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| EDUCATION TRIBUNE |
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I’m glad I didn’t go to varsity Better sleep habits enhance learning
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I’m glad I didn’t go to varsity
OF course, it was different back then. When I flunked my A-levels and emphatically failed to secure a place at university, it was entirely possible to get a job. Right at the bottom of the pile — but, still, a job. Recently, as television screens and news websites were packed with images of students opening their results wreathed in smiles, I felt not a twinge — I don’t even remember my own results day. As far back as leaving my single-sex grammar school under something of a cloud, I was still thought of as having enough potential to study four subjects at A-level. But studying in the very different atmosphere of a higher-education college, I anticipated the outcome with more accuracy than I applied to the exam papers. Academic work took a distant second place to the student union bar, the bands whose tours took in my haunts in High Wycombe and Aylesbury, and a peroxide-blond punk called Tim. It’s ironic that when we skived off from classes, we’d catch the bus into Oxford. There’s no glory to be had in announcing smugly to my 20-something colleagues that by their age, I had a job, a car and no debt (other than a mortgage). Nobody likes a show-off; and it’s worth noting that the oft-quoted fact about many of our really successful, stratospherically rich entrepreneurs — that they didn’t go to university — ignores the other statistic, which is that many of them had a parent die early. Of course, I’m delighted that John and Diane Markwell are thriving, but really, one of them could have died if they’d wanted to give me a proper leg-up. Ah yes, parental influence. To be the first in my family to attend university was a tantalising prospect but, in fairness, if my parents hoped for my academic glory, they didn’t use the “carrot” method — a car for good results, etc. And if they were disappointed when the Bs, Cs and Ds came through, they didn’t show it. Emphasis shifted within a morning to What Happens Next. Luckily for me, I knew at 14 that I wanted to be a journalist and had inveigled my way into a week at Cosmopolitan magazine a year before my O-levels — so a quick course in shorthand and typing got me on the ladder as a secretary at Country Life where, admittedly, I stuck out like a sore, unaristocratic thumb. All the other secretaries brought in little suitcases on Fridays, as they were travelling home to daddy’s rural stately home; I was going back to a shared flat in South London with two girls who split the cost of a single pizza according to how many slices they’d had. Within a year I’d conveniently “forgotten” my shorthand and become the lowliest features assistant on a fabulous women’s magazine. A sub-editor taught me more about erudition and grammar in a few curt red-pencil sessions than I might have learnt from three years on a media studies course. I still speak to the then-editor of that magazine, Josephine Fairley, and recently she told me that leaving school at 16 and being the editor of a magazine by 23 was the making of her. Since she went on to found Green & Black’s chocolate, she’s no slouch as a role model. Although I have no regrets about not attending university, I can see that for some it’s a joyous mix of high-minded study and a great deal of socialising. Learning for its own sake is a delightful concept — although this seems a rather outdated understanding of university that few of today’s A-level students, with their eyes on a career, as well as educational prize, would recognise. Did I miss out on the very fabric of student life (I’m told)? Er, no. Although I do remember the shift from being at home with parents downstairs to being in charge of my own rented house without the cushioning years of halls/fellow-student flatshare as a fraudulent take on being a “grown-up”; but the friendships I made in those early shared canteen lunches and drinks after work remain close today. There’s a postscript to this story: I’m now the parent of a teenage boy. My aspiration for him is not academic — I don’t want to see him struggle to achieve grades that are beyond the vast majority of boys in local comprehensives, battle to get a place on a course that probably wouldn’t have been his first (or even second, or third) choice and then saddle himself with debt for at least the following decade. The first time we had the “Mum, did you go to university?” conversation I could feel the “awkward” flag fluttering in the breeze. How could I push him to get off the PS3 and into a book when I clearly hadn’t bothered? By pointing to the three years between 18 and 21 when I worked very hard for not much money and doggedly followed a career path, I’m able to show him that not going to university is not the “easy” option, it’s a different option. My third boss bought me an alarm clock as a leaving present, an attempt at humour, rewarding the 12-hour, no lunch break, always-on-call year I spent thinking I might like to concentrate on fashion (I never ventured back into that category). I shouldn’t let my experience colour his — the job market is very, very different now. A 16- or 18-year-old boy without many qualifications looking for that first rung on the ladder will look for a long time, and probably in vain. But I do hold out hope for the vocational course and apprenticeship method. He’s already completed two weeks (at the same age I did my swanning about on a glossy mag) with a master furniture-maker and expressed an interest in carpentry. If the “does anyone know a good decorator/parquet-floor layer/cabinet-maker?” Facebook and Twitter messages around north-west London are anything to go by, he’ll be more than fine. He’ll make a bloody fortune, and he won’t be part of the much talked-of “lost generation”. I do understand that even that option isn’t available for everyone. I suspect it’ll take the modest sums my husband and I might have put towards tuition fees being spent on training. But he will not go short-changed on financial support for learning. I get asked time and again for career advice by schoolchildren, media students and interns — should they do a degree/post-grad/journalism specialist courses? There’s no easy answer, because