I know someuniversity staff hate having to answer to students. Increasingly students are becoming customers,the university providing a service, and the one thing about customers is thatthey are always right (or at least so they think). If a customer doesn't get what they want,they complain and ask for a refund.
The problem is thatstudents don't always know what is best for themselves. Students often have beliefs about how theylearn best, some may feel they don't get anything out of lectures, and to beperfectly honest one's education is one's own responsibility; the universitydoesn't (and shouldn't) care if you fail. It is, however, the university's responsibility to provide an adequateopportunity for all students to excel and complete the requirements of thecourse. In the case I referred to above,the lecturer was providing a better than adequate opportunity for learning, butthe students didn't understand the methods being used and didn't like it; theonly mistake the lecturer made was perhaps not communicating to the studentswhy he was teaching the way he was but he has probably been teaching for quitea while probably didn't feel he needed to justify himself to students with noteaching experience. Assuming theuniversity is holding up it's end, the students should trust theuniversity.
It is not uncommonto hear students complaining about the relevance of their course. Students go to university to get a job. Of course, this is not always the bestdecision considering one can easily get a well paid job by driving a truck on amine site... bachelor degree not required. Students want to learn skills they will use later in their professions,but they ignore the fact that the average person will change jobs many timesduring their life; what one really needs is transferable skills. Universities do understand this and, believeit or not, they often talk to industry about what an employer wants in agraduate. What employers increasinglywant from graduates are better communication and critical thinking skills;that's what you learn at university. Ifyou want vocational training then you go to TAFE.
To be fair, a lot ofacademics are better researchers than they are teachers. Often, experts in a field are terrible atexplaining their field to others because they will subconsciously assume thateveryone else has the same knowledge base that they do. Everybody does this, we are all cursed withbeing ourselves, and that's why often the best teachers are those who struggledto learn a concept themselves so that they can empathise with students who maybe struggling. It doesn't help thatacademics are ranked based on their research output; there is very littleincentive to be better teachers when what will get you a promotion is writing morepapers. Despite this, I have met someacademics who are very dedicated to their students, and it is nothing short ofcriminal to assume all academics only care about their research.
So, what are wegoing to do about it? Fundamentally,students need to realise that the university isn't the enemy; most lecturersactually want their students to do well, if only because it reflects badly onthem if their whole class fails. Takingan antagonistic stance towards the university staff achieves nothing. Students should provide constructive feedbackto their teachers about what they feel works for them. Likewise, students should understand why theuniversity may do the things that it does; this means a degree of transparencyfrom the university and a degree of interest from the students.
There are two otherthings that really should happen. As asociety, we should value education for education's sake. Education should not be seen as a means ofearning a lot of money later on, it should be undertaken for its own meritsbecause society values well rounded individuals who can think critically andcommunicate effectively. To that end,academics should get recognition for good teaching as well as good communityoutreach. Universities need to regaintheir position as a place of public learning; not just an ivory tower foracademics to ponder the mysteries of life, completely disconnected from therest of the world.
Good educationshould be something that enriches life. It's not just a means to an ends, the "ends" being a decentsalary after graduation, it's about being an intelligent and informed citizenof the modern world. We need to changeour attitude towards education, education needs to be transparent, and studentsneed to actually talk to their lecturers (a radical idea, I know) and take an active role in their own education. Student interests must be represented, but in the manner of constructive dialogue. Then, and only then, will students be gettingthe most out of their time at university. Hell, you might even get a job at the end of it.
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Further reading:
There's so much more to say about education, so here are some good articles about why universities have to change their practices and why it is important to have an educated society. Also, there's a fantastic RSA talk about education in general which is certainly worth watching.
Science education the key to a better public debate - TheConversation.edu
