Fac Off

On the first of May I received the following email in my Sydney Uni mailbox:
“Please note that as the Union and the University has reached an agreement the strike scheduled for next Tuesday 5 May 2009 has been called off, so all classes will be held as usual.”

I actually burst out laughing and could not stop. When I read it the university here had already been on strike for 3 months and the semester was technically over. Now most teachers have started trying to summarise their courses in weekly meetings so that everyone can sit their exams in June during what would normally be their summer holidays.

As a foreigner though, I am required to organise my own assessments with individual teachers so that I can get them done before I go home. In some cases this means obtaining the lecture notes for a subject, studying them for under a week, then sitting an exam.

Sure, this is the most study I would ever do under normal circumstances anyway, but usually there’s the bonus* of actually being taught things in class. As I said to someone recently, “what are they assessing me on? my ability to teach myself? if i can teach myself then maybe they shouldnt have their jobs”. Last week I was interviewed for the tv about how the strikes were affecting me and I was asked something about money. Obviously I’ve spent a hell of a lot of money coming to france and paying rent but I was never annoyed about it because I still got to live in Europe for several months. But suddenly I realised that I’ve spent $2500 in university fees this semester, to pay for my actual courses. I just payed $2500 for less than two weeks of class. That’s like $125 an hour, if you include the classes where the professors just explained their reasons for the upcoming strikes. I could’ve spent that on 200 movies and learned almost as much.

*Is it weird that when i wrote the word bonus my brain was like "Ah Latin, you're a fusional language. This is why I will never learn you. One morpheme for masculine, singular AND nominative? That's too much for me to handle."