Son and University

[Babyroobs]

AIBU to wonder what on earth my ds1 is paying 9k a year Uni fees for ? He has come home from Uni 150 miles from home this weekend. We were discussing how when he was home over Christmas and messed his Xmas temp job employers around, that he has probably scuppered any chances of summer work with them. Ds then tells us that as he has no exams for his course, he most likely won't be needing to go in for any lectures after the Easter holidays ! AIBU to wonder what on earth he ( and us) and paying 9k a year for if lectures stop at Easter and why on earth we are paying £1400 for Easter term halls as well as money over the summer holidays to secure a room in a house for his second year.
I am soon starting a home based job, a fantastic opportunity and was going to use his room as an office temporarily until our garage can be converted to an office , work which can't be completed due to planning permission/ builders commitments etc until early summer. These plans are now scuppered too. The office has to be a place that no-one else has access to due to confidential material and conversations .

I guess I am just wondering if this is normal for Uni to finish this early ? or was I a bit naïve to think he would at least be away until mid June?

I think they are mostly done by May. DD has no exams for most of her course, but her lectures continued. He may be wrong about that.
Why did he mess his employer around at Christmas?
The money over summer may be standard to secure rooms - wasn’t for DD, who had tenancies starting in September/October for 9 months. Maybe this is a feature of the renting scene where your DS is studying.

DD HaD no exams...she finished a year ago.

My son was home this weekend as well. He has exams in may or june but told me that after easter he has no lectures either. I was so shocked like you. You still have to pay for the accommodation and the uni fees yet they are not teaching them anything. He said he may just stay here at home and travel back for his exams. So it looks like it may be a normal policy. I think it is just a rip off really.

I guess I am just wondering if this is normal for Uni to finish this early ? or was I a bit naïve to think he would at least be away until mid June?

Normal, I would say. I'm at uni doing a masters and teaching stops (for undergrads too) at the beginning of April.

That’s perfectly normal OP

puch - I'm glad it's not just me that's shocked and thinking it's a rip off. He loves his course and is doing well and getting some good work experience opportunities but I am shocked at how little time he is there and the cost of halls etc- all of which we are paying.
Cardibach - He messed his Christmas employers about because he just didn't turn up when he should during their busiest time of year ( kids theme park). He was favouring doing unpaid online journalism/ writing projects which he saw as more important than paid work. I can kind of see his point but annoyed that he has now most likely lost the chance to go back and work for these employers during the summer. Hopefully he will find other work.

It's normal.

Fees do pay for lectures, but lectures are one of the cheapest elements of the course. To run a university, you need to pay for buildings, libraries, labs, admin and all other infrastructure ... and that's before you come to what vice-chancellors are paid.

However, I doubt he's right that he doesn't need to be there during Easter term. Unless you have free access to a university library and journal subscriptions, he'll find it much easier to work at university than not.

The end of the last term is a good time to do some early reading for the next terms modules, do some paid work and at the end of year 2 to start on your dissertation. I do agree for the money you pay contact hours should be higher.

I’m a first year doing a STEM subject and I’m upto my eyeballs in exams, teaching doesn’t finish till 21st June. Think it’s mostly subject dependent

What subject is it? Ds never has lectures after Easter, just exams. The term is shorter than others though. His first year exams did not count towards his degree result. He will only have 2 for his Finals as rest is dissertation, assessed written work and presentation.

Uni lecturer here.

It is a funny term because of the late Easter.. Normally we go for 12 weeks plus a reading week at the end. Easter usually is in the middle of the twelve weeks, so normally we do 9-10 weeks in a row and then come back for a couple of weeks after Easter. This year Easter is late, so we are going 11 weeks straight, then break for Easter, and then reading week after Easter on courses that have reading weeks.

Different courses use different kinds of assessment. I like exams because you can't buy them - but they are increasingly a PITA to give because so many students have PLSP and special circumstances with exams they've become a pain to administer. Also, students prefer papers to exams and in this NSS mad culture we pander.

Re: contact time. Parents want more contact time. I have three office hours every week that never get more than one visitor. My office building is up the hill from the student building.

My son did Maths and Philosophy joint honours, he used to be there until the bitter end of term and had lectures throughout the year and assessments/exams.

In most Unis the first year doesn't count towards the final degree classification, or if it does, it's only about 10%.

