By now, most of you have heard that there are problems at the University of Mauritius and the most visible consequence is that lectures are only starting next week. This is because senior management has proposed some drastic changes one week ago which have caused myriad of repercussions throughout the university.
People have been talking about lack of space. This is only part of the problem. The bigger issue is the lack of money (as always…)
The solution proposed by the University is to merge all groups of students following the same module together so that the whole class can be taught by one lecturer.
I personally believe this is a good idea provided that (i) the lecture theatre be fully equipped (air conditioning, laptop, RGB projector…) and (ii) the lecture (cours magistral in French) be followed by a 1h supplementary lecture (travaux dirigés) taught by lecturers and consisting of at most 40 students a few days later. Supplementary lectures “give students the opportunity to discuss the lectures and/or additional readings in smaller groups” [wikipedia]
(Of course, lab sessions (travaux pratiques) will stay as they are)
The Computer Science & Engineering department will propose this idea of supplementary lectures to senior management tomorrow and I sincerely hope that the idea will be accepted as a means to save money while increasing the quality of our programmes however contradictory it may seem…
This is how things are done in other universities throughout the world. I see this as an opportunity to make things better at the UoM.
See you all in a few days in UoM 2.0! Hopefully.
An update
16 August 2007: UoM will stay at version 1.0 i.e. there will not be any supplementary lectures.
what about coursework? the work load on the specific lecturer handling more then 200 ? what about interactivity between lecturer and students?
well the idea of “supplementary lecturer” is really nice but will it not be back to the same problem of allocating specific timetable to all batch of 40 students?
Forget about interactivity during the big lectures (cours magistral). Students will need to be autonomous and serious.
You’ll get ample interactivity during the supplementary lectures (travaux dirigés). The class will be small in size (40) and, during the 1h, students will have the possibility to ask question and do exercises. The supplementary lectures will, of course, be conducted by lecturers.
As for the timetabling problems, sure, it will be a massive problem to do that. But, as we want you guys and girls to succeed in life, we don’t really have a choice, do we?
Your propositions seem nice… I think it’s worth give it a try… I’m not that disheartened about lectures being delivered to 150 students as some actually are… I think it will work as you say if the correct equipment is there… One problem that might arise for “supplementary lectures” is the case where students has resits… Even more clashing timetables in view then…
In any case, the student who wishes to follow and understand what is being delivered will be able to do it no matter what the situation is…
While the one who doesn’t give a damn about what’s being done, he/she would not follow even a personal lecture “en tête àtête”…
It just depends on the students in this case…
However, actually I think the “solution” to UoM’s resource problem to which students might not agree with is the de-localization stuff or whatever they call it… Hopefully, final year students won’t be affected by this… hopefully…
It’s not exactly my proposal. Rather, it is the result of hours and hours of deep thinking by some of the top intellectuals of the country :-)
Seriously, some colleagues were at my place until 23:00 yesterday to discuss about the proposal.
I too think that lectures should not be compulsory at tertiary level. If someone does not want to learn, then that person can decide not to come. But everything should be done to help students willing to learn.
My philosophy is that when I’m in teaching mode (the other mode being research mode), I do my best to inspire my students to greatness and to impart high-quality knowledge to them…
For this to be true, I need the support of the university. And this is what we, academics, are asking. Support.
Lectures not compulsory!! now that wud’ve relieved sum of ma stress last year! lol! nah but seriously, if the lecturer is gud, students will want to attend his classes! who wants to attend a lecture where he is only asked to read from the book for 1 whole year!!! Students shud b allowed to decide if they want to attend lectures or not, we’re supposed to b adults anyway!!! From personal experience i kno that charlie never took attendance, yet his classes were alwayz full!! and if i remember correctly u didnt take attendance either in class, only in labs ( i missed the labs but didnt miss the lectures :P)
as for the big 150 student classes, fink its already being done! i remember having a common lecture wiv mechatronics and mechanical engineering while doin electrical engineering for 2 modules, and it worked pretty well!! i fancy not all lecturers will be able to handle 150 students tho :S
either way tests r gonna b way more fun this way ;)….kinda makes me fink of a beowulf cluster lol! aaaah if only i was still a uni!!
Hello Avinash!
I was in classes as big as the one you talk about (hundreds of people).
