Comparing King’s College London against Notre Dame

This semester, I have taken advantage of one of the lesser-known opportunities that Notre Dame International has to offer: I am splitting my course load between the Notre Dame London program, and King’s College London.

This means that I am enrolled in two different Universities for the semester, and have been taking three classes with Notre Dame and two at King’s College. Attending two universities, and participating in two completely different systems of education has been an interesting experience from an observational point of view.

But the differences between US and UK educational institutions extends beyond methods of academic instruction to the culture and mindset of students, and experiencing two, almost incompatible systems has definitely challenged my previously established ideas of education and the many ways to learn.

Round Reading room in Maughan Library, King’s College London

First, it is important to be familiar with a few terms that are often used to describe academic situations at UK universities. A module is essentially a class. However, each module typically is composed of a lecture (which is exactly what it sounds like) and a tutorial.

Lectures are just that, an hour where a lecturer stands in front of the class and talks, barely pausing for a breath, about a specific topic (while occasionally veering off into irrelevant digressions) for the entire class period. There is very little interaction between students and lecturers during this time, and most communication happens via email.

For each lecture, there are multiple tutorial sessions depending on the number of students enrolled in that module. This is where debate and discussion take place, with reference to the material discussed in the lecture. Tutorial leaders have a much more interactive relationship with the students, and encourage much participation.

However, attendance and participation are in no way factored into the grading scale of the class. Hypothetically, it would be possible miss every session of every class and still graduate with an excellent degree (in England GPAs do not exist, but degrees are awarded in a hierarchy according to how well you performed). This philosophy was quite a shock to me, especially when compared to the strict ND policy of no absences unless you are lying in bed unable to move.

Yet British universities simply expect attendance. It is not necessary to require it, because people do not tend to miss school unless for good reason. This is part of a deeper philosophy about learning and taking responsibility for education, which is not as present (at least in my experience) in the lives of American students.

In the UK, although more and more people do attend university today, it is more common and acceptable than in the US for people to finish with schooling after high school (they call it ‘college’). So, because it is not as necessary to attend university to get a good job, etc., people who decide to go tend to take it very seriously. They take a responsibility for their education that is not explicitly present in the ND culture or the culture of other American universities with which I am familiar.

Of course, I do not mean to suggest that ND students are lacking in conscientiousness, but we tend to do the work that is required of us to get an A, and we are satisfied with that. (Or perhaps I am being very cynical and proclaiming to the world my terrible study habits…) Either way, the focus in England is less on grades than on actual retention, comprehension, and use of knowledge. True learning takes precedent over the final marks.

This mindset is particularly evident in the frequent use of ‘formative assessments,’ which are assignments that do not in any way have an impact on your final grade. For one of my classes, I was assigned two 1000 word papers to write that will have no bearing on my grade for the course. Perhaps I should not admit that when the due date for the first of the two arrived, I had not completed it. Although my intention was to try, when it came down to writing something that in my mind “didn’t matter” I just didn’t want to make the time for it. And, I suspect that if I had, it would have been of poorer quality than if I knew I were being graded.

Yet this experience in particular raised questions in my mind about what my priorities are with my own education. Am I truly interested in the quality of my work? Or am I just in it for the grades? What is the balance between being invested in your final marks and dedicating yourself to the cause of learning for the sake of the knowledge?

Balcony overlooking Thames from Somerset House and King’s College London

Truthfully, I think that this challenge, not only of attending another university in a different country, but to re-think the way I am approaching my own education, has been one of the most productive and interesting experiences that I have had while abroad.

Gaining insight into another kind of thought process, especially in a place that is in some ways quite similar to your own, has helped me to gain insight into my own experiences and predispositions, which I otherwise might have assumed to be universal.