eat, drink, travel

Thursday, February 22, 2007

you know how everyone says that going for exchange exposes you to a different academic experience? over here, i'm frustrated with the way that history lessons are run. there are no tutorials, two lectures a week (but they are only an hour long each time). this means that the contact hours are most likely 1/2 than that of NUS history classes. i wanted to do the more advanced classes, ie final year modules, but was prevented from doing so by my exchange university, they (both the administration and the lectureres) said that the modules would have been too difficult. i appealed for help from the Dean's Office back home, but the reply was terribly 'law-by-law', 'you will have to abide by the rules of the exchange university'.

so i ended up with courses in the intermediate level. well, i thought that they would be fine, or at least, intellectually stimulating, given that i'm taking courses which are not readily available in NUS. a seminar was conducted during lecture for my Russia Since 1953 class today, and i felt like i was back in JC. straightforward questions, that required almost no preparation, and i was stopped from elaborating on a point i raised up 'because everyone should have a chance to speak up'. alright, so, one word answers suffice. when asked 'why did Sino-Soviet relations deterioriate in the 1950s and 1960s', it was better to answer 'destalinization' than to show that you have done your research by elaborating on your answer. that's really weird. and then the lecturer went onto how to write a proper essay - don't just throw all the answers in but form a coherent essay according to each factor's importance. if one says that we're spoon-fed in NUS, then its a lot worse over here, an essay is practically constructed before your eyes, everyone just copies and memorizes for the exams (the lecturer did mention how the final exam questions would be somewhat similar to the seminar questions). there is no real debate about issues, everyone just takes them at face value, real debates don't seem to be encouraged.

and then there's the Enterprise class. i don't even feel like i'm learning anything, statistics are just ranted off - why there are lesser female entrepreneurs, how many SMEs in Britain/Europe, which countries have more enterpreneurs, etc. i took this class because i wanted to try something new over here (and also because my bid points back home are always not enough for business modules) and i thought that given how much entrepreneurship is encouraged in Europe, this would have been a really motivating and stimulating class.

at least i feel that i'm learning something from my Literature module. i enjoy feeling entirely bewildered when i leave the lecture or the seminar (at least we've got an hour of lecture and another hour of a cosy seminar session) and having to read up about it.

i wonder, is it because of the university and the culture here, or did i simply pick the wrong classes to enrol in? i want to get so much more out of my exchange here, more than just waiting for each weekend to swing by to go travelling. i want to learn. and i've decided to do just that. i'll ask for permission from the lecturer to form my own focus for my (one and only) graded essay, instead of just churning out a generic essay on factors/causes/consequences.

Labels: Newcastle, studies

10:06 AM

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leaving the sunny island of Singapore for exchange at Newcastle for six months, to explore what life has to offer on the other side of the world and excite the senses.

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