Why is college stretched over a 5 day week?

paky · 30-08-2011 06:04AM #1

if you only have a total of 13 hours a week? seems quite impracticable to me considering i work 12 hour shifts. can anyone shed any light on this farce?

Balfie · 30-08-2011 06:08AM

paky wrote: »

if you only have a total of 13 hours a week? seems quite impracticable to me considering i work 12 hour shifts. can anyone shed any light on this farce?

For this very reason.

OPENROAD · 30-08-2011 06:14AM

Oh to turn back the clock 17 years :eek::eek: and 1st year college

geeky · 30-08-2011 06:15AM

paky wrote: »

if you only have a total of 13 hours a week? seems quite impracticable to me considering i work 12 hour shifts. can anyone shed any light on this farce?

Erm... it's to allow time for studying, essay writing and independent reading. Packing everyone in a lecture hall and talking at them is a very inefficient way to learn in truth, and that's why colleges expect students to go off and read or research essays and projects.
Genuinely disciplined students will often treat it as a proper job, coming in at 9 and clocking off at half 5 (or whenever it gets done - just like in 'real life'!). Well, I did that in final year anyhoos.

paky · 30-08-2011 06:23AM

Balfie wrote: »

For this very reason.

i fail to see your point?

geeky wrote: »

Erm... it's to allow time for studying, essay writing and independent reading. Packing everyone in a lecture hall and talking at them is a very inefficient way to learn in truth, and that's why colleges expect students to go off and read or research essays and projects.
Genuinely disciplined students will often treat it as a proper job, coming in at 9 and clocking off at half 5 (or whenever it gets done - just like in 'real life'!). Well, I did that in final year anyhoos.

all those things can still be done if college was only two full days a week

Killer Pigeon · 30-08-2011 06:23AM

I got near 30 hours this year spread out over the week, yay.

paky · 30-08-2011 06:24AM

Killer Pigeon wrote: »

I got near 30 hours this year spread out over the week, yay.

i can understand that

Abi · 30-08-2011 06:45AM

paky wrote: »

if you only have a total of 13 hours a week? seems quite impracticable to me considering i work 12 hour shifts. can anyone shed any light on this farce?

How are your working hours relevant to theirs, exactly?

Badly Drunk Boy · 30-08-2011 07:14AM

You can't assume that everyone else's timetable can change just to suit you. Lecturers have other classes to give, as well as other non-class commitments. Also, rooms might not be available for you to use at your special preferred times.

Everyone's circumstances are different. You can't keep everybody happy.

Elohim · 30-08-2011 07:16AM

Mainly spread over several days for scheduling issues I'd imagine.

Dravokivich · 30-08-2011 07:18AM

paky wrote: »

i fail to see your point?

This just re-enforces his point, even though he clearly pointed it out to you.

Elohim · 30-08-2011 07:20AM

In your 12 hour shift are you learning or just doing? Things take time to sink in. Could probably give an entire quantum physics course in under a week but nobody would have a clue what's goin on!

MarkR · 30-08-2011 07:22AM

So that students don't get bed sores.

mconigol · 30-08-2011 07:32AM

geeky wrote: »

Erm... it's to allow time for studying, essay writing and independent reading. Packing everyone in a lecture hall and talking at them is a very inefficient way to learn in truth, and that's why colleges expect students to go off and read or research essays and projects.
Genuinely disciplined students will often treat it as a proper job, coming in at 9 and clocking off at half 5 (or whenever it gets done - just like in 'real life'!). Well, I did that in final year anyhoos.

You're doing it wrong :eek:

You're supposed to turn up to maybe 10% of lectures and then spend about 5 weeks in December/January and again in April/May locked in your bedroom crying to yourself...Well, I did that in final year anyhoos!

veryangryman · 30-08-2011 07:42AM

On a more serious note....

The OP has a point. Of course it is expected for the students to study/do practicals yada yada but whats to stop them doing it in their own time at home (or come into college other days if such is an option)

Anyone living (say) 20 miles from college could then just drive in the 2 days a week.

Its a complete bollokcs anyone having say a lecture at 9am and another at 3pm in the same day. Hanging around the college (only so much pool and perving one can do in one six hour spell) and lecturers wonder why nobody turns up for the late Wednesday/Thursday class

It is actually ridiculous. I was renting locally during college (and busy enough in the latter years to not be so worried about it) but certainly the option should be looked at for earlier years.

You may even be able save a few beans on lecturers wages too, hire them on a more part time basis etc.

mconigol · 30-08-2011 07:46AM

veryangryman wrote: »

On a more serious note....

The OP has a point. Of course it is expected for the students to study/do practicals yada yada but whats to stop them doing it in their own time at home (or come into college other days if such is an option)

Anyone living (say) 20 miles from college could then just drive in the 2 days a week.

Its a complete bollokcs anyone having say a lecture at 9am and another at 3pm in the same day. Hanging around the college (only so much pool and perving one can do in one six hour spell) and lecturers wonder why nobody turns up for the late Wednesday/Thursday class

It is actually ridiculous. I was renting locally during college (and busy enough in the latter years to not be so worried about it) but certainly the option should be looked at for earlier years.

You may even be able save a few beans on lecturers wages too, hire them on a more part time basis etc.

A lot of lecturers are doing research too so they'd still have to be paid. Although it might free up their time to do more useful things.

In my opinion there's absolutely no reason why all college courses can't be delivered online with email correspondence and discussion forums like boards to allow students and lecturers to communicate.

I never learned a thing in 4 years of going to lectures other than trying not to fall asleep. A proper set of detailed, well explained notes is all anyone needs.