Outside the class were established some “consultation hours” during which whoever wanted could come to my office and have things clarified, was welcome.
I have to mention that these “consultation hours” were not part of student’s official timetable. Whoever wanted to come, ok, who not, ok too, and by no means were transformed in a “lecture class”.
If the lecture is taught very well, I guarantee that the students who will have unanswered questions will be very few. I always liked to clarify everything right “on the spot”, so during the lectures. It can be done and saves you time, energy, the lecture will be far from being boring and students for sure will not fall asleep.
I cannot emphasize enough that the most important thing is the quality of the lecture. If a high quality lecture from all points of view is delivered, at that point it does not matter if you have to deal with 30 people or 300 people.
And never forget: a high quality lecture can be delivered just with chalk and blackboard… Who can do that, is really in the top of teaching profession. I said this because not having all that equipment should never be an obstacle in not delivering an excellent lecture, no matter how big is the crowd…
As far as uom2.0 is concerned, when i first came to univ i thought it would be like this, that’s good enough.
below is not related to the subject.
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Dangerous to use apple computers
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btw, i read something today, i know a lecturer that might go crazy like that!
read:
http://hackers.mu/bbs/showthread.php?t=1711
muhahaha
+selven
I meant, that’s great :p
as long as if ever there are questions and queries we can still ask that during office hours.
To Irina:
True. A good lecturer can do wonders just speaking. And a crap lecturer will remain crap even if he is using the latest MacBook Pro and the best RGB projector in the world :-)
To Selven:
Who?
To Val:
You didn’t come to my labs!!! I’ll need to check if I can retroactively make you fail :-)
I like your way of saying it, Avinash! :-D
I think its a good thing that students are rebelling…. This is an oppprtunity to change a lot of things for the better. UOM deserve more respect. UOM attracts a lot of good students but unfortunately, UOM does not have the means to get the best out of them. Lack of funds is the main problem… Unwillingness of some people to change the system because it fits them and their ego…
When I was a student at UOM, I was very fustrated with the internet access, the lack of books, the attitude of some lecturers who think that they are people of superior intelligence….I don’t want to generalize but that true for a quite a few of lecturers that I came across.. I am sure that there are really good ones too..I graduated in 2000 so things might have change…
I think as a whole, the students there need much more than they have… More lecturers should be doing research…They should advertize their research to the private sector and try to get funding…Easier said than done I know.. but things need to change….
“cobail” for yearly system
now time to test UoM 2.0 :p
You’ll be happy $?|@$#.
The CSE department has not been able to decide on one proposal to submit and, anyway, the top management of UoM has categorically refused any form of supplementary lectures (as money is scarce)
So, UoM is staying at version 1.0 (or regressing to version 0.5 depending on your point of view)
Next year, there will be classes of 150-200 and even 450 students in CSE (for SSAD). Good luck to all those involved…
Wonder for whom it will be more disadvantageous… who got more to lose in the new system with fewer classes… Teaching staff… or… students… hmmmm… 8-) – I know what most of you guys gonna say anyways…
Time to think… Time to grow… Time to adapt to the desperate situation… or perish…
450 students for ssad?? lol!!! sum1 shud fink bout providing beds n blankets!! twas hard enuf to stay awake during that oh so interesting lecture and that was wiv all the interaction possible in a 45 student class… now wiv 10 times that number…well may the force b wiv u!!
it does seem that the only change thats possible at uom is to change for the worse!! sad really!
we definitely as lab rats, ppl do anything they want with us, version 2.0 seemt good, but regressing to 0.5, that’s innaceptable, Well war begins now, la greve lundi!
Hmm, splash, i wonder whether our whole degree stuff will be damaged because of the whole thing that is happenning around at univ. (Definitivement, no one ever cares, we are just ‘a batch’). :p Tell me am dumb, :p but i would have loved it if everyone started taking weapons and started destroying things around univ or beating up those who are taking decisions high above.
Anywayz i wonder how all this will end. (though am pretty sure that .. power & money always wins against reason here :p, and its the ‘poil’itical leaders and administration dudes who have the more power la).
haha i just thought of something, how will burton manage to survive with sooo much of kids running all around the place and making lots of noise! he’ll go crazy.
Avinash, I’m quite happy by the solutions you’ve raised. I like you feel that such bromidic and outdated teaching methods need a revamp sooner or later esp in a country like ours.
