Sense and Sensibility?

[mothwing]

The first week of semester, featuring:

• my ticket still not having arrived
  
• someone deciding that 48 students is a good size for a frggin' advanced seminar (you know, the one with all the really focused work on the more difficult theoretical texts and all)
  
• a particularly bright Professor not even limiting the number of people she'd admit to her course, which resulted in 186 friggin' people showing up ("Joa. OK. Dann werde ich mal die, äh, Anwesenheitsmatrix rumgeben.")
  
• the particularly bright Professor deciding to just admit EVERYONE.
• an idiot deciding that a room cut out for about 20 people (at least twenty people if you think that students need desks) is a good size for a seminar of 55.
  
• me learning that the deadline for finding an internship for the summer and doing that bloody integrated seminar is not in May, as I was SURE it was, but NEXT FRIDAY. Yaaay.
  

On the UP side: we have new computers. Not MORE computers, but they replaced the old, working ones with new ones.

Yeah. Progress.

I really, really don't want to pay this university ANYTHING for a situation like this.

And it's not really going to get better, because it's anyone's guess where the money we pay them goes. Certainly not to the departments.

Comments

[dstroyrofworlds.livejournal.com]

Blarf. I suddenly feel relieved instead of sad knowing that since I am furloughed I will NOT witness such things this semester. I bet it'll be no better here. *hugs* and a good start!

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

:D Lucky devil.

But then, you're lucky, anyway. Isn't your uni one of the far-famed Exzellenzzentren or what they're called? Doesn't that mean that there's money coming your way and you get more Profs and smaller courses?

[dstroyrofworlds.livejournal.com]

Firstly, we did not manage to stay in the small group of "possible elite-unis" for a long time and have been officialy out for quite a while already, so I am not sure if we are not back to the "usual university" group or not. It could be.
And...I am not sure it's allowed to use the money to get more profs. I am really not sure. And if so, we'd get them in medicine and sciences and the special programm for peace-research and such.
I bet I'd not see much of the money in my subjects.

But maybe you are right and I am just not well informed enough. I don't know about Exzellenzzentren and what they are. All I know is that we were one of the possible Elite-Unis but failed.

[moonystone.livejournal.com]

Everytime I hear something like this (and everytime I walk in the chaos that is my first week) I look around and think "Pay? For this?! No way!!!" I'm angered enough to go and throw stones on the next demo.

Anyway, 48 in an advanced seminar does work, I had one like that last semester. It's only sub-optimal, not bad. But admitting 186??? That's insane. And don't get me started on rooms...

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Well, in Great Britain, they think that seminars with 20 people in them are a bit on the large side and students protest about declining standards. They did tell us it was because there are so few Professors, but that doesn't exactly stop the Professors we do have from teaching the exact same course twice, right?

*resignating sigh*

I don't want to give them my money.

[moonystone.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know. Dear Sprang was quite confused when, coming from Oxford (?) to Hamburg, he saw how big the course was. We were 25, he was used to having 5. Well, an easy way out would be appointing more professors... but same course twice is quite a good idea, too.

*joins in the sighing*

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Oxford?!! I hate him. Seriously.

I mean, I think that the British elite Unis do go over the top sometimes, they do have one on one tutorials and I don't really think that's good for getting people to discuss however intensive it is, but everyone, everyone with an ounce of brain knows that it's ludicrous to expect people to seriously work with these course sizes.

[moonystone.livejournal.com]

One on one tutorials?? Goodness...

The introduction course I'm doing tutor for consists of 16 people. That's 8 per tutor. It's great.