in an age when a degree is a base-standard for almost any job above bus driver or cashier, it might seem madness not to sign up. But I still believe there’s a place for the entrepreneurial, the ferociously ambitious and the charismatic to enter the world of work in other ways. Even now. And if he learns to earn using tools, rather than software, will my son have an advantage, or disadvantage, when it comes to that other great British benchmark of “growing up”, a mortgage? In the next few years the housing market may have shifted to such an extent that nobody will expect to own their own property. Today, I learned that the college where I flunked my A-levels is now, grandly, Buckinghamshire New University. It clearly has delusions of grandeur, even if I don’t. So all I can say is, both as a person who didn’t go to university, and as the mother of a child looking down the barrel of terror about educational excellence, a disappointing set of results isn’t the end of the world. It really isn’t. The writer is executive editor
of The Independent
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Better sleep habits enhance learning
COLLEGE students could be undermining their own education, simply because they’re not practicing proper sleep habits, according to a University of Cincinnati research. The study, led by Adam Knowlden, a doctoral student in UC’s Health Promotion and Education Program, also holds recommendations for students to form better sleep habits that will ultimately enhance their learning. The study evaluated the sleep habits of nearly 200 undergraduate college students between the ages of 18 and 24 who were not living with a parent or legal guardian. The study included 130 females and 67 males who were mostly first-and-second-year college students. The majority of them also worked either full or part-time jobs as they were going to college. The study surveyed students’ sleeping habits over a 24-hour period against national recommendations for adults to get at least seven-to-eight hours of sleep. Only 24 per cent of the students who were surveyed reported getting adequate sleep — 54.8 per cent reported getting under seven hours of sleep, while 20.8 per cent reported sleeping more than eight hours. Short-term effects of inadequate sleep affect concentration and memory, which is what students need to learn and to pay attention in lectures. “Sleep helps us save energy. It repairs cells in the body. And it’s key for memory consolidation,” said Knowlden. “During sleep, the brain acts like a hard-drive on a computer. It goes in and cleans up memories and makes connections stronger, and it gets rid of things it doesn’t need,” explained Knowlden. “So if a student is sleep-deprived, it affects the whole process,” said Knowlden, adding that “students aren’t able to learn, they're not able to remember, it’s harder to concentrate and it affects mood. They’re working their way through college and they're not maximizing their learning potential.” Knowlden said the survey found that time management, financial concerns and stress management were all factors in why students were reporting they were sacrificing sleep. — ANI |
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Campus Notes THE Centre on Studies in Sri Guru Granth Sahib of the university organised a special lecture on "Global Ethics and World Religions" recently. Dr Daniel.C. Smith of the University of Virginia while delivering his lecture pointed out important global issues like the clash of different countries, selfness of modern man, nature and role of ethics, etc. Talking about the contemporary world, Dr Daniel asserted that America was violating human rights and other fundamental values of mankind. It was spending more money on defence and arms in the name of curbing terrorism than any other country in the world. Different communities were fighting each other just to rule over the other one. He said basic reason of conflict was control over resources, be it Iraq, Egypt or Libya. He said the modern world was following the policy of "quick-fix" as generated by America. Talking about ethics, he said scriptures, taboos maintained by traditions, experience of past and social laws gave birth to ethical values. Differentiating the Eastern and Western perspective of ethics, Dr Daniel said Eastern ethics were inspired by self-realisations, whereas source of Western values was contract between the God and man. He said while the Eastern value system concentrated upon internal knowledge, Western ethics were based on external perception. In fact, human behaviour determined the nature of ethics, he added. Supplementary exams The university will conduct supplementary examinations from September 26, while the semester examinations of teaching departments of the university, affiliated colleges and private students will commence from Novermber 26. As per the university Syndicate decision, all the postgraduate level (regular and private) examinations are being held under the semester system from the current academic session 2011-12. The admission forms can be downloaded from the website www.gndu.ac.in. Book on drafting applications released Dr Jaspal Singh, Head of the Law Department, released a book titled "Drafting of Applications in Civil and Criminal cases" authored by advocate Hardeep Singh. Dr Jaspal said the book would be helpful for drafting the applications in civil and criminal cases. Semester system in PG courses To strengthen and upgrade the teaching programmes, the university has decided to introduce semester system in the postgraduate courses for regular students in the colleges, distance education programmes and private students from the academic session 2011-12. The admission form without late fee can be submitted by September 10, whereas with a late fee, the deadline is October 20. Green Day celebrated The ladies club of the university celebrated the Green Day by planting trees at different locations on the university campus. Dr Sarabjit Brar, president of the club, launched the plantation drive at the university guesthouse and girls hostel on the campus. Rajbir Singh, who is associated with Pingalwara Society, delivered a lecture on the benefits of tree for ecological balance and saving planet. — Contributed by G. S. Paul |
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Engineering
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