do a breastfeeding counsellor diploma in the evenings after having DS1 and failed miserably.)

Meals and other services (like haircuts, travel, beer etc) are cheaper than they might be off campus because they're subsidised, so some students might potentially object to you occasionally enjoying them. (They have no heart.) But be aware that some services may randomly ask you to produce a NUS card or university ID card. I'm actually surprised you could walk into the library (foyer or stacks?) without flashing your library card. So just be careful. And enjoy it.

Contact the lecturer (or ask them on the day). They mostly don't mind. I am a lecturer myself and have people audit my lectures on occasion. You just will not be asked to contribute and as long as you are quiet you will be fine.

To be strict, students pay to get a degree, which means assessment.

Many seminars within universities are free, particularly at lunch time and they are advertised.

As for students in lectures, there's the issue of numbers. Paying students should take priority for seats, but for the most part lecturers aren't bothered about who attends.

I might even favour some participation from externals when students are somewhat too quiet.

An arts professor told my friend a remarkable story: when he was young, he used to sneak into arts classes at his local college without being registered there. He even entered a student arts competition - won it! - and only then he was discovered :) He wasn't prosecuted but maybe was banned from future classes as far as I understand.

OP, you can pretend to be one of the students and attend lectures discreetly, but probably you would be given a permission if you ask the lecturer in advance. Or attend the public lectures that most universities offer (here is a link to LSE's public events: www.lse.ac.uk/publicEvents/eventsHome.aspx)

Lecture, firstly I would say, the issue of ID on campus is not something to worry about, unless you are trying to get into a restricted area, such as the library or restricted building. Otherwise you are free to walk about a university campus. Unless, of course, it is something like an Oxbridge college, where you often have to pay to get in. Even then, if you are a local resident (in Cambridge certainly, and I also think in Oxford), you can get a residents card which allows you access to colleges free of charge.

Secondly, if you are a local resident, you should be able to apply for a reader's card for the library, which will give you access to go in and read books, although generally you won't have lending rights.

Thirdly, of course you can access cafés, restaurants etc. on site. They are businesses trying to make money. Nobody is going to try and kick you out!

Finally, I am a lecturer myself. I would say in terms of attending lectures, nine times out of ten nobody will care. If it is a seminar type class, where students are discussing material, given tasks to do etc., I think that's where it would become problematic. Just a lecture which is delivered to a room of students, why would anyone care if someone extra came and listened? I'd be delighted if someone was interested enough in what I was teaching to come along and listen. And like many others on the thread have pointed out, in many universities, lectures are in any case open to the public.

I looked at the public lectures at my local university. They were not inspiring. One on Ageing, one on Cancer and one on Practising Judaism. I can't imagine they have allocated their largest lecture theatres to these events.

Having run this one past DH (who's an academic at the same university I got my PhD from) I now feel a bit naïve. He says, if it were him, he'd expect an unregistered person to ask the lecturer first, as a courtesy - but that then, he'd be contractually obliged to say 'sorry, no'. Whereas I think I'd have potentially put my own job on the line and happily cast a blind eye over a non-disruptive interloper.

DH's point is that a registered student has a contract with the university - not just a commercial one, but a moral one too. They agree to do certain things and behave in a certain way. Universities cannot do comprehensive background checks on every student - that would be massively time-consuming as well as intrusive - but nominally, universities 'trust' registered students because some facts about them are known, in a way that they couldn't be expected to 'trust' unknown people off the street.

Students also have an ongoing relationship with their personal tutors, who are meant to keep an eye on their welfare and wellbeing. DH said that while most unofficial visitors in lecture halls are probably well-meaning, there's no control on whether the odd ne'er-do-well turns up and causes trouble.

Nowadays, of course, universities are required to spy on their students to find out whether they're potential terrorists or not. So that would, sadly, be an issue too.

He's also concerned that if you ran into a particularly officious staff member - say, someone in a library who challenged you for not having a card, or a jobsworth security person - you could potentially find yourself in a situation where the police were called. Many university campuses have public rights of way across them but they don't extend to the buildings, so technically you could be done for trespass. Depends on how zealous the security guard is.

There are plenty of Futuelearn courses online that are FREE. Why don't you do one of those to start with to see what subject you would like to study then find out legitimately how to enrol on a course that interests you. Many students pay a LOT of money to attend Uni and would be miffed if you are getting it for nothing. Also you will at some point be asked for ID and may be thrown off campus if you can't provide it (going to the library or cafe is different from attending an actual lecture). The students may even turn you in as they will know who should be there (as they study together) so personally I'd not risk it but apply for September as a mature student and then you can flash your ID card and get all the discounts that go with it...

All our seminar series and guest lectures are free for anyone to come along. There's about 40 in March alone. They tend to be at lunchtime and afternoon, some evening though, no guest will turn up at 9am!

