| HISTORICAL FAILURE RATE ... AGAIN!
For the second year in a row, the failure rate for history
students is
above 42 percent. Professor Jørgen Christian Meyer
thinks students don’t work hard enough. However, he
won’t blame students alone.
– Our schedule is demanding. So this is a result of
several factors. I know there are students who fail or withdraw
from exams on purpose in order to get more time to prepare.
An important factor is the time the exam is held, early November.
Compared to others, history students have less time to prepare.
Meyer won’t listen to allegations that the academic
level is too high.
– We cannot lower our standards. Those who have failed
don’t meet the university’s academic standards,
he says.
The course will be evaluated during the next few months.
NO ITALIAN FOR NEWCOMERS
They had planned to start the autumn in Italy. But the introductory
course turned out to be a one-year program.
– Only during the briefing session before classes
started we were informed that the course was to last two terms
instead of one, says Birgitte Bjørge. She is going
to Italy to study this autumn.
Despite classes being given both terms, the exam is held
in the autumn. Following this, an extra course is introduced
due to pressure from students. But most students were unaware
of this until Studvest provided the information.
– The poor information surrounding this situation
shows that there isn’t much respect for students, Bjørge
says.
Coordinator for Italian studies, Reidar Veland, doesn’t
agree that information is inadequate.
NO MONITORING PLANNED
A new IT system gives UiB the opportunity to monitor students’
activities. «Never before has the course supervisor
been able to obtain a better overview.»
This is how the new system is presented. Students will have
the opportunity to get information, hand-in papers and chat
via the system.
Marianne Huse is responsible for the integration of the
system at UiB. She doubts there will be any problems caused
by lecturers monitoring students.
– It’s up to every faculty to choose which possibilities
they want to use, she says. There is also concern that free
chatting can cause problems. Ethnic propaganda and anti-semitism
has been promoted via chat services offered by the University
of Oslo.
ALEXANDER KEMP
21.01.04
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