We should be refunded cancelled seminars and lectures

When I was in secondary school, I had piano lessons for around five years.

The lessons would be on every Thursday and my mum would pay £60 upfront for each month, amounting to £15 a lesson. In the last year of my piano lessons, my teacher became very unreliable and would often not turn up, despite being paid upfront for the lessons.

When questioned about the missed lessons and how that reflected financially he said: “Oh, it doesn’t matter that I don’t turn up. It doesn’t matter one bit. if I don’t turn up, you still have to pay, even though the lesson never happened. If you don’t like it, you’ll just have to go elsewhere.”

“Ok” I said.

Agreeing was the easiest way, and so it carried on – the lessons were paid for but some of them were never actually taught.

Actually, that never happened. The whole story is made up. It is simply there to give you perspective of how stupid and ridiculous it is to pay for something and not receive what is owed.

For it to then go unchallenged is just another example of how our societal norm has graduated to becoming more accepting to the crush of financial pressures and bombardments. I feel like I am being economically raped, for crying out loud.

Here is a picture of a piano

The university needs to do a lot more to compensate for missed lectures.

This can be solved by re-scheduling lectures or seminars or employing more staff so there is more cover available. Even if the designated lecturer can’t be there at least some effort is being made to compensate for a loss of falling on the universities behalf.

Resources and equipment within the School of Arts must account for a lot less financially, as opposed to the medical and science schools. Could the gap in money not be spread more evenly to the side of the arts, with contact hours and resources being improved drastically?

More books need to be available for students in the SJ, as well as computers. Who hasn’t felt the dreaded ache inside, as you accept defeat and realize their is not a computer for you to use in the SJ library?

Next mission: locate and secure a seat. Yes, the struggle is real.

Make no mistake: this is not an attack on members of staff that get ill and need time off. This is an attack on the hacking away of contact time that is already paid for – the uni must compensate for the loss on their part. Better resources, more staff and a general increase of contact time will ensure positive progression happens.

Instead of being all down and depressed about that seminar reading you wanted to discuss, you could use the refunded money to go shopping in L1, or put it towards a few bevs at The Docks.

Alternatively, you could also put it towards the ever-increasing cost of living in the UK, or even start paying off your student loan early. The possibilities are endless.