Perhaps you all should check my post(#11) from one of your past topics:
https://www.noulakaz.net/2007/04/12/what-do-you-think-of-the-yearly-system/#comments
Here’s what I’ve commented on April 12th:
“I really think we should get rid of that outdated system of high-school like teaching at UOM.
Why not opt for the Lecture + Tutorial System?
1.5 hours for the lecture and 0.75 to 1 hour for the tutorial. As simple as that but I don’t think the CSE dept would consider working on an even more complex timetable… hmmmm”
Am glad my thoughts correlate with yours to a large extent. :D
not moving to version 2.0???
more classroom has been made available???
‘Core Modules’ like PM have more students. Having lectures in Octave Wiehe in near future may become a reality :D
let’s move to ch@0s :p
I hope if ever i get a degree at uom i wouldn’t have to hide it out of shame on how it is becoming. Why does everywhere i go end up in ruin and in chaos.
My pre-primary school: got closed after i left
My Primary school: Went on ‘renovation’ since i left school, still is on ‘renovation’!
My college: What once made the heart of that college no longer is, they’ve soften too much.
My univ:?
lmao, mo ena 1 soy terrible lor moi mo croire. (ou tou bann dimoune 85 port malheur!)
Quelle poisse! OMG!
I think we found the culprit. People stop looking ;-) Our Union should have served YOU the mise en demeure Selven, not to management…
I have heard that many students in the faculty of law are much favoured.What can you say???
Favored how?
2ds or shld i say 1d b4 uni resumes, n z time tables not even finalised?? no lecturers on our ttables? not even z name of a coordinator!! N We r supposed to b final yr students!! my choice for an elective not even mentioned in the ttable!! Shld we students still b cool?? pfff…chaotic situation!! btw who’s to be blamed?? z mgt, z lecturers??
I have heard that many students in the faculty of law are much favoured.What can you say???
Probably things like “students in the fol has a private section in the library”, or “students in fol won’t and don’t have massive classes”, or “in fol, students per lecturer is lesser than in other faculties”, or you may wanna actually try to be a fol student for a day and follow classes and then be a foe student the next day, what a diff :p
(am sure “sanzma” pas applikE pou zot :p)
just my opinion :p
+sel
interesting debate… so from my point of view:
1) 150+ students in 1 lecture, not really a problem, since they do that abroad, and well we should really stop with that spoon feeding stuff
2) answering to val, i’d say he’s right, when the lecturer makes u read the book for a whole 2 hours, without any interesting input from his part, do we really need to attend lectures? i don’t think so… as for those labs, well i did miss some (lets assume its a few) of them myself, lol, mind you that was not for lack of motivation or interest, avinash’s labs are interesting, but the schedules, its hard to be at uni at 8.30 :s
3) as for supplementary lectures, well i dont think its mandatory, maybe some open office hours when the lecturer will be free to take issues might be more interesting, well i know the guys from FLM do that , particularly for the DE modules, never heard of anything similar in FOE though…
4) selven, dude do u really think ur a vortex of misfortune? lol, i better get my dvds back from you very quickly then! hehehehe, apres bizin amen toi dan n kalimaye! surement ena movais airs ek toi! hihihi
5) “But, as we want you guys and girls to succeed in life, we don’t really have a choice, do we?” avinash, i dont think you can include all lecturers from uni in that we…
anyway good luck to all the guys resuming uni… u’ll need lots of it… enfin zot deza assez lucky zot pa dan ban lendroit couma eastern university… rofl ;)
To M: (1) Please write using something resembling English (2) Any information not appearing on the timetables has not been finalized yet.
@ selven : FOL??? spent all these years at uom n thought it was FLM! n i aint even half drunk yet! damn!!
heard the students union are havin a sit in on monday? now that im aint at uni anymore fings are starting to get interesting! geez!!
nyawyz, sit in or not, the top management will have their own way! the way fings are on UOM, i can count on ma fingers the number of lecturers who really managed to give a decent lecture! to succeed, all the work has to be done at home either way, so 450 studnts or not, aint gonna make much difference imho! maybe fings are gonna get a bit more boring, a bit less like wat university education shud be!, but hey if ur looking for quality education , then mauritius is the wrong place to be! the whole system is shyte (luv that word) rite from primary level!!
trying to change the system is just sum poor old romantic idea that quite simply aint feasible (…y am i finking of the matrix??…must b the beers lol !!)
