How sad! So very sad! I am referring to the issue that cropped up early last week between the university and the students on the planned introduction of a compulsory study unit titled ‘Communication and Academic Skills Programme’.
Since it was first reported in the media, we have heard nothing else and, so far, all we know is that a solution might have been found. However, it is still sad because both sides have handled the matter badly and the losers will be the university students and their future employers.
The study unit is aimed to develop the students’ critical thinking and reasoning; their ability to evaluate and strategically process information; collaboration through the mediation of opposing views; self-direction through metacognitive skills; and creative problem-solving skills. The university claimed that these are fundamental global skills which are required now and in the future, especially at the workplace.
If students need to have it stated in the most clear terms, here it is. A university degree counts for nothing if the person is not capable of thinking critically; is unable to process information and transform it into knowledge; does not have problem-solving skills; lacks self-direction; and cannot evaluate opposing views. I would always advise an employer to employ a person with such skills but having no degree, than someone with a degree but lacking suck skills.
As such, this study unit would have served students now and in future years, and it is a great pity the unit was not judged to be an opportunity which should not be missed.
When speaking to employers, the general complaint about staff is that for every little thing, they have to be told what to do. If one seeks to develop their skills and challenge their thinking, they feel stressed. They want their high salaries but are unable to think about what they are going to give back other than their presence on a chair.
The students’ claim that they were not informed about it and that it was introduced without their consent, sounds flimsy. Most people who know me know that I was a very active student leader, in times when the university’s autonomy was under threat. We campaigned for students’ grants, from which today’s university students are benefitting in the form of stipends. Therefore, it does not come easy to me to state that the university students got it wrong on this issue of the compulsory study unit.
Unless students develop such skills, their academic qualification counts for nothing at the workplace
However, this is where the university could have tackled the issue differently. We need to appreciate that we are living in a more liberal and democratic society and the university cannot ignore this context. If society has become more democratic and more liberal, then the university cosmos needs to become more liberal and democratic.
A further consideration that needs to be made is whether these skills are to be taught in a specific study unit or whether they should be part of a culture that pervades the institution.
I recall what the late and much-loved and respected Fr Peter Serracino-Inglott once told us during a tutorial. He explained that if in response to our assignment he says nothing, it is because it was not worth him providing feedback. If his response is a negative one, then the student should be pleased because it meant that the assignment demonstrated a level of thinking that it was worth his while to comment on. So no comment was bad news and any comment, good or bad, was good news.
What this taught us was that we were expected not to reproduce the lecture notes or scholarly articles in our assignments but to put forward our ideas.
I fear that this line of reasoning has been lost as students are fully aware that what most lecturers expect to read in assignments is a regurgitation of their notes. This has actually been made plainly clear to students from their very first day at school at the age of five or younger.
This then leads to the frustration of employers when faced with university graduates who need to be told what to do next and to have their hand held all the way.
The university is right in recognising the need to develop such skills. It is not right in creating a compulsory study unit as such skills are to be acquired through an open-minded and challenging approach that needs to be nurtured during one’s studies.
On the other hand, students need to be made fully aware that unless they develop such skills, their academic qualification counts for nothing at the workplace.