STUDYING AT UNIVERSITY
to
be published by RoutledgeFalmer in 2003
Studying
at University is intended above all as a
manual for students. It aims to offer guidance to those in sixth forms and colleges
who are thinking about applying to university and want to know more about
university life. It sketches what modern universities are about and what being
a student involves. And it offers advice to new and to existing university
students on how they should set about their studies. It is thus a book to be
referred to again and again over the years of sixth form and university study.
There are, of course, many books of advice for students. This one differs for three reasons. First, it is written not by a professional educational adviser or psychologist, but by an historian who for more than twenty-five years has been teaching in higher education, both at what was then a polytechnic, and later at a research-led university. It thus reflects varied experience of teaching a demanding subject, rather than contrived experiments or explorations in theory. Secondly, it combines an idealistic defence of university study at its best and a realistic assessment of what being a student means in practice in a world of underfunding. It shows what students can achieve but it also describes realities. Thirdly, it reflects my experience as an historian in that I believe firmly that students will study better and have a greater understanding of what they are about if they have some sense of the history - or background - of universities and of the current context, political, financial and social, in which universities find themselves.
These features
make this book unique. It complements the detailed annual guides to universities,
courses and entrance requirements which are largely factual, and offers
prospective students facing difficult choices a way through the thickets of
information. It complements the practical guides to student life such as Aidan
Macfarlane and Ann McPherson, Fresher Pressure (1994), which has
chapters on where to live, money, friends, loneliness, sex and relationships,
contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, harassment, food, drink and
cigarettes, exercise and sport, illegal drugs, and then - perhaps not
surprisingly - stress and anxiety: but just one of the twenty chapters is about
how to study! This proposal is distinct from study guides such as David
Rowntree's Penguin because it does not reduce study to a largely mechanical
formula or a series of stage-by-stage exercises drawn from educational
psychology. This book draws instead on years of practical experience of
university teaching. The belief underlying this book is that students will
study better if they understand what universities are about. There is nothing
in print that offers the realistic assessment of universities given here. More
half a century ago Bruce Truscot [pseudonym of Professor Allison Pears] wrote
for Penguin a classic account of the Red Brick University (Penguin:
1950) (and associated works such as First
Year at University (1947)): in its characterisation of universities and
student life, this book attempts to do what Truscot did so splendidly for the
universities of his time for the universities of the present day.
Doubtless this
book will be most valuable for those thinking of studying history and subjects
in the humanities and social sciences. But while I have drawn on my experience
as an historian and in places chosen historical examples to illustrate my
points, those points are intended to have more general significance. And
students of different subjects can usefully reflect on what it is that makes
their subject distinctive.
Introduction
Acknowledgments
1 Beginnings
and developments
PART TWO: WHAT
UNIVERSITIES ARE ABOUT
2 What
makes universities special
3 What
makes some universities better than others
How
universities are funded
The funding of research: the best
guide
Why research funding matters for
students
Making your application
Mature students
If you are not a high flyer ...
Take a look
4 How
you can benefit from studying at university
5 Are
too many students like this?
6 Before
you come up to university
8
Lectures and lecturers
9
Classes, seminars and
tutorials
10
Computers
11 Preparing
essays and assignments
12 Writing
essays and assignments
13
Revising for examinations
14
Examination technique
15
Feedback: how am I doing?
Study skills?
The first
chapter offers a brief sketch of the development of universities, drawing
special attention to the rise in student numbers. The second chapter maintains that
what makes a university distinctive is the research that lecturers do, and
explains exactly what research means. The third chapter rejects most of the
conventional criteria used for ranking universities and suggests a
fundamentally different approach, based on the funding that universities
receive: this is the most useful criterion that prospective students should use
in choosing which universities to apply to. The fourth chapter sets out an
ideal of what university students can achieve. The fifth chapter shows how
students commonly fall short of such ideals. The second half of the book,
divided into ten chapters, offers practical advice - distilling my experience
of teaching over twenty five years - but these tips are designed to encourage
students to reflect on what they are doing and on how best they can take
advantage of studying at university.
