Orla O’Connor

University is Complete Bullshit

This week has been tough the hours have been slightly longer, and we have been pushed further.  In total we have been in the studio for roughly 40 and a half hours this week alone.  I did an advertising degree in London before joining SCA.  In my third year I had only 6 hours contact time a week.  So in this one week at SCA I have had the same amount of contact hours as 6 and three quarter weeks at university.  With 13 week semesters this is roughly half a semester.  There were 2 semesters a year so that is a quarter of my degree.  My fees were roughly £7,500 before inflation (as I was the first year to get hit with the higher fees).  So this one week as SCA is roughly worth £1,875 at university.  Leading me to believe university is complete and utter bullshit. 

It makes me sick that we have to pay so much for our education, considering the degree is not worth the paper it is printed on.  It is disgusting that MP’s who did not have to pay a single penny toward their education at university had lumped a huge debt on me and my class mates.  At the time of the 2010 election we were too young to even vote and we were the first class to get hit with the higher fees.  With what mandate, if you are going to massively screw up our lives by deciding to create a huge debt for us then at least let us vote you in. 

The only thing that university really taught me is no one really cares.  Your lecturers don’t care if you turn up.  If you get a 1,1 or a 2,2 they could not give less of a toss.  So you have to decide to bother or to also not care.  I got a little lost at university for a while.  I lost direction.  I lost my motivation.  I could feel my creativity slowly slipping away. 

Then I came to SCA.  Which has already pushed me harder in 4 weeks then my degree ever did.  It has forced me to learn time management, rejection and focused my mind so a pretty piece of work is not good enough.  It made me re-think my stance on what I want from life.  I have never been the tree hugging do good type, don’t get me wrong if someone was stuck I would give them a hand but I never really considered I could make a difference.  But the idea of aspiring to change the world has really grown on me.  As humans we have a need to feel like there is more, that we mean more than we are, that there must be something else.  It helps us aspire and push ourselves.  And what bigger aspiration could there be than changing the world for the better.  So that the next generation aren’t getting fucked by us, like the generation before me have done to my education.  Let’s think our way out of this screwed up crazy planet.