Business Law II class saw yet another record-breaking attendance. Apparently the lecturer from another class decided not to turn up so mine volunteered to take his. Instead of having our lesson in a classroom, we were packed in one lecture theatre. Apart from the students from the two scheduled classes, others from the devil-knows-where also joined us. (My lecturer’s reputation as a tips-giver with a great sense of humor has made him extremely popular.) The number of people in one enclosed space, coupled with the non-functional air con made the place rather stuffy. It was fortunate that my lecturer – I shall refer to him as Santa Claus – ended his lecture an hour before the scheduled three hours. He obviously does not believe in inflicting prolonged suffering.
Judging from the overwhelming support for Santa Claus, I wonder how the other Business Law II lecturers must have felt. A class typically consists of 40 - 45 students so we had 80 – 90 last night – it looked like 110 -120. After accounting for the absentees in our two classes (maybe 5 – 10), we were looking at 35 – 40 students who were bona fide ‘illegal immigrants’.
Indeed, I sympathize with the other Business Law II lecturers. Speaking to a half-empty class is demoralizing enough; coupled with the near-zero response of typical Singaporean students and the whole seminar becomes a Mein Kampf against the impulse of walking out or committing suicide. I believe they should alleviate the situation by doing what Santa Claus is doing. There is a Santa Claus in every lecturer and why not let him out? It levels the playing field: students who have reliable tips have an advantage over those who don’t. Moreover, they get back their students and their charges, I’m sure, will return the flavor of writing them a glowing review in the End-of-Course Assessment. Lastly, I personally would welcome the move. I don’t like to sit through a lecture in an overcrowded room.
Meanwhile, since my University embodies the spirit of corporatism, it is therefore interested in earning more revenue. I have a few splendid solutions. One way to earn higher profits is to cut costs.
Instead of assigning a lecturer to each class, why not remove the non-Santa Clauses? Empirical data has effectively demonstrated that students would ‘jump class’ to another if they perceive i) their lecturer is boring ii) the other lecturer is more interesting and likes to give tips. If the University can find more lecture halls and theatres to dump a few classes in, surely this is a viable and lucrative option.
Assuming one lecturer charges $150 per hour, a three hour seminar costs $450. Multiply that by 6 for a 5 credit unit module and the total teaching costs amount to $2,700 per class. This is a substantial amount. If there are ten lecturers for one module, and if you reduce the ‘dead weight’ by half, then the University saves $13,500 per module! As there are easily 20 modules in a Business degree, multiply this by 20 and the figure becomes an impressive $270,000! As the
Santa Clauses aside, we wouldn't mind having these as well...
The problem is finding more lecture halls. If I am not wrong, the University is expanding its compound. The new wing/building should comprise lecture halls ONLY. One may argue that this drastically reduces the quality of the education the University provides. There are less opportunities for students to interact with the lecturer and group-forming for assignments would be troublesome because nobody would know whom his classmates are. Again, ditch the rule that students can only from groups with his classmates. We are talking about HOLISTIC education here! Why impose unreasonable restrictions? Wouldn’t students benefit from working with people from different fields and courses? The world is becoming a global village, and the University should recognize this and embrace heterogeneity, even though this may take the form of cross-faculty interaction.
Fears of students receiving a substandard education is unfounded. It is unfounded because it is simply irrelevant. When have the University concerned itself with the welfare of its students? After the government subsidies were announced, the University cancelled the free refreshments for its part-time students. If I am not wrong, it also raised the school fees. Not concerned with this windfall, it has continued to provide students with notes and case studies that are riddled with errors. A few are so poorly written I dare say I wrote better when I was in primary school. Not satisfied with our already excruciating workload, the University even makes us do video presentations and demands that we submit these video files online. When the system inevitably collapsed, we had to submit our video file in a CD (which we had been doing prior to this ridiculous requirement.) The University cares for its students?! I have seen a hyena show more due care and diligence to a piece of carcass!
Why bother about us students? We are just commodities. We pay money and the University gives us our degree so that we can use it to make more money. It is simple economics. Supply and demand. Back to the ‘right-sizing’ of its lecturers. After the non-Santa Clauses have been made redundant, the remaining ones will be Santa Clauses and if they give their hints and tips with wild abandon, there should be no reason why students will not pass. Indeed, the high passing rate would encourage prospects to enrol in the University. With the increasing demand for places, the University can use this as an excuse to further increase the course fees. Again, supply and demand rules. Also it might be cheaper for the University to rely more on lecture halls rather than classrooms. I don’t know how much it costs to rent a classroom in SP, NP or BMTC, but less reliance on classrooms may provide opportunities for cost-cutting.
By reducing the incurred costs and increasing the revenue, the corporation will improve its annual turnover substantially. This translates to more bonuses for senior management and the increased expansion will lead to more jobs being created. The enhanced reputation of the corporation resulting from the improved passing and graduation rate creates a goodwill which although is intangible, cannot be understated. This leads to more profits and the improved success rate of this paper mill to churn out graduates will allow them to overtake SMU, NTU and NUS as the de facto standard of education in
Take me to your...university.
No comments:
Post a Comment