Odd Uni interview.

[Brixhambelle1]

I had a uni interview via zoom several days ago. I am considering being a mature student. During the interview I was asked to stop the interview and then write a few hundred words on the topic Blindness is worse than deafness. This had to be returned to an email address within 20 mins.
I find this subject a really bizarre one as the choice for discussion. The course is for a specialised job working with people with sight loss.
AIBU to feel that this is a really odd topic to want people to write about ? .

Not in the context of your course..

If you were applying for Computer Science or Geography...it's an odd question.

But you're doing a course on loss of sight... Why is writing a short essay on loss of sight an add question?

It's an incredibly unpleasant essay - as if there are hierarchies of disability; they aren't really teaching their students to think of anybody d/Deaf 'well, at least you aren't blind - that would be far, far worse'.

I suppose if they were actually after people who would argue that they're different, not better or worse, it wouldn't be as bad - but presenting that way seems to be saying straight away that Blindness > Deafness and ignores the fact that a) there are different levels of sight loss/blindness and b) many people have sight and hearing issues as part of their overall condition.

Actually asking for an ad hoc essay would also be quite difficult for any applicants who are sight impaired, too.

Talking about sight loss would feel fine, discussing one disability against another seems odd. I could think of so many other topics to discuss that would fit well with this course, it just felt like top trumps.

Maybe they're looking for you to say as much in the essay?

But yes that seems a bit blunt and odd to me.

That’s exactly how I feel. I have sight loss myself and there was no mention of a task prior to interview. I personally think it’s a horrible thing to have been set and it made me feel hugely uncomfortable.

I guess it's maybe to see if you have really thought about what makes life so difficult for blind people or the ways in which they need support? But agree it's a strange question. What if someone is blind and deaf

I am hoping the conclusion of 'it's not worse, but different' is the kind of thing they were after, but yes, strange leading question and possibly ableist task.

Hmm following your update it's not normal to spring this kind of thing on applicants. If an interview involved an essay I would expect them to say that before hand. Especially for something like this... maybe different if they are after very versatile thinkers for some high level role, but this doesn't really sound like that.

Activities or tasks in an interview shouldn't be sprung without warning.

As a point of debate, as a pp said it isn't irrelevant to the course so no problem with that, however as you and others have suggested its deeply unpleasant to pitch one disability against another- although that point can be made as part of the response.

Well as a disability social worker and as a hard of hearing person with bilateral hearing aids for moderate hearing loss despite my relative young age, who struggles , I would be 😡 about this question. It's not disability equality act compliant

Surely it's a very normal part of studying at this level to discuss and answer challenging questions? Presumably they expect a nuanced answer that can take in the reasons why the question isn't appropriate.

It seems odd to me that you weren't told about such a task ahead of time, but the question itself seems ok to me: if I were reading such mini-essays, I'd be quite pleased to read one that, for example, argued the opposite point of view convincingly, or challenged that this is a legitimate question. (FWIW, as a musician, the idea of deafness is a horror to me...) Anything should be up for discussion at a university, and students should be learning not only how to argue, but how not to take an argument personally. It's a hard lesson that even senior academics can struggle with, but it's super important.

Surely the words on the topic can be whatever you choose to say on the subject to display your essay skills. It doesn't require much critical thinking to be able to problematise the question, which is clearly deliberatively provocative. To react as if this is the questioner's position isn't very smart.

I don't think the question per se is problematic when assessing people's suitability for higher level courses. It was clearly meant as a provocation and not a statement for you to nod along with. "Controversial statement: discuss" is a totally fine essay format. The question wasn't "Tell me all the ways blindness is worse than deafness". I assume that any answer which tackled the issue of a hierarchy of disabilities or even said it was a dreadful statement to make although unfortunately all too common would be acceptable. Its very nature as a generic well-known controversial view in fact makes it particularly suitable as everyone will have an opinion and you can tackle it from a number of angles without needing any specialist knowledge. It gives you the opportunity to demonstrate a number of verbal and critical thinking skills independent of subject knowledge and therefore shouldn't penalise applicants with different backgrounds.

