Do We Deserve a Quality Education?

By Editor 6 years ago

Dilhan Salgado D’Arcy asks the million pound question.

We’ve all had them. The tutor who would rather be anywhere else. The lecture that seems like a silent film without subtitles. Even studying at one of the best universities in the UK, it is more than possible to feel frustrated at the quality of education received. On our very own Stand, there have been calls to improve the “abysmal” teaching standards of certain lecturers. Although many of us may be happy with our tutors, our lecturers, and our courses, dissatisfaction with the quality of the education being offered is certainly not unknown to most students.   

These feelings are certainly not limited to St Andrews. Many of us may remember the case of Faiz Siddiqui, a former Oxford student who decided to sue his alma mater for £1 million due to the “appallingly bad” teaching that he claimed had cost him a first class degree and a more successful career.  

While Mr Siddiqui’s case is of course unique to his own circumstances, it does raise some important questions for all students in top universities – are we entitled to a quality teaching? Are we entitled to good grades? And, having graduated, are we entitled to a high-flying career?  

Although comparing the universities of Oxford and St Andrews may nark some on both sides (Stoxbridge will never be any more of a thing than Doxbridge) it is true that both institutions are competitive. We worked hard to get here, spent weeks, even months revising for exams and tweaking personal statements to meticulous perfection.  

It can therefore be no surprise that students have a right to demand high quality teaching from the university. Although it has been debated whether higher education is a right or an investment, the reality is we are paying to be here. Unless of course you’re Scottish or from the EU and someone south of the border probably does it for you (sorry, friends, couldn’t resist!). But even taking tuition fees out of the question, we are all investing our time, our effort and what are supposed to be the best years of our lives in this institution. So are we entitled to a first-rate education? Of course we are.  

After that, it gets complicated. While we are entitled to an education that allows us to thrive both academically and professionally, the relationship between good grades within the confines of St Andrews and success in the real world is harder to draw. Naturally, a first class degree is more desirable than a 2:1, but to the tune of a million pounds? Does every mark we receive have an intrinsic financial value? Can we quantify the future losses and profits from every essay we slide into a wooden box,every exam we hand to a stern-faced invigilator? Although higher education may be an investment, don’t all investments come with a degree of uncertainty?  

St Andrews students are entitled to a quality education. We are entitled to speak up if the standards we expect aren’t reached. We are not, however, entitled to a smooth, straight-forward and successful life beyond university. No one is. The idea that our grades and the class of our degrees can either guarantee, or form an impenetrable barrier to, our future success is not only misleading but also forces us to second-guess every move we make at university. This outlook is one of the main contributing factors to the stresses that cause so many students to drop out of university altogether.    

As a fellow Stand writer eloquently put it, “University doesn’t and shouldn’t define the rest of your life.” Only we should be able to do that so next time, think carefully about how much that dodgy tutor really affects your life and lets try our best to make it a good one. 

Comments

comments

Tags:

100 thoughts on “Do We Deserve a Quality Education?”

  3. This is really interesting, You’re a very skilled blogger. I’ve joined your feed and look forward to seeking more of your fantastic post. Also, I have shared your website in my social networks!|

    Reply

  6. I am really inspired along with your writing talents as neatly as with the format in your weblog. Is that this a paid subject matter or did you customize it your self? Anyway keep up the excellent quality writing, it is rare to see a great blog like this one nowadays..|

    Reply

  7. Thanks for the marvelous posting! I certainly enjoyed reading it, you’re a great author.I will ensure that I bookmark your blog and will often come back sometime soon. I want to encourage that you continue your great job, have a nice holiday weekend!|

    Reply

  10. Hello just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The text in your content seem to be running off the screen in Ie. I’m not sure if this is a formatting issue or something to do with browser compatibility but I figured I’d post to let you know. The design look great though! Hope you get the issue fixed soon. Many thanks|

    Reply

  13. I have been surfing online more than 3 hours today, but I never discovered any interesting article like yours. It’s beautiful value enough for me. In my opinion, if all website owners and bloggers made just right content material as you probably did, the internet might be much more helpful than ever before.|

    Reply

  14. I was wondering if you ever considered changing the page layout of your blog? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having 1 or 2 images. Maybe you could space it out better?|

    Reply

  15. Hi, I do believe this is an excellent blog. I stumbledupon it 😉 I am going to revisit yet again since I book marked it. Money and freedom is the greatest way to change, may you be rich and continue to help others.|

    Reply

  18. Good post. I learn something totally new and challenging on sites I stumbleupon everyday. It will always be exciting to read articles from other authors and practice something from other web sites. |

    Reply

  19. Good day! I simply would like to give you a big thumbs up for your excellent information you have right here on this post. I will be coming back to your blog for more soon.|

    Reply

  20. I was pretty pleased to uncover this site. I need to to thank you for ones time for this fantastic read!! I definitely appreciated every bit of it and i also have you saved as a favorite to look at new things in your web site.|

    Reply

  22. Hmm is anyone else having problems with the images on this blog loading? I’m trying to determine if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog. Any feed-back would be greatly appreciated.|

    Reply

  23. I was curious if you ever considered changing the structure of your website? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having 1 or 2 pictures. Maybe you could space it out better?|

    Reply

  25. Hi there, just changed into alert to your blog thru Google, and found that it is really informative. I’m gonna watch out for brussels. I’ll appreciate if you proceed this in future. Many folks shall be benefited out of your writing. Cheers!|

    Reply

  26. Have you ever considered about including a little bit more than just your articles? I mean, what you say is fundamental and everything. But think of if you added some great visuals or video clips to give your posts more, “pop”! Your content is excellent but with images and video clips, this blog could undeniably be one of the most beneficial in its niche. Awesome blog!|

    Reply

  32. Nice post. I was checking continuously this weblog and I am inspired! Very useful info specifically the last section 🙂 I take care of such information a lot. I used to be looking for this certain information for a very lengthy time. Thank you and best of luck. |

    Reply

  93. I learn some new stuff from it too, thanks for sharing your information.Wow! Such an amazing and helpful post this is. I really really love it. It’s so good and so awesome. I am just amazed. I hope that you continue to do your work like this in the future alsovery interesting post.this is my first time visit here.i found so mmany interesting stuff in your blog especially its discussion..thanks for the post!You know your projects stand out of the herd. There is something special about them. It seems to me all of them are really brilliant! techwear-x.com

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

THE STAND