I found that I got on far better with other people from another student society, as those on my course seemed to be constantly switching who/what their alliances were.
I found that I got on far better with other people from another student society, as those on my course seemed to be constantly switching who/what their alliances were.
I got on better with the lecturing staff than fellow students. I kept in contact with one staff member and have met up a while back. I volunteered as a cinema projectionist on campus so that was my alternative to the student union. I would love to go on to further study but the fees are beyond my funds.
I was never very impressed with the SU at my university. They found subtle ways of banning speakers/societies with views with which the representatives of the SU 'did not like' - for example cancelling room bookings for particular worldview societies at short notice without good reason. Usually those which aligned themselves with right of centre views.
At one point the SU wanted to impose a campus wide ban on clapping and replace it with jazz hands. Didn't go through AFAIK. One of the student representatives succeeded in having sanitary bins put in men's toilets, because 'men have periods too'. She posted a picture on Twitter with the slogan 'my menstrual blood flows through the streets for fighting for the rights of women of all genders'. They spent too much time engaging in social engineering rather than actually finding practical solutions to longstanding problems - for example overpriced food in the restaurants, lack of alcohol free freshers activities and nearby secondary school students being allowed to use computers in the library, even during exam time
In many of these universities there is way too much emphasis on both social life and political activism, normally far-leftist and globalist, etc, when it should be about learning the course content to getting a degree and then, a job - thank goodness that I was never allowed to go to university, as in later life, both I and my colleagues discovered in my last supermarket job (for 17 years) that many students who worked with us had zero life skills and were clearly being indoctrinated and brainwashed in the universities on so many issues, as we clearly saw before and during Covid
In many of these universities there is way too much emphasis on both social life and political activism, normally far-leftist and globalist, etc, when it should be about learning the course content to getting a degree and then, a job - thank goodness that I was never allowed to go to university, as in later life, both I and my colleagues discovered in my last supermarket job (for 17 years) that many students who worked with us had zero life skills and were clearly being indoctrinated and brainwashed in the universities on so many issues, as we clearly saw before and during Covid
The theorists can look at what "could be" in and ideal world, but the real world is not ideal and - in my opinion - is never likely to be. They tend to live in echo chambers for their views and seem every bit as polarised as the right wing they often complain so much about.
In my career sector this is almost exactly what has happened - adopting particular social justice theories (Critical Race Theory, Genderqueer ideology) which many would not agree with in the first place. As a result In the past 10 years the professional body has become unreasonably controlling over what you can and can't say, and is even preventing people from expressing views which are legal to do so in a liberal democratic society. Not that you should be using racial slurs, using casual sexist language or being generally disrespectful in the workplace, because as an Autistic person I know from experience that what you say does of course matter. But much of this is already implied in previously established professional guidelines. It seems to be creating more division and anxiety for silent majority of those on the ground who really just want to get on with the job at hand, and for whom a colleagues race/gender/disability is simply been a non-issue, which is sufficiently protected by the Equality Act 2010, who are now terrified of making a mistake.
I completed my undergraduate degree through part-time distance learning with the OU but I did a semi distance part time Masters later on in life which meant that I didn’t have much contact with student societies. It was a hugely rewarding experience as much of the time I was researching abroad. I seem to connect better with people older or younger than I am, and I work best on my own, although I do like other people, it is just too exhausting to spend much time in company. I too am concerned about how rapidly society and politics has become polarised and about the squeezing out of middle ground. It is increasingly difficult to have a constructive argument over a topic, without it becoming personal. University taught me useful life skills, enabling me to analyse evidence and make an informed decision. I am grateful that their are so many opportunities in education for autistic people. Society needs open minded people who are aware of their conscious and potentially unconscious bias.
That is an interesting observation and I suspect has much mirroring in the rest of the world.
The theorists can look at what "could be" in and ideal world, but the real world is not ideal and - in my opinion - is never likely to be. They tend to live in echo chambers for their views and seem every bit as polarised as the right wing they often complain so much about.
Real world experiene (in my view) leads to a more conservative outlook I find and this leads these people to being more right wing by definition (conservative = right wing, liberal = left wing being the general rule of thumb).
That does not mean there is no space for compassion and charity - I do spend a lot of my time and income on these, but many people don't have the interest or motivation to do this.
So many aspects of life, including politics, seems to have become polarised with little space left for a middle ground. I find this very sad as it means people have largely lost their capacity to keep an open mind.
So, in my experience at my university, some departments were very, very left wing; others not so much. It tended to be departments which were more theoretical - for example the philosophy department was very left wing as was the English department. However, the built environment department (real estate, town planning, architecture) was fairly sound, because most of the lecturers were currently or had been working professionals in the 'real world' in planning consultancies or in local authorities. What they were teaching wasn't just theory.