Well…
UoM yearwise system already did much damage -just look at the number of repeaters… Now, huge classes, dunno how SOME gonna cope… maybe twice as many repeaters next year… quite on the way for this situation…
UTM… rejects of UoM?
Eastern University… Is it a university to begin with?
DCDM Business School… What’s the worth of a degree from an institution where lecturers are fired if a student does not get a good grade or fails?
SSR Medical College… “L’abattoir” – even HSC laureates ‘suck’ there…
“Nou lédication tertiere, ki direction?”, ene bon titre pou MBC kav fer ene debat kot pou koz tou zafer, sauf le probleme en kestion… enfin…
As someone who has left university (in the UK) many many years ago, it seems to be an extraordinary proposition that students are complaining about lecture sizes being too big. I agree that I do not have the full picture and cannot event begin to understand the complexities of the issues surrounding this problem. But, I think we should be clear on one thing: university students cannot expect to be spoon fed. I attended lectures of 300+ students. A university education pretty much means students having to “fend” for themselves. A university education is not what is learnt (spoon fed???) in classrooms but rather the education obtained by constantly questionning and querying what you read in the library or hear in your lectures. Lecturers are there to accompany you, provide support, help you to learn and provide a sounding board for your ideas not to teach you. I have the impression, from reading various blog entries here and elsewhere, and comments, that students at the UOM do not approach their university education from the right perspective but see it as a continuation of their secondary schooling. This does not, in my view, bode well for the future of what hopes to be a knowledge economy. Anyway, my 2 cents worth…
quote csyke its hard to be at uni at 8.30 :s
lol, that you can say bro, I’ve rarely been able to get up that early!
quote val@ selven : FOL??? spent all these years at uom n thought it was FLM! n i aint even half drunk yet! damn!!
:p FOL is the right word that should describe that faculty, :p parseki zot fol ou fou la ba :p (tro arrogant :p)!
The big class thing is good, as this really gives the student a good step forward to go and find what he wants and make his own research.
Its the “doing it in a place where you won’t even hear what the dude is sayin” that sucks.
and the college part., kisanla pou rod re envi all college, sauf pou plan boire :p
and the not enough lecturers part. not enough lecturers means, a small amount of lecturers correcting a LARGE amount of papers (or project), this will definitely provide the lecturers a lesser amount of time to spend per paper (project), which finally results in some haste in correction (its human you can’t say no), which will definitely mean, the work of people may go unnoticed, or mistakes may be left in correction more often…. this results in unreliable marking…student’s career may get compromised :p (enfin i don’t believe in good marks for a career, but definitely this can have a effect on ppl)…. this can also result in… suicide… as i heard a few kids who committed suicide after getting results, so this might rise.
now if lecturers are swamped up with soo much of papers to correct, they’ll get bored of univ, they will definitely get tired of all that shit and finally started teaching mechanically, which can penalise students again, and the whole country, as remember academics are the future of a country (well “supposedly” its true, :p, but this can definitely be false also :p)
+$3|f!$hn3$$
To Jeev:
Mauritius is very different to any other countries. People should stop comparing Mauritius to Europe or anywhere else. The students at UOM are right to complain…. What’s happening is simply outrageous. When I was there, we did not have a decent library… We don’t have a lot of research journals.. Researchers are not connected to online databases mainly because they are too expensive….The situation is very different. UOM students do what they can….
The students-teachers ratio is used as one of the indicator of how good the education system is.. Maybe some universities abroad are not up to standard also…Remember Mauritius has its own characteristics…
@ jeev : The size of the classes is not the real problem, the issue here is the lack of a followup lecture, some sort of tutorial where only a small amount of students are present.
Just like for the yearwise system, it seems only half of a system which works abroad is being implemented here! so students dun reap any benefits at all!!
if im not mistaken the cse department has just got on of the worst performances ever, im talking bout the class graduating nxt month. maybe avinash will care to confirm that! imho the yearwise system, the way it was for us, has been nothing short of a disaster…and uom 0.5 seems to be going the same way!
update 20th august 2007
Went for my first combined lecture of networks,
lecturer missing!! lol
Anyway i heard on news that uom wants to be like foreign universities so they adopted this structure of lecturing!!
