Stories of the First-Year Experience

Student (Mature Age): Faculty of Arts/Faculty of Education

As I move closer to completing my teaching degree, I am startled by a number of things. The first of these is how quickly time has gotten away from me. It seems like a short while ago but it is in fact, more than two years since I took up the personal challenge of returning to formal study.

With an extensive career background in both Public Relations and Civil Administration I was confident that my report writing and time management skills would see me through an extended period of study. I soon discovered that my over confidence was critically misplaced. In the first instance, I found that there was a lot more to academic writing than I first thought, and I find that even from the lofty heights of third year Arts, the writing of convincing responses is an enormous discipline. When I began, I foolishly assumed that the work could be completed 'on the run'. But I discovered that many last minute dashes and the continuing good offices of the Monash Library Staff, that there must be a better way to organise and prepare my work. This has been the most rewarding lesson that I have learned, an exercise in confusion and humility that has done me no harm.

Socially, settling in to University life was eased for me by the existence of the MAPS lounge (Mature Age and Part time Students), which provides a cocoon for a older students. As my confidence grew, however, I found myself making contact at all levels of University life. Indeed, once I stopped thinking of myself as belonging in a special box, marked "mature age student", I was able to spread my wings and arrive at my present situation where butterfly like, I visit myself upon students and tutors alike, with equal sureness. The social learning that this has involved, has been very fulfilling, as I feel a sense of belonging and a heightened sense of self-worth which has derived from taking the University experience on my own terms. While this has involved breaking boundaries of conformity to a stereotype it has also created new friendships and inspiration.

Another factor, which I did not allow for in my early confidence about University life, was the financial sacrifice, which it entailed. Having spent my working life in middle management roles, the life of a partly subsidised student at first, seemed like poverty, but, as with the academic work, I found that a combination of budgetary discipline and "blundering through", were effective. This change of circumstance, has also given me more respect of ideas and values beyond the material.

The only other area of growth which I had not even considered, at the outset of my Monash years, was computer awareness. Like many people in my age group, I was inclined to dismiss computer technology as a fad, which was more trouble than it was worth. I soon discovered that computer literacy is an essential component of contemporary academic study and, further, a vital facet of the teacher's world. Although initially reluctant, the wise counsel of friends prevailed, as did the fear of falling "out of step". Once converted, I have taken to the computer world with alacrity.

Without sounding boastful, I feel that I am a better person than the one who began tertiary study because I have learned to participate and engage fully in the immense possibilities, spiritual and personal which are on offer in a modern university setting. I have never felt like a mere consumer of an educational product, which is how the education of the nineties seems to be modelled. If I have a criticism of the University as I have experienced it, it is this factory like aspect; particularly as it demands the impossible of tutors and lecturers, as well as "short changing" potentially excellent students. The sheer weight of numbers in many undergraduate subjects precludes the necessary teaching time being available and, as a consequence mediocrity creeps in. There are no easy answers to this, but it has been my observation that tutors in particular, become caught in a cycle of overwork, overcrowding and impossible demands because they are so "thin on the ground". Just as the careers of lecturers depend upon publication of articles, tutors are tied to their research efforts. In both cases, actual teaching takes a back seat because of this anomaly in the system.

In spite of the ups and downs and learning the hard way at times, I feel that University life has proved an enriching and, ultimately, more than just a means to an end. It has taught me a lot about myself and my capacity to exceed limits, and I would commend it, to anyone with an open mind and a sense of life as adventure rather than acceptance.