The Layout of the Academic Year

Students, when they view the ever increasing workloads in their courses, could be forgiven for taking a cynical attitude, when groups within the university start talking about improving the lot of students. In the past, things have rarely worked to students' advantage. When the students pressed for increased internal assessment, the university sagely nodded its collective head, and then went away and produced continual assessment. On other matters too, so-called "concern for students" has been used as a political football in intra-university struggles.

Well, is this study that is described above, another of these political footballs, or a serious attempt at evaluating our present system and then making the appropriate changes? The simple answer is that at this stage it is not possible to determine how the final report will be used nor what the attitude of the university will be towards its findings. As far as those involved in the project is concerned, their motivation is quite genuine. The attitude of the university however, seems a little different. Before going on to discuss how the university appears to be reacting to the project, and what we should do about it, some discussion on the necessity for the study should take place.