Rupert Yorke - College of Social Sciences and International Studies

Yorke, RupertLearning Log 5 - Reactions to the teaching of and approach taken tothe student’s academic disciplines at their host universityWilliam & Mary alumnus Thomas Jefferson once remarked that “a mind always employed is alwayshappy”; it is clear from a Founding Father as prominent as he that his sentiments have illustrated theAmerican approach to education since the founding of the nation. The UK and the USA are regularlyadvertised as offering the best higher education in the world 12 with Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard andYale constantly exchanging incumbency of the much coveted ‘Number 1’ spot in myriad surveys anduniversity guides. As I approach the end of my second semester at William & Mary, my expectationsat the beginning of the year in terms of what to expect academically have all been fulfilled; it is easyto see why thousands of international students now choose full-time American education at collegelevel.Sending one’s child to college is the biggest source of pride for American parents – it is endemic inthe American Dream and a major indicator of vindication and success for the upbringing of theirprogeny. Whereas in the UK going to university can often be seen as merely putting the ‘icing on thecake’ in terms of finishing one’s education, admittance to a prestigious American college is viewed asthe passport to unbridled optimism and eventual prosperity. Such a significant advancement in anAmerican student’s life is reflected in both the attitude they adopt to learning and simultaneously,the attitude the college atmosphere fosters towards every single of its students. The formal, once-aweek,hour-long lecture system whereby the lecturer dictates to a fifty plus group of students in theUK is replaced in the US by frequent classes of no more than thirty students meeting for no morethan forty minutes or so. Such an informal method requires regular participation by each student (somuch that it is nearly always an assessment criteria), and most importantly, opportunity for one’sown merit to shine through unhindered by the professor’s personal judgment. Professors are held inextremely high regard by their students – some even revered with obeisance given their impressivequalifications, passion and knowledge of their subject area. Whereas Exeter’s style does not placetoo much emphasis on who the module instructor is due to the outside reading requirements andless contact time per week, at William & Mary it is of huge importance which instructor you receive.During registration for classes for the spring semester, students will choose classes solely on thebasis of who will be teaching it – even if they do not care much for the content nor need it for theirdegree program. 13In terms of daily academic demands, there is certainly a greater and therefore harder workload thanthe average British student would endure - far less time for independent study and a considerablybroader range of assessment criteria. Oral presentations are both frequent and valued extremelyhighly by professors; essays or ‘papers’ often require less secondary reading than what Exeterrequires but a similar level of analysis; exams or ‘finals’ emerged as wholly unpredictable in regard totheir content and style of examination – some requested a ten-page specific essay whilst othersinvolved maps and solely multiple choice questions! One palpable bonus which this multifarious12 Indeed, many American students view higher-level education elsewhere as significantly inferior to their own– with the exception of the UK.13 Unlike in the UK where one is relatively confined to one’s subject area (i.e. History), Americans are allowedto study all manner of subjects until their penultimate year at college when they have to ‘declare their major’.