Who's Going To Uni?

[BFTD]

8 minutes ago, AuAl said:

My Dad is planning on going back to Uni (he's 52) for a masters in Software Engineering. Awfa chuffed for him cause he's been saying he wants to do something different for years and years and hadn't been enjoying his work for a long time. He's always been good with computers and aw that shite so fair play.

Had an alright ish job but he hated the work he was doing (engineering in the aviation industry, but the only work going is contracts for military aircraft, that he morally doesn't want anything to do with.)

He's really positive about it all but I think there's a wee bit of him that's concerned about being a lot older than anyone else. He'll do grand.

Any other p&b posters gone to Uni/back to Uni much later in life? How was your experience as a "mature" student?

I'm in my second year and I'll be in my late forties when I graduate.

I think I've got a bit of an advantage because most of our instructors are my age, and thoroughly enjoy having someone their own age to chat shit to. There was definitely a feeling of "what's this auld c**t doing here?" at the start, but I get on fine with the youngsters and it's been nice to notice problems they might be having, because I did too at their age. Things like not feeling confident enough to ask questions, or nudging them in the direction of the important work that needs to be done. I find myself in class asking about things that I know the others are struggling with, purely for their benefit.

I think classes benefit from having a da/maw with a bit of life experience, although it's a bit of a shock to discover that it's you  

[Hedgecutter]

On 03/09/2022 at 18:32, Miguel Sanchez said:

Think it was third year before I checked a book out of the library

I went into the library three times over the duration of my PhD.  The first was for a short course about using referencing software, the second was to check out a hard copy of somebody else's PhD thesis (I was the first ever person to request it), and the third visit was to return the aforementioned thesis.

Genuinely don't think I set foot in the library 1.0 using my undergrad, which was demolished a while back to and I have absolutely no recollection of.

Eta: I was over a decade older than almost all of the other postgrads, and didn't notice much difference other than having stories that occurred outside of uni/school, and our ideas of "going for a drink" being very different (they thought it meant a quick visit to Costa for a takeaway coffee).  That said, I only recently found out that the tidy lass who I sat beside for my final two years thought I was in my late 20's (rather than late 30's).  She suddenly stopped being as flirty once my real age came to light. 🫤

Edited September 7, 2022 by Hedgecutter

[Suspect Device]

 

 

That's handy. First day for teaching and I've got 2 tutorials. 

[Florentine_Pogen]

On 07/09/2022 at 08:39, AuAl said:

My Dad is planning on going back to Uni (he's 52) for a masters in Software Engineering. Awfa chuffed for him cause he's been saying he wants to do something different for years and years and hadn't been enjoying his work for a long time. He's always been good with computers and aw that shite so fair play.

Had an alright ish job but he hated the work he was doing (engineering in the aviation industry, but the only work going is contracts for military aircraft, that he morally doesn't want anything to do with.)

He's really positive about it all but I think there's a wee bit of him that's concerned about being a lot older than anyone else. He'll do grand.

Any other p&b posters gone to Uni/back to Uni much later in life? How was your experience as a "mature" student?

I started PGDE at Moray House in 2013 when I was 52.

Was one week into my first 6-week teaching block when I realised that it was not for me. Went back to architecture / project management.

[Suspect Device]

On 07/09/2022 at 08:39, AuAl said:

My Dad is planning on going back to Uni (he's 52) for a masters in Software Engineering. Awfa chuffed for him cause he's been saying he wants to do something different for years and years and hadn't been enjoying his work for a long time. He's always been good with computers and aw that shite so fair play.

Had an alright ish job but he hated the work he was doing (engineering in the aviation industry, but the only work going is contracts for military aircraft, that he morally doesn't want anything to do with.)

He's really positive about it all but I think there's a wee bit of him that's concerned about being a lot older than anyone else. He'll do grand.

Any other p&b posters gone to Uni/back to Uni much later in life? How was your experience as a "mature" student?

I'm 54. Starting my course next Monday. (I'm not counting this Freshers week)

Film and Visual Studies and Philosiphy at the University of Aberdeen. Not for a career, I'm doing it for 'fun'. 

[scottsdad]

Just been to the Napier open day with Scott. 

It was largely rubbish. Miserable tour guide. The team we went to see were very uninterested. Just invited us to look about and no more. In and out pretty quickly. We dropped into another topic area that was much better and might have changed his mind about what he wants to do. 

Dundee next week. 

[ICTChris]

 

Is this normal now?

 

[Melanius Mullarkey]

8 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

 

Is this normal now?

 

Pretty much.

[scottsdad]

1 hour ago, ICTChris said:

 

Is this normal now?

 

More common than you might think. Universities in cities are most certainly adopting a "bums on seats" policy, especially in relation to overseas students and those from the rest of the UK that bring fees. This is causing a huge shortage in housing.

Added to that, this year (despite all the communications) we have students who are asking why the classes are not online, but rather in person. Students like this then show up late in the semester and all the housing etc. is gone. Further, the visa system is at breaking point. We have admitted loads of international students but have been told that many won't get visa approval until half way through the semester. And these guys will be showing up looking for a place to stay. 

