As of March 2020, attempting to obtain a proper education has been frustrating, tiresome and drenched with uncertainty for University students across the board.
The recently updated regulations regarding the ‘P-R’ ( person-remote) mode of learning as well as graduation ceremonies have added more fuel to the fire. Why?
After reading about the ‘post-covid university experience’, you may understand a little bit better…
“Will University lectures be held in Person or Remotely?”
Short answer: a blend of both! Following the University of Malta Senate meeting held yesterday, 23rd September 2021, it was announced that students would be returning to the Msida campus next Monday, 27th September 2021. According to the University, the most ideal way to obtain this would be to adopt a ‘P-R’ mode of learning.
This mode of learning will ensure that the Covid-19 health and safety regulations are adhered to. It is also designed to ensure the wellbeing of students and faculty members alike is maintained.
“What Will the P-R Mode of Learning Look like?”
This mode of learning will be adopted for large cohorts, much like the Department of Psychology. It will be organised as follows:
- Large groups of students will be sub-divided into smaller ones in order to fit University’s lecture rooms, keeping classes at a maximum of 60 students.
- The groups will alternate weekly between attending lectures physically and remotely.
- Remote participation will occur via recorded sessions on Zoom or following the lecture synchronously as observers.
- Participation on campus will resume normalcy, with the addition of wearing a mask and maintaining physical distance at all times (obviously!)
What will this mode of learning actually look like?
An email written by Dr. Gottfried Catania, Head of the Faculty of Social Wellbeing and the Department of Psychology was addressed to the students earlier today discussing updates regarding these recent developments. The email includes the following statement:
This is far from ideal. Students are rather upset with this arrangement, especially since they have found out about it 3 days before starting University.
Betapsi Malta‘s statement, released shortly after the email highlights this:
We are very happy to share this announcement [ regarding lectures being held physically], however, we are disappointed by the fact that Psychology lectures will start this Monday, and this decision has only been confirmed to the Department now – less than one working day in advance – especially considering that the three months of summer should have been enough to prepare for these circumstances, which at this point no longer remain unforeseeable.
A lot is said about mental health, being a very common buzzword in the media, yet students being kept hanging like this – a working day before lectures were set to begin – completely disregards their mental health. We believe we deserve better.
A couple of Psychology Students ( who opted to remain anonymous) decided to share their thoughts on the matter:
This system might create further issues in an individuals’ personal life away from university surrounding planning, transport, other life projects and building social connections with other students.
Being classified into separate groups according to surnames stops you from getting to know your class as a whole, and only reduces the quality of education even further for the half observing from behind a screen.
Betapsi Malta noted that despite these conditions, we should still maintain decorum with lecturers:
In the meantime, we would like to invite students to, as always, be very understanding with their lecturers. Lecturers, just like us students, have been informed of this confirmed decision now, and like us need some time to adapt to this new way of lecturing. Having half of the class with you in a lecture hall and the other half online must be no easy task, and so we would like students to show their full support to the lecturers, who are trying their utmost to give us a normal university experience.
A ‘Post-Covid’ Graduation Celebration!
No university experience is complete without a graduation ceremony. Following the pandemic, the graduation ceremonies for 2020 and 2021 graduates had to be put on hold. The University of Malta announced that these ceremonies will be held in the upcoming months.
The undergraduate ceremonies for both 2020 and 2021 graduates will be held throughout the months of November and December 2021, whilst postgraduate ceremonies will be held in March and April 2022.
Unlike previous years however, graduation ceremonies will not be celebrated in the usual Sir Temi Zammit Hall. Instead, they will be held at the University of Malta Sports Complex. In its statement, the University also explained that although guests will be invited to attend, they will be following a live stream of the ceremony in a separate tent to ensure Covid-19 measures are followed.
The University Graduates’ Lens
The Third Eye reached out to recent graduates to gain some insight on how they feel about this. The following responses demonstrates the difficulty of this situation:
Vera gravi how they handled it. We had the option to do graduations last year in these exact same conditions but instead of doing it last year for us they postponed to this year to have a graduation with double the number of people by adding both years together!
Another student shared her (rather heart wrenching) perspective on the upcoming graduation ceremonies:
It feels like I’ve been cheated again. I’m the first person in my family to graduate. And now my family is going to have to see all the hard work that they had to go through to allow me to go to university, through a screen. This is despite the fact that events of 100+ people are currently happening. I wanna cry about this like I’m so pissed off.
We’re second rate citizens, all they care about is that we contribute to the economy. Marking an accomplishment is nothing to celebrate, just go on and be robots contributing to GDP!
Watch this space for updates!
More Campus News here.