Is it?? or they are just taking part of the structure that suits them the most??
as Avinash mentioned they have supplementary lectures + i suppose they have more resources than uom is providing(library, wireless access, forums)!
Ok UOM lack money, you have to do something to remedy the situation but don’t come and lie that that the system is as it is in foreign universities!!!
PS: lectures in R.plaza lol (manke ziste ki pou mette ene la tente devant library )
Hmm, cindy ti p dir mwa something interesting today.
Li dir, vue ki luniversitE la extra envi kass, and that now the whole campus looks like portlouis, we can start bringing in some “marchand ambulant” near the cafE etc.., it will bring money to the univ, uom will be happy, then i thought, wow, what a great idea, we could expand it even more, why not bring “you know what” from zardin compagnie, and put them at work in uom, probably that would bring in money also!
As I said, I cannot comment on the complexities of the situation. But what I said was a general comment on the way in which I perceive UOM graduates see their tertiary education. I can see this with my employees. You need to spend quite some time getting them to learn to think for themselves. For some reason, I do not buy the whole “we cannot compare mauritius to other countries” idea – we are living in a global economy, and your employers will certainly be comparing you to students from other countries. Remember, I can get a work permit for anybody earning Rs. 30K a month, and trust me, more and more employers are looking towards India not for skilled workers in factories but also for professionals (e.g accountants). A whole debate by itself!
I think Jeev is right when he talks about the way most students approach their university life here..Am a part time student at UOM but what surprised me when I first came to UOM is that many students still think/behave in the same way as in “collège”…I dnt see that transition from college life to Uni life…
Many should grow up.I dnt understand why some people thk this whole ‘episode’ at UOM will affect their career, etc.. I really dont see the link coz many thk with a degree its so easy out there!! but its not!! Its all about your personality,ur experience, ur MATURITY…Its all those things combined that will guarantee sm1 a good job once they get a degree..Ive been there I kw what am talking about..Ca fe dja 4 ans ke je trvaille et ne croyez pas ke c avec cette attitude de lycéen ke vous allez avoir du succes..
But definitely, those lectures of 200 students cant be done without supplementary lectures..Like Avinash talked about..
But there’s also this spoon-feeding habit, that students are so used to.. This have to change!!
N Why shouldnt we compare UOM with Uni abroad..dnt forget that Mauritians also go abroad..coming from the same education system as you but they manage there..N when they come back to the country, they r ur serious competitors on the labour market..
N somethg else..
Why dnt u as intelligent students propose that all the money being wasted on ‘TRANSPORT GRAtUIt’ system be given to UOM for the ‘Quality Education’ for the knowledge-based economy some are dreaming of?? ;-)
One productive use of all that money… As u all know system transport gratis coute environs 600 MILLION a l’Etat…Et c 1 zafer bien inutile coz la plipart zelev kapav afford paye bis…
Hi Ishtiba,
This is a FANTASTIC idea! Fight for it!
We tried doing that last year when there was the issue of increasing the fees for already enrolled students, but it didnt work out! one of the major reasons was that it has to b done wiv other tertiary institutions like dcdm and utm, and these guyz aint having any financial problems as far as i kno!
so it would be kinda complicated to come to a concensus about how to redistribute these funds!!
besides the decision needs to come from the government and our students union representatives have been trying to meet the PM for the past 6 months…
p.s: lectures in the raised plaza?? lol sounds hilarious! wat r they gonna do when cyclonic season kicks in next year?
Why not propose this again?? The critical state UOM is in maybe some will thk twice before rejecting this proposal nw!!…Mais Le plus gro problem ladan c tou d’abord fer ban zelev compran ki zot pas kpav gagne touzafer gratuit dans sa pays la!! Am sure many wont agree..will still act childishly..pu fer sit in cette fois ci coz zot pas p gagne transport gratuit ;-)
Concerning UTM n ‘Charles Telfair Institute’etc..
zot pas croire kan ban parents p kpav afford pou paye 5-6 fois pli cher ki @ UOM pu zot zenfan, zot pas pou ena kas pu donne zot pou paye transport LOL..