However, it's an unusual enough interview format that I would have been pretty naffed off not to have been warned when invited to interview. There are all sorts of reasons why you might have found that unusually difficult if not prepared for it, and they don't have to give the question away - just to tell you that they will set a spontaneous short writing task as part of the interview.

I fail to see what part of the question content is not disability act compliant. I feel like there's an implied "Some people think... what do you think?" in the question that you shouldn't have to spell out at university level. But perhaps @Hidinginstaircupboard meant the surprise writing was not compliant?

Literally 20 minutes to write a short essay? They're really not going to get the best out of people with that, are they?

@PerspicaciousGreen got it.
There is lots of not comfortable topics in different courses. You will get them. It's about how you deal with them.
I wouldn't like it to be sprung at me like that though. Have you had a look at student room? Are people talking about it? I imagine they would be if it's a surprise not mentioned beforehand.

I can't see areason why it wouldn't be ok to ask that as an essay question under Equality act (or Disability discrimination act in NI).

@Trivium4all

It seems odd to me that you weren't told about such a task ahead of time, but the question itself seems ok to me: if I were reading such mini-essays, I'd be quite pleased to read one that, for example, argued the opposite point of view convincingly, or challenged that this is a legitimate question. (FWIW, as a musician, the idea of deafness is a horror to me...) Anything should be up for discussion at a university, and students should be learning not only how to argue, but how not to take an argument personally. It's a hard lesson that even senior academics can struggle with, but it's super important.

Having been failed on one essay purely because I disagreed with the assertions of the lecturer (and I know damn well that I backed up everything with evidence/references/quotes to support my conclusion - essentially that twenty somethings in the 1960s did not invent political protest), I'm not so certain that disagreeing with it was what they wanted to hear.

@HollowTalk

Literally 20 minutes to write a short essay? They're really not going to get the best out of people with that, are they?

No different to exam conditions

I'd assume they were looking for you to argue your point above, and maybe look at the social/physical restraints on people with each disability or impairment, and explore how they require support (given the job/course you were applying for).

It's an opportunity to show your wider knowledge of the issue and that you can make academic points coherently, I'd guess. Although the wording of the question is slightly odd, I'd assume they make it deliberately provocative to force you to argue with/against it... maybe that's me being optimistic, as I know there's a lot of ableist and shit thinking around.

@TaraR2020 But in exam conditions you're aware it's going to happen and have had chance to revise the content and prepare for the exam as opposed to having it thrown on you out of nowhere. Also, lots of us with disabilities would get accommodations for exam conditions such as extra time, which should also have been used here to allow for full potential, sounds like this wasn't considered.

@NeverDropYourMoonCup , no good lecturer would fail an essay just because you disagree with the lecturer. If that happened to you, then unfortunately, there are sup-par lecturers out there, and I'm sorry! There are numpties in every profession...What happens more often is that a student completely misses the point of the assignment. In that case, even a well-argued essay might fail. My personal favourite was an essay that was meant to be about a particular art form in Venice, but the student wrote (coherently) about Vienna, instead! Fortunately, there are re-sits, and the student (graduated long ago) is doing well.

@TaraR2020 Springing an essay on someone during an interview is completely different to someone taking an exam after a year of preparation!

@hollowtalk @Sweetchillidumplings
Indeed, in fact in my first response you'll note that I made that point

Well surely you can answer "Blindness is worse than deafness" as a discussion.

Saying things like they're not mutually exclusive... they both have various degrees of severity a levels of impact ..a partial loss of sight for Bob may affect him in a completely different way to Fred with the same loss... we shouldn't be comparing which disability is better or worse because it's irrelevant ... you've found that in your experience that people with loss of sight don't consider themselves worse off than those that suffer deafness. Etc etc etc