I'd like to see the email in the tweet above; I doubt the whole story is being told there.

[BFTD]

My father's forever moaning about how his town in the Midlands is being taken over by students - landlords chopping houses up into one-room "student flats", and buildings being knocked down to build student accommodation.

Can't help but feel he's missing a trick not setting up a fraternity in the big house he's rattling around in on his own. Do the Americans frats have a male version of the Sorority Mother?

[Mark Connolly]

2 hours ago, BFTD said:

My father's forever moaning about how his town in the Midlands is being taken over by students - landlords chopping houses up into one-room "student flats", and buildings being knocked down to build student accommodation.

Can't help but feel he's missing a trick not setting up a fraternity in the big house he's rattling around in on his own. Do the Americans frats have a male version of the Sorority Mother?

I believe he would be known as "The Godfather"

Spoiler

 

[Richey Edwards]

I have started my first clinical placement of Second Year already. It does not seem that long ago that I finished my last clinical placement of First Year.

My placement is with the liaison team who assess people who are already in a hospital ward and make recommendations based on their mental health and presentation to best support them in the hospital and when they leave. It appears to be less "hands on" than my previous placements because they refer people to the appropriate services rather than delivering such interventions themselves, but the team are very nice and I am interested to learn about this kind of service and get some experience of performing assessments.

[RH33]

22 minutes ago, Richey Edwards said:

I have started my first clinical placement of Second Year already. It does not seem that long ago that I finished my last clinical placement of First Year.

My placement is with the liaison team who assess people who are already in a hospital ward and make recommendations based on their mental health and presentation to best support them in the hospital and when they leave. It appears to be less "hands on" than my previous placements because they refer people to the appropriate services rather than delivering such interventions themselves, but the team are very nice and I am interested to learn about this kind of service and get some experience of performing assessments.

Hope it's not the team at the RAH as they're inept.

[Richey Edwards]

That's my first clinical placement of Second Year done and dusted. Now I have a couple of lectures next week and then I am off until the new year.

[scottsdad]

Article in the Heil talking about students not showing up to classes. 

It is a big problem. Even before Covid numbers would dip during a semester. By the end of semester I was teaching to roughly half the class in all my classes. Never had a case where nobody showed up. 

In one class (150 students), there is a solid core of 60 students that never, ever turned up. These are postgraduates, too - paying fortunes. 

[BFTD]

6 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

Article in the Heil talking about students not showing up to classes. 

It is a big problem. Even before Covid numbers would dip during a semester. By the end of semester I was teaching to roughly half the class in all my classes. Never had a case where nobody showed up. 

In one class (150 students), there is a solid core of 60 students that never, ever turned up. These are postgraduates, too - paying fortunes. 

Absolute jazz mag material for readers of the Heil.

A few weeks ago we dropped down to roughly 33% attendance in class. The crew who decided that they didn't need to turn up regularly last year have just been dingying classes non-stop this year; some of them had been allowed to continue despite having outstanding coursework. Bizarrely, the most infrequent attendees are the ones with the highest opinion of themselves and their abilities. There was some kind of meeting and suddenly we've been at 100% attendance for the first time in almost a year and a half  

TBF, I mentioned it to my mother, and she says it was the same when she was at college in the Sixties. Apparently she knew quite a few folk who dropped out because they couldn't get up early enough for classes. Wonder how they survived in the world of work.

[Central Belt Caley]

17 hours ago, scottsdad said:

Article in the Heil talking about students not showing up to classes. 

It is a big problem. Even before Covid numbers would dip during a semester. By the end of semester I was teaching to roughly half the class in all my classes. Never had a case where nobody showed up. 

In one class (150 students), there is a solid core of 60 students that never, ever turned up. These are postgraduates, too - paying fortunes. 

When I was in first year we had a class called Intro to Computer Systems, already a boring enough topic but the lecturer could put anyone to sleep. By the third week of the semester there was only 5 of us in his lecture from a class of 70 odds

We also had people on our course we only used to see in exams. 
Another lecturer I had was really good and she used to keep a register but only for if someone complained after the exam about her teaching. She could then go back, check their attendance and if they barely attended any lectures they got told where to go. 

[craigkillie]

Article in the Heil talking about students not showing up to classes. 
It is a big problem. Even before Covid numbers would dip during a semester. By the end of semester I was teaching to roughly half the class in all my classes. Never had a case where nobody showed up. 
In one class (150 students), there is a solid core of 60 students that never, ever turned up. These are postgraduates, too - paying fortunes. 

This c**t showing a really positive attitude to his job of educating people too. Maybe look inwardly a bit as well if literally nobody is turning up to see you.

[scottsdad]

5 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

 

This c**t showing a really positive attitude to his job of educating people too. Maybe look inwardly a bit as well if literally nobody is turning up to see you.

 

In the article, this guy put a long, streaming twitter rant out about this including the comment "Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm a shit teacher"

If nobody is showing up, I'm guessing this might be the case.

Guilting students never works. Just guaranteeing they'll stay away. 

[ICTChris]

This is the full thread the guy wrote.