Donc, this issue of distributing funds do not really arise..Cancel this whole system once for all..O contraire gouvernement kpav gagne ene porte de sortie pou sa stupidité ki zot ine fer avan :-)O moins sa l’argent la pu servi pou la formation de la jeunesse mauricienne !!!
quote ishtiba:I dnt understand why some people thk this whole ‘episode’ at UOM will affect their career
:p I am okie when it comes to big lectures, i am okay when it comes to no spoonfeeding (ohh that i would love to stop that sh!t).
What i don’t agree with is:
>Damned you want to do all this things, you need more lecturers for that, :p why would we need more lecturers?
Well its inhuman for 2 lecturers to correct 500+ papers in 1 month, why? because human is a buggy race, and they’ll get bored and in the end might start to concentrate less on papers (or projects), because over the long run, this will happen, and.. this *might* leave bugs around or the works of others may not be properly read or understood.. so MORE LECTURERS IS NEEDED.
Now, now now, you’ll tell me, what the heck does a piece of paper called a degree has to do with one’s career. You say it doesn’t mean anything when you’ve got skills?
But, probably you haven’t realized that those pour soul that will come out of univ, may get a work opportunity to prove themselves after a long time… WHY? because, to be even accepted in an interview, you will be just a name on a list, and statistics and facts on another piece of paper called a CV, soooo, that guy will just glance at the results, he takes out the best results kids, scraps out the rest, then invite you for an interview, and it is in THAT interview that he will see your skills, this is where that kid who “may not have great marks but yet good skills would have excelled”, but well, too bad for him, he doesn’t get the chance to be tested. So during that interview, the guy will just pick out the BEST among those GOOD RESULTS. It is from that point that you start shining and building a reputation for yourself, hence your career.
Wait before you comment about the career, read more
Yes, there are ways for the guy who didn’t get that great marks to get a bright career, he has to be in either one of these:
>1. Rich
>2. Know someone
>3. Political affiliation
>4. Already made a reputation for himself through previous traineeship (if he had the chance.)
>5. LUCK
else, he will have to wait a long time before he gets a great career, yes if he is good, he will rise, no one can prevent that, but definitely, he’ll already lose confidence in himself or become a drunkard or had a lil job around and l’effet Dilbert inn fini coummencE pou li :p
IshtibaWhy dnt u as intelligent students propose that all the money being wasted on ‘TRANSPORT GRAtUIt’
Bien dit, mais le problem c, there’s more ignorants everywhere, so removing that, would mean for the guy who placed that system “i will lose votes”, or if someone else’s get elected and says he will remove that, then, ppl will say “linn kokin nou zenfant so kass transport”, which would mean for that guy “no more votes” :p
Basically, that guy who made that has in a way, made opened a trap which we can’t get out.
Quote VaLhave been trying to meet the PM for the past 6
Ahhh, this guy will play hide and seek… until everything calms down. Even if you get to debate with the PM, he knows his power, his power resides in total control of a great part of ppl who don’t understand anything (mostly VERY old people), he will then come with arguments like “Zot trouvE, mo p rod donn tou zot zenfant et ti zenfant ledikation, mais get sa banla zot mentalitE, zot zalou ou zenfant” (or sometihng like that)… he hits low, he has not morale :p so…. ki pou fer?
+selven
To Ishtiba: What is happening at UOM will definitely affect people career. At least most people. Its high time for students in Mauritius to get what they deserve in terms of facilities. What do you mean students get everything for free? What about tax money? Its not completely free…Anyways its high time that some people put pressure on the Government. They are too incompetent.. I just heard the reaction of Gokhool…
I say its high time, we stop condoning things in this country…Hopefully all that episode will lead to a lot of change…
@Selven
Now, now now, you’ll tell me, what the heck does a piece of paper called a degree has to do with one’s career. You say it doesn’t mean anything when you’ve got skills?
Ive never said that a degree is insignificant..read well!I wrote all these thgs combined that will make u some1 in life…Its not only about results..U may with good results obtain a good job of course..but when it will come to promotions, its the one with a better personality/ an all-rounder that will go through!