CHAPTER ONE Beginnings
and development
How did universities emerge? How did they come to be as they are now? This chapter begins with a brief sketch of medieval universities (characterised by fixed syllabuses, organised teaching, licenses to grant degrees). It then outlines nineteenth century developments - the University of London and 'Redbrick' universities - and emphasises in particular the waves of expansion in the later twentieth century. Particular attention is given to the numbers of students: for example, the striking detail that there are now as many university students, 54,000, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne alone, as there were in the whole of the United Kingdom just before the Second World War.
CHAPTER TWO What
makes universities special
Research is
what makes universities distinctive. This chapter sets out to explain what
'research' means. It begins by sketching the differences between teachers in
schools and university lecturers, and by looking at how people become
university teachers. Research is defined as studying intensively, doing things
at first hand, taking nothing on trust, searching for patterns, discussing
findings with colleagues, writing and publishing articles and books. That their
teachers are actively engaged in research greatly influences the experience of
students. It is if they are similarly attracted by the prospect of taking their
studies further in depth that students benefit most from their studies. This
leads on to a warning to prospective students to be cautious about embarking on
supposedly vocational degrees unless they are indeed sure of their vocation.
CHAPTER THREE What makes some universities
better than others
Prospective
students often feel overwhelmed when deciding where to apply. This chapter
urges them to disregard the league tables that newspapers have increasingly
been publishing that supposedly show the 'best' universities. Such league
tables lump together many different so-called 'performance indicators', and,
above all, are too heavily based on official surveys of research and teaching.
Unfortunately both Research Assessment Exercises and Teaching Reviews are
deeply flawed, and prospective students should not, for reasons explained here,
rely on them for guidance on the relative standing of different universities
and departments. Instead, this chapter claims that the quality of the student
experience depends on how well a university is funded. There is a brief outline
of what universities need funding for - the salaries of lecturers, buildings,
libraries, laboratories and equipment, computers - and how they are funded.
Prospective students are then advised that they should consider carefully the
tables presented here that rank and group universities in terms of their
funding for research. Why and how such research funding affects students -
something that may not immediately be obvious - is then explained. And that
leads on to tips to prospective students (both high-flyers aiming at Oxbridge,
and mature students aspiring to study at their local university) on how to make
the best choices, and how to formulate their applications.
CHAPTER FOUR How you can benefit from
studying at university
Most students
go to university more in the expectation that the experience will prove of
benefit in their later careers than from love for their chosen subject. This chapter
sets out the transferable intellectual skills that students can hope to
acquire. It is a deliberately idealistic vision.
CHAPTER FIVE Are too
many students like this?
'How many
students do you have in your department', a professor was often asked: 'about
one in three', he habitually replied. Many students drift into university
because it is a rite of passage, because everyone they know does, because the
social life is enjoyable. Such students do not really make the most of their
studies. This chapter sketches the realities of the lives of all too many
students.
PART THREE: HOW TO MAKE THE
MOST OF YOUR STUDIES
CHAPTER SIX Before you come up to
university
Many
about-to-be students are confused about what, if any, preparation they should
do. The advice offered here is that they should do what would deepen and extend
their background knowledge and understanding of their chosen subject (for
example, a prospective history student could make a point of getting to know
buildings from different historical periods).
CHAPTER SEVEN Routines of study
This chapter
emphasises that university students are expected to study under their own steam
without detailed daily supervision. Students should therefore plan their time
so that they work efficiently. Advice is offered on how much students should
study: the purpose of study is not to work so many hours, but to master a
subject. University students should expect to be stretched but they should not
worry about their studies.
CHAPTER EIGHT Lectures and lecturers
Lectures are a
staple of university teaching. Students will derive the greatest benefit from
lectures if they think about the different styles of lecturers and respond
accordingly. Students should practice taking notes: the best notes are designed
to give someone who was not present a vivid impression of what was said.
