Hell In A Handbasket

[liadnan]

They're going to make students at Oxford not only sign contracts, but contracts which require them to go to lectures? Tutes I can see, but I do wonder if this indicates a rise in the significance attached to lectures (for those who don't know the place, this traditionally ranges from minimal to minor so far as arts and humanities are concerned, it isn't key to the way Oxford undergraduate teaching works). (And see also the proposal to take control of admissions to the university level, which I suspect is going to go down like a lead balloon.)

Belloff-drafted contracts at that... Not sure how I feel about the contract idea itself in principle.

Apropos of something slightly different, the comments thread on this linkpost of mine about feminism and related matters is still vaguely alive and lots of people have said interesting things. People always seem to comment more on my throwaway rubbish and linkposts than the proper ones.

I spent lunch being suckered by the HMV Sale. In theory one of the real financial benefits of being on the island is the lack of VAT: usually the benefit somehow vanishes amid mutterings of transport costs (coincidentally always precisely the same as UK VAT would be, how strange), but CDs are an exception. (Hence a certain major online seller of such things being based here, and, indeed a client of ours). Completed Belle & Sebastian and Garbage back catalogues, plus Isobel Campbell and Wossname from QotSA's new album, plus Jeff Buckley's Grace and DVD's of Amelie, 12 Monkeys, and Casablanca. All ridiculously cheap, to be fair.

Comments

[nicnac.livejournal.com]

Ha! Brings back not-so-happy memories of my Trusts lecturer, who used to begin each lecture with a piercing glare and the words "Today we continue to look at subject X, but Y number of you won't know that because you weren't here last time!"

Shame he didn't apply his startling perception to the cleanliness of his tie, which almost always had egg spilt on it.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

On contracts: apparently, this is so students can't sue when they fail their course and get lumbered with a huge loan to pay off with no means to do it. So glad there isn't "sue" culture in the UK!

On DVDs: 12 Monkeys is an excellent, thought provoking film. You probably know this, but hey.

On CDs: Grace is beautiful - I think its quiter moments are wonderful.

On comments: I don't think there is any rhyme or reason to the volume of comments. Except if you include the word "Cats" in your title, when the volume goes through the roof.

[liadnan]

I do love 12 Monkeys, better than the other films made from that story, eg Terminator. Incidentally, I am now wondering whether the 12 Monkeys sign graffitied onto the wall of Christchurch Oxford is still there...

I don't know Grace well, except Hallelujah, but Buckley came up in conversation with a good friend the other day and thought I'd give the album a try.

Contracts: I honestly think such actions would be unlikely, at Oxford.

[nmg.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, I am now wondering whether the 12 Monkeys sign graffitied onto the wall of Christchurch Oxford is still there...

I don't know if that one is still there, but the one on a wall in the alleyway that leads to the Turf Tavern was still there last summer.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I'm in favour of the basic idea, although the wording itself (I haven't read the complete thing) will of course be key. I've seen some absolutely barking appeals from students being at my own Noble Insitution (No, the fact that e.g. Open Heart surgery is performed somewhere in the world does not mean that we are being unfair saying that you cannot suddenly insist on performing it on people as part of your PhD), and making it very, very clear that students must meet their own half of the bargain (we provide education, you take advantage of it) seems a good thing. It is perhaps regrettable that what once would have been taken for granted - and I think by most people still is - is suddenly having to be written down in this way, or perceived as having to be, but all it really is is the formalisation of the well-known fact that a degree is ultimately something one has to read for.

[sshi.livejournal.com]

students at Oxford not only sign contracts, but contracts which require them to go to lectures?

hah, that'd be funny. I wonder when they're going to start suing them for not showing up to class?

[liadnan]

This one was on the side of the passage running down by the Bear. It certainly survived until relatively recently.

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

I read about the contracts business with (vested) interest ... though I can't see how it could be made to stick if things got litigious. We already make students sign a pledge on every piece of work to say that it is not plagiarised - which they then frequently do anyway, and we have the greatest of difficulty making the subsequent disciplinary hearings happen. But also, signing a pledge saying one will do one's best to attend lectures and so on isn't a guarantee of attendance or of passing one's course to the best of one's ability.

[memetic-glutton.livejournal.com]

It was there last time I passed by.

[memetic-glutton.livejournal.com]

I'd sign the contract as long as on the lecturers' part, they promised to be (a) interesting, and (b) in the afternoon.