Especially when your intelligence is only on paper i.e. good results)n not in real life/work situations…Its about what u r capable of…I even thrive for good results like evryone u know but its not evrythg…
N dnt forget that a CV with just good results is incomplete..Employers are not only interested in that now :-)not the one n only criteria for selection of candidates for an interview nowadays…
Transport Gratuit
The problem is that there’s no real desire/willingness to change the system…c tro demandé a des etudiants!! Let’s be frank this suits evryone so no one will fight for this at UOM..
D’ailleurs, when does it happen that UOM students/or any students for that matter fight for something in this country?? So much passivity..Students in this country wont ever stand up against any policy compared to France for instance… ya ka voir la mobilisation estudiantine kan il sagit de changer les choses..Ya t-il deja eu 1 prise de position de la part des etudiants de l’Univesite de Maurice sur des trucs qui menace la societé mauricienne?? ou ki affecteront la jeunesse mauricienne?? iL yen a tant de trucs a discuter!!O contaire les lectures theatres, or Auditorium vide kan ena talks.. ;-)
Vos voix ne se font pas entendrent..jamais!!
@A
You say its high time you made yourself heard?? But for God’s Sake this wont be possible when most of students are not unified on the campus..No collaboration..Its all mobilizing people to stand up..but when you’ll back ther will be just a few people supporting you..Thats Mauritian mentality/passivity
I say evrythg is free coz we all take thgs for granted here..Once we got somethg we want more..Its our history we have been accustomed to being provided by the govt…But nw, there should also be things starting up by students..where we as students lead the way..We cant for others to provide us with evrythg
Well I Kw I sound very pessimistic..good luck anyways.. N hope in future u all stand up for others causes also..
But There are things am against of course.. for e.g This thg of doing dissertation in groups is simply ridiculous.. ;-)
@ ishtiba :p: you should read well what i said above :p
Even if all the students in this whole country rise against the government, the government will still invent something and fool everyone, :p why?
hmmm.. where elections ever won through good politics here? nope, its racism that makes good politicians here, so unless there’s someone willing to shoot ppl :p the situation doesn’t seem to be like it will get any better.
@ selven.Ishtiba : wow the debate is getting quite passionate between u guyz!! Its easy to talk bout doing fings, standing up against the institution (whether UOM admin or the government) but its completely another fing to actually do it!!
1 person can’t change the world!!
lets focus on UOM. having only 200 or 300 students doing sum manifestations wont change anyfin. and who can blame the others for not joining it. especially after the VC’s barely veiled threats bout those not attending lectures!! For most of the students, they’re at UOM to get a degree, whether it implies having quality education or not is not an issue. its that lil piece of paper they get at the end of 3 or 4 years which really matters. Its the whole mauritian mentality, and we have been programmed to think this way ever since primary school and that cpe rat race!!
we do not go to school or uni to be educated, we go there to get a piece of paper, whether we do that by learning by heart, or by any other means it does not matter at the end of the day!!
i may b wrong, but imho, this is the real issue here in mtius.
As someone who knows very well different educational systems, I can tell:
1. That piece of paper is extremely important.
2. Grades can play a very important role and have a huge impact on your opportunities in life.
3. Dissertations should be definitely individual.
4. What happens at UOM should not affect one’s future career if one is clever. A smart student, no matter what, will concentrate on his studies, trying to be the best in his field, giving the certain circumstances, which sometimes are not easy to be changed giving the politics around and hidden interests and games…
5. With the resources students have right now and a very good professor, you can succeed, so do not waste your time complaining and comparing things with those outside Mauritius. I doubt you will get to the level that is outside Mauritius during your studies if you are in your last year now.
Just think that world evolves continuously, so many people who are successful today started from learning programming without even having access to computers as you have now. But in every step of their life, no matter the circumstances, they did all that depended on themselves to be the best. And they had no problems grasping the new things in a very short time.
6. The number of people in a class is not important. It is the first time I heard of ‘suplemental lectures’ for a big class. Sorry, that looks like ‘babysitting’.
8. If a professor demands from students things that cannot be accomplished with all material base students have access to, then I really encourage the students to complain. But a really good professor will never demand more than it is possible.
9. The way you got those grades and diploma will give you away sooner or later.
10. One one more remark for now: It seems all conditions are created in Mauritius for students to go and study… ‘transport gratuit’ is the proof… so really do it!
Solution to all the evils of this tertiary education imbroglio:
Increase yearly fees.