GlomOfNit erp I never thought of that! The issue has never come up about external people accessing lectures. I have never experienced it (that I am aware of) but my lectures tend to be 50 students or below, so I generally know all the faces. I also have no idea what official protocol is wrt ID on campus, but I just don't see why you would need official ID to be on campus. Buses run through campus, many people go through that don't attend or work at the university (e.g. parents dropping kids off at the university nursery, when it is their partner rather than themselves who work at the uni). I simply cannot see how you would need an ID to be on campus. Wrt buildings, certainly some buildings have restricted access, but in these cases, you need your uni card to get in, so the question doesn't arise of unauthorised access. Unless you bring someone in with you I guess. But I know that anyone is at liberty to use the cafés around campus. You don't need to show a card.

Does the city begin with a C? I'll join you if so..!

Sorry should say Futurelearn. Courses are 4-6 weeks in length and have activities to complete and online support so there is the participation with others too.

The courses are run by different establishments so you can do criminology, child welfare, French, economics etc or even animation. At the end you can even do an exam for some of them or attain a certificate of participation which would show that while you are a sahm, you have done other things like studying so have the right "mindset" if applying later on as a mature student on a real course. I've completed 3 courses to date and enjoyed them all (and I have a masters that I did get from actually attending Uni). I work part time and my DD is now at school. I can't increase my hours back to full time and don't really want to look for a new job so doing a Futurelearn course means I'm using my spare time productively while learning something new into the bargain...and for free.

Another option OP would be academic seminar series. They'll be advertised on the webpage of the relevant department and they are DEFINITELY open to all interested comers - all the seminars I went to as an academic had a variety of random scholars of all stripes coming along, only some of whom had a formal university affiliation. When giving seminar papers in London this was a bit of an occupational hazard, as some of the people in question were, er, a little unusual, and tended to have a particular random bee in their bonnet that tended to emerge at question time:) Also, seminars might be intellectually more interesting - especially in anthropology - as they are about somebody's current research rather than trying to cover a topic with half an eye to exams. The only problem is that they tend to be at family unfriendly times, like 5pm!

Some are lunchtime series though, come to think of it - they'd be a good option. Also, you don't have to sit with any students - all grownup academics

I've never been asked for ID, i'm a postgrad.

I think it's a fab idea, certainly ime anthropologists in particular would be open to a tag-along, though I did have one lecturer who absolutely would have spotted you and asked subject-related questions 😄

As for those saying to do it at home; that totally defeats the object. Op wants to be around interesting people, in a different environment. It's escapism, and she might pick up something interesting to drop into conversation at the fancy dinner parties we all throw (haha).

As an aside, if you have a genuine reason (perhaps bringing knowledge of a previous study area up to scratch in preparation for further study?) then I believe you can apply at the Uni library for a card and actually take books out? I may be wrong, but I have a vague recollection.

I'm jealous, my local Uni has swipe cards everywhere. I wish I could just study forever but it's a bloody expensive luxury these days.

At my DCs uni, lectures are put online but only accessible through the student portal so I think that tells you what their feelings on 'gatecrashers'.It is not fair on registered students.people who said 'lecturers don't mind' are missing the point.It isn't up to them!It is up to the university.

My local uni gives temporary/ day library cards to members of the public. You're not allowed to take anything away from the building but you can look and photocopy.

may, as people have also said, a lot of universities also don't mind, and indeed make it quite clear lectures are open to the public.

I realise not all lectures will be like this, but many are.

The reason lectures are only accessible to registered students is more likely to be about control over intellectual property and/or embarrassment.

I have no issue with someone coming in off the street to listen to me yak on for an hour. I have big issues with recordings of me doing it going all over the web for all and sundry to laugh at forever.

I never had to show ID at uni, other than to get into the library. I think that the students are paying for the degree, not specifically each lecture. The op is not going to come out with anything like a degree, so there is no actual gain. There is,a strong possibility that attending a lecture may make a person more likely to decide to apply to university properly, so could be classed as marketing... I would stick to first year subjects and stay near the front. Don't befriend anyone, that would be odd...

But Coursera uses the best approach.
Learning is free.
Getting a diploma costs.

These days it's ridiculous to pay for lectures. Most info can be gathered online. There are loads of tutorials online. Many journals have open access. You can find almost anything on YouTube.

And thank you, I didn't realise most Universities do public lectures. I am off to check what my local Uni offers.

The only caveat is that there is no room for everyone who physically wants to be there. So, paying students will always get priority.

I don't think it's right to go to lectures when you haven't enrolled on the course. It would be like sneaking into a concert when you've not paid for a ticket. I agree with people who say sign up for a course or go to a lecture that is open to the general public. But like others I sympathise. You want to be part of something that looks a lot more interesting than your everday life. So you must get out there and sign up for something.