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Unpopular opinion: I wish Edi had more uni contact hours

Six a week isn’t enough


When I was in high school, I woke up at 6:45am five days a week. In addition to the seven hours I spent in a classroom every day, I would stay at school for at least two hours after it finished to get started on my homework or go to practice. Most days, I didn't get home until 5 or 6 pm.

Now, as a third year university student, I feel personally injured after an 11 am seminar that lasts less than two hours. I don't like being this person. I don’t want to struggle to make it to uni two days a week.

Currently, my English Literature degree only requires six contact hours a week, and now this may be an unpopular opinion, but I want more of them.

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When you spend more time at Teviot than your seminars

I'm actually a pretty self-motivated person, but the little time that I spend in a classroom or lecture just doesn't work for me. Maybe you're one of those people who just uses their limited class time as an excuse to go out every night. Honestly, more power to you.

However, being in the library ten hours a day because you have nothing else to do isn't exactly better. I don't care what degree you're doing. There is only so much time you can spend working on your own before it becomes counterproductive. At a certain point, you're no longer learning, you're just being in the library for the sake of telling everyone that you are.

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Be honest, how much do you work at the library?

This is one of my biggest issues. Limited contact hours means sporadic feedback and very limited face time with the people who are supposed to be teaching you. Learning does not happen by spending six hours reading and then less than an hour talking about it.

More importantly, I happen to really like talking about things. It's why I chose English Lit in the first place. It's one of the biggest letdowns of my degree that I barely get to do it.

Finally, I'm in my third year. I have just over a year left of university, and then I'm off to join the real world of employment. I'm pretty sure you'd agree with me that I'd be hard pressed to find a job that would let me come in two days a week for a total of six hours (if you do, please tell me where to send my CV). So, how am I supposed to get myself to go in and work all day every day when I've been faffing about for the past four years of my life? It's not exactly a natural transition, and it's one that I'm quite nervous about.

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I've forgotten what central even looks like

I understand that this argument isn't exactly going to resonate with everyone. There are a lot of reasons why limited contact hours work for people, including those who rely on part-time jobs or need time to participate in societies. And I get it, you STEM people go in 50 hours a day and haven't slept since primary school.

Nonetheless, I think I could get a lot more out of my university experience if I actually spent more time at university.