If you want some support, to this, read the latest issue of the Mauritius Times ;)
we do not go to school or uni to be educated, we go there to get a piece of paper, whether we do that by learning by heart, or by any other means it does not matter at the end of the day!!
I thk its precisely this attitude that should change… Personally, my 3yrs at UOM have been geat..I had good lecturers and I enjoyed..And most importantly I can say nw that I have been transformed..Am no more the same person..So its not just about a piece of paper…its a contribution to ur life. Whether u like it or not..in some ways u go to school/UNi to be educated whether its in class or life on the campus…At the end of the day, u have acquired thgs that will help in life…
We should stop doing thgs just for the sake of doing it..
we do not go to school or uni to be educated, we go there to get a piece of paper, whether we do that by learning by heart, or by any other means it does not matter at the end of the day!!
am tired of fighting the idea of this, i’ve resigned to just say, “bof! that’s your way, good for you, but not me, have a nice day!”
@ Ishtiba : how many ppl can say that their time at uni has transformed them ? for a big majority of students, attending their lectures is the only they do, and hence at the end of 3 years, that lil piece of paper is basically all wats left of their time at uni!
now in ma personal case, i can say that i really grew up as an individual during ma time at UOM, and i do not regret a single minit spent there! some lectures will alwayz b boring etc etc, but at the end of the day it does not matter, because a degree is not the only fing i got from UOM.
but wat about those students who made of getting good results and nothing but good results, who only focused on their studies at uni, never had a good time, never did anyfin else but study, for their sake at least, UOM shud deliver wat it promoises…
@ Val
Am glad that u were not one of those people who just spent ur days glued to ur books…But like u say most of us don’t approach university life the same way.. victims of or poor educational system after all
Avinash, why students are not allowed to work only by themselves to those “mini” projects (as they are called in some classes) and not in groups, if the are willing to do this?
It’s normal practice for students to work on individual dissertations in other departments.
In the CSE department, students generally work in groups of 2 due, according to me, to the number of students. We, academics, can’t think of so many (and supervise) so many potentially (very) different individual projects… So having groups of 2 is an easy solution for us as this divides the number of projects by 2. CQFD.
(Of course, if there were fewer students then we could have had individual projects)
Yes, a little while ago when I was wondering what is the main cause of not having individual dissertations, I realized that the faculty number must be one of the factors.
But this time I was referring to those mini projects in those classes where the students are required to choose their topic and it is not a big deal, like for example creating a website.
In this way, there is an opportunity for the students to do at least one individual project during their studies.
I really do not think it is ok to graduate without having at least a project done by yourself from beginning to end in three years of study.
Yes, I guess. It all depends on the lecturer in fact. I sometimes ask my own students to work on something but most assignments are done in groups of two (and, here, not necessarily to decrease work by two)…
Thanks for your input.
CUSTOMER CARE AT UOM?????
do the people who work in the FSSH AND FLM registry got any notion of customer care or even COURTESY? zot pena maniere… just drop by thESE faculTIES and you’ll see how ruDe these illiterate people are.just a little message for them…
MAY BE YOU PEOPLE DO NOT REALISE THAT UOM STUDENTS SOMEDAY WILL OCCUPY HIGH STATUS JOBS IN BANKS,FIRMS,HOSPITALS…ANYWHERE…JUST PRAY THAT SOMEDAY WE DO NOT MEET AGAIN COZ IF EVER WE MEET WE’LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR ALL THESE HARSH WORDS DURING OUR STAY AT UOM(university of mess)
@ishtiba – concerning transport gratuit and putting more persons at univ .. u see this is something quite stupid, what would we do with 24,000 graduates each year ?? do we have jobs for them ?? we don’t , rite ?
So, we should fail some of them so that they start working from hsc .. and then a little few go to university, again we cannot afford giving tooo “quality” education since many students would then remain in Mauritius , soo, we have to give normal education quality , not too good , not too bad , such that students for those who can afford go away , and the remaining few stay back to university of mauritius.
This is undoubtedly how Mauritius functions and i have thought on this for hours and my argument is utterly flawless !! lolzzz
Hi Ashfaq,
You’re right about making the university very elitist. But you’re wrong IMHO about giving “normal education” as opposed to “quality education”…
My opinion is that UoM should have been an IIT / MIT-lite… but it’s currently the exact inverse :-(