The personal, academic and professional growth that takes place at universities in our country is what helps build a strong civil society in Canada. Finding ways to improve the engagement between faculty and students by investing in Higher Education will go a long way to help develop students that are ready to succeed as members of a productive, innovative workforce and as engaged citizens in our democracy. A bright future for Ontario and Canada depends on higher education.
I started school this year because I hope to go into law. However, by my second year I had to start working because my parents couldn’t provide me with free rent anymore and I had to move out. My work schedule is always shifting and when others don’t come in for their shifts I am called in. The problem is that if you say “no” to too many shifts you will stop getting slotted in.
So I find myself always stressed out because I have to balance work and school so much but yet I need the money to live. I have some OSAP but not enough and I am scared of being so far in debt I won’t be able to repay. Getting Interest Relief is hard and if you default on loans you can’t get any more. I’m just stressed between work and school and I can’t study or write papers the way I want. I was talking to some people here who told me to go to counseling for my stress. I don’t need counseling. I need money.
I enjoyed my university experience. I had great professors and incredibly intelligent classmates. If I had some additional bursary or loan money, I would have been able to work less and get engaged more. I hope those coming after me have a better opportunity to do so.
In my class, last semester, there were not enough desks for one of my classes. After the first two weeks of finding chairs and sharing desks, enough students had dropped out of the class or stopped coming that we were able to have every in one chair and one desk. When it was time to write our mid-term tests, students showed up who had not been attending class which, unsurprisingly, meant that there weren't enough seats for everyone to be able to write their mid-term exam.
In a panic, our professor sent one student to write in the hall and two students to sit on the steps beside the desks and write on their laps.
Not only was this a terrible way to write a mid-term, but the expectation that someone writing on their lap has the ability to do their best on an exam is absurd.
In all of our new buildings at school, the traditional desk and chair has been replaced with seats bolted into the ground and a long table stretching the width of our lecture theatre. You can fit more students into a class this way. My first year biology class has so many students that we're sitting elbow to elbow with the person beside me. Other than being a bit uncomfortable, it's not unbearable during lectures, as long as you can stretch out after an hour, which is not always the case. It is unbearable and actually unfair, however, for when we write exams.
Sitting elbow to elbow with people while writing a difficult exam is uncomfortable and unfair. Sometimes, just to not be seen as cheating, I have to keep my head down for the entire time, because my neighbours' exams are so close to mine. I've even had friends accused of cheating just because they are so close and it looks like they were looking. They weren't. No student should have to endure these conditions to write a mid-term. Mid-terms are stressful enough. A classroom needs to be built to be a functional and quality learning environment, not a room where students can be shoved into as tight as possible.
At my university, because of increasing class sizes, we no longer write our final exams at school. We write them at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The first time I wrote there, I had to get a map from the Go Station to figure out where to go, walk there, leave my jacket and back pack in a big pile and sit among thousands of other students writing exams. It's a horrifying way to write a final exam. Some people even had their winter jackets stolen while they were writing their exams!
The university reported that it costs them $18,000 a day to rent the space out. Our exam period lasts for 3 weeks. Couldn't this money be better used elsewhere? Couldn't our class sizes be kept smaller so that the university isn't scrambling to test more students than it can accommodate?
I completed my undergrad degree three years ago and started my MA this fall. I was astonished that some of my classes were as large as classes I had at the undergraduate level. I though that our lectures and seminars were supposed to promote discussion and interaction with my colleagues as I start my research. Instead, I'm disengaged and have no meaningful contact with my professors.
I was also amazed to find out that one of my professors was working on her PhD. Having a professor without a PhD teaching an MA class is unacceptable. It is clear that due to underfunding, my department is cutting corners to make ends meet. Unfortunately, its us who lose out in this equation.
When I entered graduate school I thought I would have a lot of time to work on my research and explore ideas. Instead, I’m running around working two jobs and never have any time to even get the readings done for my courses. It will probably take an extra year for me to finish a one year M