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!

I don't know about in the UK, and I don't know about 'now', but in the US this was known as 'auditing a class'. It was an acceptable thing to do when I was in Uni in the '70s. Not sure about these days, though.

It's true there's some great stuff online but it's really not the same experience as actually sitting in a lecture, is it? Being in a room full of people, forced to concentrate for an hour, makes you learn in a different way from just watching online.

We used to have lectures where members of the public were invited (our professor had written books on the subject so he was highly regarded).

I have lectured however in a theatre of 300 students and tbh no-one would notice if you were there. I will just say that as universities are pretty cash strapped, I don't know how kindly they would consider you attending lectures without paying if / when they found out.

*I can't help thinking you won't be able to make sense of ANY of the lectures.

It won't be entry level stuff, it'll be undergraduate level. You won't have done any of the required reading beforehand (although I daresay the students won't have either). You aren't going to have a clue what's going on.*

It's not rocket science (and ejven if it was, so what), and it's an opportunity to learn. The idea that 3rd level education is beyond people's reach is just snobbery.

Not snobbery, just realistic. I'm pretty sure I couldn't rock up at an anthropology lecture and expect to make head nor tail of the topic of that day.

When I was a student I once visited a friend at Newcastle university and went along to a politics lecture. There weren't that many other students but the lecturer didn't seem to notice me !

Really, vague?

As a humble medievalist, perhaps my area of English Lit is far, far simpler than the periods you mention. But I doubt it.

It's amazing how much more people slightly older than the average student can understand - you just gain so much from having lived a bit more, and it does tend to make up for an awful lot.

FWIW, I usually draft out my lectures by blogging them first, and I consistently get responses from people who haven't studied English since O Level or GCSE making perfectly valid points.

lol at vagueidea. I didn't realise that only people studying English literature were allowed to read books!

OP why don't you find a lecture on the ethics of theft and report back to the sanctimonious brigade on here?

Have fun!

You'd certainly get away with it at the University I used to work at (and my husband still does)! No one ever checks ID and I very much doubt that the lecturer would be any the wiser. They often only see a class once or twice a week and would be highly unlikely to remember all the faces. As someone else above said, as an ex-lecturer myself I'd have had no issue with someone who wanted to come along and listen for the pure interest of it. I'm not marking any of your work, you're not entering any exams and I'd have been taking the class anyway. Do have a look at their public lecture programme too as you may find all sorts of great stuff available, often with quite famous visiting lecturers and almost always free or a couple of pound to cover the tea and biscuits.

I really don't get how this is unethical.

Is it also unethical to go into a (normal) library and read an academic book, which was written primarily for undergrads? I'd say this is the same sort of thing - you're not asking the lecturer to do anything more than s/he would otherwise have done, and the fact you're not the intended audience isn't doing anyone else any harm.

lol at vagueidea. I didn't realise that only people studying English literature were allowed to read books

Gosh, did I say that?

You'd better point me to the post in question and I'll ask MN to edit my post as a matter of urgency

I think she's implying that the 'prior knowledge' you mention isn't exactly difficult to get hold of.

If you pick a big lecture then I'm sure you'll get away with it, just don't pick one that's packed in case you're taking a seat away from someone that needs to be there.

All lectures are open to the public over here, everyone has the right to attend a lecture unless space is limited. I think its a really nice ideal - education is for everyone. My brother used to go to quite a few lectures while he was working over here.

This is so sad, all those lectures should be available to anyone, online or as guests.

Students pay for so much more than the lecture; all the support from the tutor, the grading, upkeep on the uni, and the exams.
The info should be freely available.

You could always email the lecturer who will be taking the lecture you want to attend and ask them if it's OK. Most of us would say yes to a request, unless we had a good reason to say no. That way you wouldn't have to feel like you were sneaking around.

You also have the added advantage of knowing exactly when and where the lecture will be. Sometimes you get a different room every week.

Look, all I suggested that a undergraduate lecture isn't geared towards the layperson on the street. What is so ludicrous about that?

But apparently that makes me a snob and of the opinion that "3rd level education is beyond people's reach". Well that's a pretty bloody massive imaginative leap. Jaysus.

When I was lecturing I wouldn't have care at all if there'd been random people wandering into lectures, add looking as they didn't disturb anyone. I'd have thought it was quite cool, probably. I know lots of my friends attended lectures with their boy/girlfriends, even when it wasn't their own course.

My guess is that security might have an issue with it, possibly in relation to health & safety or something, because in theory it could make the room over capacity. In practice, I don't imagine they'd be too bothered.

Did you know you can download lectures on iTunes though? You could do that and then listen to them in the university cafe!

I totally understand where you're coming from, though, as I'd love to do the same!

YANBU, my uni actually told me at an open day that all the buildings were public buildings and encouraged me to come and go to lectures before I was a student to get an idea of what uni entailed. They scan student cards at the library but that's just to prevent the books going missing.

With respect, vague, that's not really what you said.

You suggested she'd get little out of it, which is a few levels down from 'not geared to'.

It does sound a bit snobby.

Look, all I suggested that a undergraduate lecture isn't geared towards the layperson on the street. What is so ludicrous about that?

Nothing. Except that's not what you suggested. Read back your post. You suggested nothing. You stated that the OP wouldn't 'be able to make sense of ANY of the lectures', and that she wasn't 'going to have a clue what was going on'.

Surely a graduate of English Lit would understand the difference between suggestions and statements. There was no leap. You laid it all out there plain to see.

Universities are designed to be nice places to hang out. I work at one - don't get to hang out much but I know exactly what you mean. My first thought about the lectures was not that it'd go over your head, but that it might not be as interesting/entertaining as it sounds. However if you have an hour spare to sit in, why not? If anyone asks you could always say that you're a prospective student and wanted to get a feel for the place - perfectly legit imo. At my place you definitely wouldn't be escorted off the premises.

By all means drink in the ambience of campus, but have you considered MOOCs - online free courses? FutureLearn as mentioned already, Coursera is another, there are others. Have fun.

I used to work at a local Russell Group university; members of the public are able to pay an annual fee to use their library. Quite reasonable too. Not sure if the scheme is available at other universities though.

Wednesday is the main day for public lectures at the university I worked at. Most aren't advertised online. You can usually see flyers around the university for them though so have a look when you're next loitering.

Can't see problem myself. Was shocked at library though.

I have done it, recently, forty-odd years older than must students and usually older than the lecturer. Go for it!

This sounds like the premise for a Bukowski novel!

I used to visit other subject lectures when I was a student until had to sit a spontaneous test!