Jess16 · 30-08-2011 04:04PM

When I was in college, it was 9-6 Monday to Thursday. With the 2pm finish on Friday spent dealing with the throbbing headache that came from spending most of my waking hours in a packed, airless, dark lecture theatre, writing 8 pages of A4 per hour.

Weekends were spent hunched over a laptop writing essays whilst my friends in gainful employment partied.

I appreciate that this might not be the general consensus but I just wanted to illustrate that not everybody's college experience is the beer-swilling, partyfest it's always made out to be.

connundrum · 30-08-2011 04:21PM

Why does FAS take 5 weeks of one evening per night to deliver a 'Basic Guarding' security course, which can be delivered in 6 hours by a private training provider?

Because people have to prove their raison d'etre, and by stringing out a task you can give the impression that you're needed.

IrishEyes19 · 30-08-2011 04:42PM

Also because theres a tons of other courses going on as well as yours alone. And their times have to be slotted in, and rooms used, and exams taken ect. many courses need the uses of labs, reading rooms, seminar rooms and everyone needs their fairshare, one class couldnt get to have all theirs on a monday or tuesday say and then the other courses have to wait till later. theres a system in place to cater for all

pickarooney · 30-08-2011 04:45PM

Dravokivich wrote: »

This just re-enforces his point, even though he clearly pointed it out to you.

I don't see it either. Is he saying that 'impracticable' is not the right word to use in this situation?

EuropeanSon · 30-08-2011 04:46PM

Mainly because we (college students) have to learn the material, and delivering it in a big rush is not the best way to have us learn it. Any more than 3-4 lectures per day and you won't be able to retain much of the information at all, and retaining the imparted information is what it's all about.

I generally have 16-20 hours per week of lectures, anyway.

TPD · 30-08-2011 05:35PM

pickarooney wrote: »

I don't see it either. Is he saying that 'impracticable' is not the right word to use in this situation?

I went and looked up the definition of impracticable, to see if it was a real word. I'm glad I didn't thank anyone or make judgements on what I thought was a spelling mistake :pac:

neil_hosey · 30-08-2011 05:46PM

what course has 12 hours of college a week?? my course was anywhere from 36 - 40 hours for all four years. what can you possibly learn in so little time!?!?

no wonder we are pumping out so many grads who cant get jobs!

FlutterinBantam · 30-08-2011 05:47PM

paky wrote: »

if you only have a total of 13 hours a week? seems quite impracticable to me considering i work 12 hour shifts. can anyone shed any light on this farce?

:rolleyes:
Good man yourself, you expect college to totally change to suit yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyour requirements.?

Like, change everything they have been doing in the past,just because you came along ? Fcuk everybody else,just suit Pakers.

I don't think you are quite suited for college ,my friend.

paky · 30-08-2011 05:53PM

Dravokivich wrote: »

This just re-enforces his point, even though he clearly pointed it out to you.

definition of impracticable:

impracticable [ɪmˈpræktɪkəbəl]
adj 1. incapable of being put into practice or accomplished; not feasible
2. unsuitable for a desired use; unfit
3. an archaic word for intractable impracticability , impracticableness n
impracticably adv

is he arguing that my use of impracticable is impracticable in that sense or is he pointing out a spelling mistake?

paky · 30-08-2011 05:55PM

neil_hosey wrote: »

what course has 12 hours of college a week?? my course was anywhere from 36 - 40 hours for all four years. what can you possibly learn in so little time!?!?

no wonder we are pumping out so many grads who cant get jobs!

Law is 13 bar the tutorials

sensibleken · 30-08-2011 05:56PM

geeky wrote: »

Erm... it's to allow time for studying, essay writing and independent reading. Packing everyone in a lecture hall and talking at them is a very inefficient way to learn in truth, and that's why colleges expect students to go off and read or research essays and projects.
Genuinely disciplined students will often treat it as a proper job, coming in at 9 and clocking off at half 5 (or whenever it gets done - just like in 'real life'!). Well, I did that in final year anyhoos.

those people are doing college wrong.

OP the rest of the time is to be filled with cheap cider and casual sex.

i miss college

30-08-2011 05:59PM

veryangryman wrote: »

You may even be able save a few beans on lecturers wages too, hire them on a more part time basis etc.

Nonsense. Lecturers will have more than one group for teaching for a start along with all the other duties which take up a lot more time than lecturing like supervising postgrad students, doing their own research, endless paper work, preparing for conferences, writing proposals, trying to generate funding etc etc.

Every time I see a thread on University I'm shocked at how little even people who have gone to university know about what actually goes on behind the scenes.

Its just nonsensical to think you could pack a full weeks lectures into a day, even if it was only 12 hours or so. I used to have about 16 hours of actual lectures but I would have labs 3 afternoons per week also along with trying to learn the stuff you get in the lecture and doing problems etc.

Salty · 30-08-2011 06:30PM

neil_hosey wrote: »

what course has 12 hours of college a week?? my course was anywhere from 36 - 40 hours for all four years. what can you possibly learn in so little time!?!?

no wonder we are pumping out so many grads who cant get jobs!

Accounting is 12 hours a week..in first year anyway.

Parsley · 30-08-2011 06:31PM

paky wrote: »

Law is 13 bar the tutorials

that's cos pretty much everything to be learned in law comes from reading the absolute sh*t out of a sh*tload of books, which you should do all day, every day, if you want to be good at it.

pow wow · 30-08-2011 06:36PM

I only every had classes 2 or 3 days a week here. In the US I had 8am classes and full days 5-days a week.

Why is college stretched over a 5 day week?

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