Although it has been many – many – years since I was a student, I’ve never forgotten looking at my university timetable at the start of my first year and wondering how I was going to cope. Not with the hours of study, but with having so much free time. For it seemed the hours of formal teaching required to pursue a degree in English Language and Literature at this particular Russell Group university barely exceeded double figures. After the grind of A levels, the vast open spaces on the timetable were dizzying. Surely a university education was supposed to be more demanding than this?
Given the leaden weight of student arrears, surely the time has come to compress the sparsely taught three-year courses into two years
To quote Shakespeare – I did pay attention in those sparsely scheduled seminars– clearly these were my salad days. But despite such naivety, even if I was ‘green in judgement’ at least I wasn’t red in debt
For the three-year duration of my degree, not only were my tuition fees paid by the government, the state actually gave me money to live on – even for a course drowsily and unnecessarily stretched across an undemanding schedule.
How different it is for today’s Russell Group graduates