CHAPTER NINE Classes,
seminars, tutorials
Seminars and
classes have increased in importance (though also in size). Their success
depends upon the preparation of students and the skills of teachers. Here
students are advised on how to get the most from them. There is also a
consideration of the special demands of Oxbridge-style tutorials.
CHAPTER TEN Computers
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Preparing essays and
assignments
Students are
expected to read widely: this chapter offers advice on how to read and how to
take notes.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Writing essays and
assignments
Essays,
projects, dissertations increasingly contribute to the class of degree students
take. This chapter offers advice on how to plan, structure and write such
assignments.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Revising
for examinations
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Examination technique
Examinations,
while no longer the only assessment that counts in most universities, remain
important. These two chapters offer advice on revision and on techniques to use
within the examination room.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Feedback:
how am I doing?
Most students
feel anxious about how they are doing. This chapter explains the difficulties
in giving speedy feedback and encourages students not to worry about their
progress.
CONCLUSION Study skills?
The total text
is currently 48,000 words; roughly equally divided between the first two parts (chapters
one to five) and part three (chapters 6-15).
The market for
such a book is large. The most important market is that of students. There are
over a million university students in the UK: every year over 300,000 new
students take up university places. Prospective students will find this book
invaluable in making decisions about going on to higher education, and then
when making applications; new students, and students already on course, will
find the tips in part three on how to make the most of their studies especially
helpful. For them, this is a book to read through but also to refer to again
and again: they would thus benefit from buying their own copy, rather than
relying on the library.
But this book
is intended to appeal to three further audiences. The first is that of parents.
Many parents have little personal experience of universities, while the great
changes that have taken place in the past decade mean that even those who are
themselves graduates risk being out of touch with latest developments. The
second is that of schoolteachers. Sixth form teachers in particular will find
this book's insider's guide to what is happening in higher education invaluable
when they advise prospective students on university entry, and also in
developing their teaching as a bridge between school and university study. The
third is that of university lecturers. University teachers are increasingly
being called upon explicitly to teach study skills to their students in formal
courses. They would find this book invaluable in preparing such teaching.
This book is
written with students in British universities in mind. It would also be helpful
for overseas students considering studying in the UK. Much of the discussion of
university study, for example the place of research, and most of the tips to
students nonetheless have a much wider appeal, and there would be some
potential, in the medium term, for treating the text as containing a core on to
which country-specific sections could later be grafted to suit different
markets.
.
G.W. Bernard,
Reader in History in the University of Southampton, where he has taught since
1980, was previously a lecturer at what was then Wolverhampton Polytechnic. He
was an Open Scholar of St Catherine's College, Oxford, where prepared his
D.Phil., subsequently published as The Power of the Early Tudor Nobility:
the fourth and fifth earls of Shrewsbury (Harvester, 1985). His
publications include War, Taxation and Rebellion in Early Tudor England
(Harvester, 1986), (as editor) The Tudor Nobility (Manchester, 1992),
and most recently Power and Politics in Tudor England (Ashgate, 2000).
He has been much involved nationally in matters of concern to the historical profession,
serving on the Steering Committee of the History at the Universities Defence
Group since 1983 (Secretary 1987-90) and twice as an elected member of the
Council of the Royal Historical Society (1992-6, 1998-2001). In July 2001 he
was appointed joint-editor of the English Historical Review.
Studying
at University has two purposes. First, it
offers advice to those in sixth forms and colleges who are thinking of applying
to university. It attempts to sketch what universities are about and what being
a student involves. Secondly, and partly as a way of achieving its first aim,
it offers advice to new and existing students on how they should set about
their studies. It differs from existing student guides because it is written
not by a professional educational adviser or psychologist but by an historian
who has for twenty-five years been teaching in higher education, and thus
reflects long experience of teaching a demanding subject, rather than contrived
experiments or explorations in theory, and because it offers both an idealistic
defence of university study at its best and a realistic assessment of what
being a student means in practice in a world of underfunding.