In what way would you most like Trinity to be improved?

fluppet

In what area would you like to see most effort used to improve? Do you want to make your time in Trinity easier with better student services or facilities? Would you prefer to get a better education with better lectures or lecturers? Or would you prefer that Trinity had better international recognition, which would make it more prestigious to have on your CV, and would help to boost applications from international students (which increases the amount of money Trinity has to spend, which could then be used to improve other areas)?

While I have allowed you to vote for more than one choice, please do not vote for more than two or three, as this vote will have far more impact if there is an outright winner (which would be less likely if people vote for a lot of options). I know it would be nice if everything was improved, but please just vote for the thing(s) that you most want improved.

snappieT

Definately computerised lectures only, and lectures be posted online after.

Written lectures = taking notes = spending less time actually taking the content in = reduction in learning = bad = sad snappieT

thegloriousend

I agree with snappie. But most importantly, handouts should be 100% relevant to the end of year exams imo. If not, they are just scraps of paper to me. Also voted for general facilities, I never got a locker, (I know I should have turned up earlier) but would like to see more of them- they are essential for students.
Additionally I voted library facilities - my only concern here is borrowing of books, at least 75% have borrowing restrictions.
Appart from the above, I like trinity.

Thirdfox

Haven't had any trouble with the facilities of Trinity and thus I voted for "International Recognition" but I don't think that improving our image merely comes from hiring more renowned lecturers or hosting conferences. There should be more research programmes that raises the academic excellence of the university, when was the last time Trinity got a Nobel laureate in the college?

Raising the standard of academic excellence can only be good for the students - if only the best and brightest come to Trinity then the learning environment will be improved tenfold.

Of course I'm not saying no to entertainment... merely that I find the current societies etc. to be quite adequate while our reputation worldwide is good but not spectacular.

Then again there's no money so I'll just keep dreaming

Better library facilities would be nice too!

Pet

Better lecturers. Some of mine this year were absolutely dire, they couldn't teach for ****.

shay_562

As Pet said, better lecturers. I've never had too many issues with services like food/drink or sports stuff, but hiring lecturers based on teaching ability rather than intelligence would be an excellent idea.

punka

shay_562 wrote:

As Pet said, better lecturers. I've never had too many issues with services like food/drink or sports stuff, but hiring lecturers based on teaching ability rather than intelligence would be an excellent idea.

Teaching ability is important - but shouldn't be the primary criterion for hiring staff. A decent balance between research ability and teaching ability is what's needed. Hiring good teachers at the expense of excellent researchers ultimately will cause long-term damage to the university's reputation. And a worsening reputation may discourage investments in the university by philanthropists.

Besides, while you can't train someone to be an excellent teacher, you can train them to be a competent one. It's a lot harder to turn a good teacher into a good researcher than the other way around.

Nietzschean

handouts should not necessarily be entirely relevent to the exams, your there to learn not to sit exams at the end of the day.

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI

snappieT wrote:

Definately computerised lectures only, and lectures be posted online after.

Written lectures = taking notes = spending less time actually taking the content in = reduction in learning = bad = sad snappieT

I disagree....I find the process itself of taking down notes very conducive to "learning", the writing more so than reading something I printed off, and I'm reasonably certain I've seen several studies that agree with me back in the ol' school days...

defiantshrimp

This is a bit outside the choices (though I voted for the better lectures, with notes being most important in my mind) but I think Trinity should modularise and semesterise its courses. It is the standard in most universities in Ireland, the UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the USA.... It goes on. It facilitates international exchanges and it would allow students to pick courses outside their faculty, either as a broad curriculum idea or to allow more options in a given area. Furthermore some faculties are semesterised in everything but name (economics, science that I have experience with) and it is madness to have an exam in an area (basically a subject in its own right) 4 or so months later.

fluppet

defiantshrimp wrote:

I think Trinity should modularise and semesterise its courses

That was going to be my next poll (check back next week). I didn't want to put it as a specific category in this poll as it is really just a one-off thing (do it or don't), rather than an area in which the college can put effort over time into improving. I suppose if you really wanted to vote for it this time, you could vote for 'Administration'.

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI - different people learn in different ways. I can't do two things at once (copy off the blackboard and concentrate at the same time), so having comprehensive notes would be wonderful for me. If you prefer learning by writing during the lectures, you can still do that. Providing notes allows both of us to learn in our own ways.