Most of the year 12’s that I know are planning to attend university. Whether these are students from my church, year 12s at my current high school or the people who currently attend the Study Lounge… every year 12 i’ve talked to is planning to study some form of tertiary education.
Many thing are going to be the same! There’s still assignments and work to be done, lunch is still better than classrooms and yes, teachers still give a damn if you talk in class.
However, many thing are going to be different.
Most of us expect more free time, less ‘periods,’ and the chance to show off our more fashionable clothes instead of mundane uniforms… but there’s a lot more to it than just that!
Here’s some of the things that the tutors at the Study Lounge found to be the biggest difference between High School and University.
SIZE:
My high school was pretty small, however, I shouldn’t really complained.. we were near a metropolitan area and the school itself was very old and was built according to it’s original school cohort.
At university, the first thing you’re going to notice is its size! I’m gonna speak on behalf of UNSW kids, since I go there…. but we have a set a staircases that is longer than the longest width of my whole high school’s grounds. Similarly, I’m currently in a lecture with 250 people and one of my friends jigged the lecture because walking to it would’ve taken ‘at least 10 minutes.’ Funny thing is… UNSW is fairly average in size, possibly even small.
SUBJECT POSSIBILITIES:
Not sure if this is a good thing, but subjects such as English aren’t compulsory and your decision to do PDH/PE-like subjects isn’t going to be altered by ‘low scaling.’ Your courses are going to have different majors and minors and even within these major/minors there are different strands. Once we consider “elective” courses such as “the psychology of love, sex and attraction” and “New Testament Greek,” those who like variety should be thoroughly pleased.
STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY:
In high school, I had to put my hand up and ask if I could visit the toilet. I did that the other day in a tutorial and the look on my tutor’s face probably meant that she was thinking: “why did you ask me that you idiot? You’re inhumane!”
Attendance isn’t taken in most lectures. Your are required to generate new ideas and think critically about the things you’re taught. There is “homework,” but no one is going to check it, you have to learn it independently. You schedule your own classes and pick your own tutors. I think you get the point….. Essentially, you’re expected to act like an adult and make your own choices.
BTW, just looking through University policies: there are actually laws that prevent teaching staff from giving information about your results to anyone other than the student.
So yes, your parents don’t have to know how you’re doing.
CONTACT TIME:
Contact time is pretty much just the amount of time that you spend attending ‘classes.’ At high school, this is around 30 hours a week. Generally, at university you are going to have much less contact time. Doesn’t mean that you spend less time studying, it just means that you don’t really hang around teachers. For degrees such as Commerce, Arts and Education, look for around 15 to 20 hours a week. However, some degrees such as engineering tend to have more, reaching 30+ hours a week (you might want to check with an engineering student).
CULTURE:
In high schools, students originate from different ethnic backgrounds, religions and communities. Interestingly, disparities aren’t that defined. Everyone is essentially a student.
At university, as students grow in responsibility and mature, their contexts and values shine through. So religious groups are prominent on campus, and it’s up to all of us to be respectful.
If you guys want more details, check out this graph by the UNSW learning centre: http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/firststeps/differ.html
But whether University is going to be a huge change or not….. I think it goes back to the ‘student responsibility’ section…. once you’re at uni, your treated like an adult and the world is going to view you differently, so inevitably, there going to be change! 🙂
thestudylounge 