University students—laziest creatures on the planet or not?     035

Have you driven past a university lately? You may have noticed university students arriving at 9.30 am, 10.00, 10.30 or even 11.00 am. And in the afternoon from 2.30 the marching penguins stream out to get on their buses and trains to go home. Well that makes a long day. But university students commonly do not go to university five days a week. Indeed the total number of hours of compulsory attendance might be in the order of 20 to 25 hours a week only.

Probably you’re feeling a little amazed and possibly quite angry. But there’s more—university students typically have five months a year holiday. Now I’m going to go through this in detail otherwise you won’t believe it. My information source is Universities Australia, Summary of 2016 principal academic dates for Australian universities (and you can read this amazing text for yourself at www.universities australia.edu.au).

I have chosen The University of Sydney but they are all similar. Now not counting summer school, which only some students attend, first term at this university begins on 29 February. Mid-term break is 25 March to 1 April, and then it’s work for about four weeks to 3 June. Most of June is taken up with exams but any one student would only have a few days of exams and say two weeks of study. But after June students begin a month of their winter holiday right through to 25 July, then lectures recommence. But you guessed it—it isn’t long before they have a week’s holiday, beginning on 26 September. Then four weeks of lectures with university basically finishing on 28 October. After that there would be two weeks of exams and then nothing until 29 February 2017.

I have gone through this carefully as I know that most readers will be so angry they will not be able to think straight. It all adds up to about 20 weeks or five months of holiday, and even more for some students. Even supposing that students study one hour for each hour of lecture or tutorial time they have—and that’s a big supposition—it is clear that during a university week, that is when students are actually attending, only 50 hours are consumed with university related tasks. That’s plenty of time off, and of course there are still the five months!

What does this mean for your son or daughter?  Utopia?  Actually, no. It means a chance to engage in personal development, leadership and teamwork, community service, and innovation. Oh, and I nearly forgot, a great deal of extra study. As well as wanting all these new graduate capabilities employers would like to see a grade point average of at least credit level. Distinction level would be better which is averaging 75 per cent or more.

And to be a little fairer some courses at university, such as medicine, are a lot more demanding of time and effort. And we might concede that some post graduate students would have research projects and the like. And some students may need to work. So then university students can be the hardest working creatures on the planet—but make sure your children are in this group, or there will be employment and financial consequences.

All content copyright—Mark Thackray—Australian Educational Services