Abstract:
Commuting on that first day in 2016, I overheard two people discussing their research. The topic (science) was incomprehensible to me, but listening in was delightful. I was more used to office-oriented workaday commutes. These would invariably be debriefings about colleagues or clients and the day’s challenges. And here I was, twenty years after completing my BA, returning to undergraduate university life. University! Where people discuss their research on the morning commute! Where there are vast and multifarious libraries! Where books are cradled as you walk across grassy, tree-canopied knolls or vast quadrangles, travelling from one learning indulgence to another! I was (and still am) excited about my studies, and I have great respect for my teachers. But I wasn’t at all prepared for how anaemic the contemporary university has become, nor for how I would constantly notice the differences between my experience as a student in the nineties and my experience now.
Details / PDF:
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