Entry 1 . My First Impression and Expections of the University Classes,

My first impression when I went to this university was very positive.

  The person I spoke to just made me feel completely at home because he said when I started as a mature student and that’s what I wanted to hear.

He asked me about my experience so far and treated it as though it was something important, something worthwhile talking about and interesting and then he gave me chance to prove myself although I didn’t have the conventional qualifications, to prove myself by doing a written piece of writing which gave me access to the course.

Quite pleased because I felt I was intelligent enough to get onto a course, intelligent enough but not educated enough, I didn’t have the certificates to prove it and this was my chance to do so.

I've no way of knowing really to be honest

I’ve nothing really to compare it without I imagine that obviously with the engineering and those sort of sciences you do need to show that you’ve gone through the steps, yes I can imagine there would be the difference, yeah..

My course is like a general introduction to socio-economic, political, even psychological studies and as you go through from one year to the next you can concentrate more on the areas that you find you are interested in but you don’t regret having done other areas which you weren’t particularly fascinated by because it’s building blocks and you build on the last one before you go onto the next one.  I found it really hard work fitting - think fitting 6 subjects in one year is quite a lot to fit in.  It would be nice if it was just 5 perhaps but that’s life.  The deadlines are really hard work but I suppose you’ve got to have them so that’s okay.  I chose to study full-time so I can’t really complain.

I find the university itself a rather alienating environment.  In the library it is difficult to concentrate - there are always people chatting, letting doors bang and so on.  It’s mostly minor practical things like the long two bus journeys that I have and the fact that there ís nowhere to base yourself.  You can’t make yourself a coffee - you haven’t got a room of your own, not even a locker.  You have to carry everything there and back every day and pay 82p for a drink, like a shopper going round town.  You can’t find anywhere to have a nap if you’re tired and I love catnapping - it just revives me instantly.  Study rooms get really hot.  The food canteens are not as good as I’d expect but it's great - I could stay all day reading in the library – it’s a fantastic resource.

There ís just so much there - and I think of it as an archive - as time goes on the more and more, the older stuff gets more and more important - the fact that it’s still there because if you compare it for example with the internet there’s loads of stuff on the internet but it’s all pretty current.  The old stuff hasn’t necessarily been archived, it can just be switched off.

Lack of grass roots involvement, choices and accountability - altogether you are treated more like a consumer than a participant but with no customer services hotline.  You’ve very much following a series of chosen paths like levels in a computer game.  The choices are just which subjects, not fundamentals like where, when and how to study  - it’s not a democracy, it’s an institution.  It’s not what I’d expected coming from the voluntary sector where every organisation is run by a committee that the grass roots can contact and appeal to.  You can even put yourself forward to join the committees.  Student Union’s just not the same, to me that’s like being invited to be a critic in the audience, not to have a share in running the show.