I went to uni back in the late 80s and studied English Lit and I'm sure I didn't work as hard as DS had to.

I feel a bit bad now as I think he's now thinking I don't want him here, which isn't true , he is great company although more work with 3 other younger siblings around. I know he should be doing his own cooking, washing etc but it never seems to happen. It just seems such a lot to pay for so little time there ! I agree the halls are like rabbit hutches, his mattress is so uncomfortable he has barely been sleeping and I've had to go out today and spend £100 on a decent mattress topper . It's just so much expense all the time when things should be getting easier.

@malvinandhobbes - Are you serious? Exams are pain because people with disabilities or learning differences need adjustments?

If he has Reading Week after Easter, then I have no doubt there is plenty he could- and should- be doing back at uni, and those are things his fees are paying for: making good use of the library, attending any office hours offered by his tutors, making sure he has understood what he is doing and contacting his tutor if he is not, getting together with other students to further each other's studies (again, using resources paid for by his fees). But he is a grown-up; he has to take responsibility for making the best possible use of the resources on offer.

Don't think it's unusual.
My degree was horribly exam focused... But by year 3 we only had 4 hours a week contact time...

Our lecturers were keen to point out.... We were reading for a degree.... And that it was expected we would be working our wy throufh lengthy reading lists..

I am sorry, yes, I can see I wasn't sensitive there. I apologise, I had divided attention when I wrote it and shouldn't post and parent at the same time. I was responding to the idea that the OP's child is being ripped off because he doesn't have exams. In fact, it is likely the opposite.

Exams are very difficult to administer. As much as people complain about fees, universities are still massively underfunded compared to a couple of years ago. We have many fewer administrators. If I have a class of 100 people, and 15 need their own room for exams, then we need to find 15 rooms, and several people to invigilate. It is a lot to organise. It isn't as easy as just setting an exam, and it isn't about teaching. It is about logistics.

Many of my best students have PLSP and I am very glad that university does such a good job with alternative assessments. Many of our students weren't even diagnosed as dyslexic before university, and the difference to them that comes from them diagnosis and support is meaningful. I don't believe for a moment that the ability to be a fantastic student, benefit from education, and use that education to have a meaningful career, or just be happy, is in any way correlated with the ability to succeed on an timed exam in a room with 300 other people and me tiptoeing around handing out extra paper. This term my three best students have PLSP and I am just grateful for the opportunity to teach them. I hope that what I teach them makes a difference.

It would seem that exams are not the fairest way to assess people because the typical format doesn't suit many people. In that case, alternative assessments (essays, take home exams) may be more efficient. We do give exams when it is the best assessment, but exams often favour the lecturer. They are easier and faster to mark than essays or papers.

If the OPs child is writing multiple papers and getting very good feedback, he is probably getting a better education than someone on an exam heavy course. Exams are better for some subjects than others.

The other problem is that so many students buy essays now, exams are often the only fair way to assess. It isn't easy. There isn't a perfect solution. But I will say that universities are not awash in the luxury of the £9000 a year fees. Like every other sector, we are feeling the pinch of austerity and trying very hard to deliver more for less.

@malvinandhobbes

Apologies for being abrupt. I’ve just been diagnosed via Uni with several SpLDs (as well as combined presentation ADHD) which whilst it explains why my essays etc are 90% or above and why I barely pass my exams, it’s been a bit of a rough ride. If I wasn’t at Uni at the grand old age of 32, it would never have been picked up on.

This first year is exam heavy for me; 1 ROGO a week on average after labs and then 4 ROGOs in Jan and again in April. Whilst it doesn’t count towards my degree, and whilst Years 2 and 3 are lab/report/assignment based, I still have to pass this bloody year and it’s proving rather difficult.

OP DS should probably be making more use of the Uni facilities and his class mates. I imagine there will be some prep work for Year 2 to do over the summer?

I envy the younger kid free students who can sit in the library at 1am whilst I’m usually battling with my ASD middle DC and toddler DC at that time of night

Also do they really buy essays Bloody Hell. I’m loving that I can get anything I want to read online, unlike 16 years ago when I did A Levels and Google wasn’t even a thing.

@RolandDeschainsGilly

Good luck and take all the help the university offers! I mean it when I say many of my best students have taken an alternative path. Being a student and a mother is a hard path - but worth it.

Google scholar is an amazing thing. It is so much easier now.