Toban Talkback: Quantifying Quality
Tessa Vanderhart Staff
Each year, buzzwords like “tuition freeze” and “quality of education” surround talk of student fees. To get into the spirit of the upcoming university budget, the Manitoban decided to ask a few students just what quality means to them.
Rai
Fourth-year fine arts
Is quality of education a concern for you?
It comes down to picking your teachers right — you just have to find the good ones, and get in their class. I’ve done well so far, but you have shitty teachers and then you have good ones.
If you could change one thing about the university, what would it be?
I just feel that I only get a piece of paper in the end; it probably just always comes down to the money.
Sigourney
Fourth-year fine arts
Is quality of education a concern for you?
In your first and second years, I think it’s about the quality; but by the time you get to third year, it’s on you. It’s good that there are teachers there to help you, but it’s the projects that you do, or the essays that you write.
If you could change one thing about the university, what would it be?
Free education: in Paris, education is free . . . . Or else they should give us one free meal each day!
Eryn
Fourth-year fine arts
Is quality of education a concern for you?
If you think about how much money they put into student loans, why don’t they just put that money into education instead? But they wouldn’t get the money back, with interest, then.
If you could change one thing about the university, what would it be?
Move it downtown!
Rakib
Second-year science
Is quality of education a concern for you?
The quality of the university is good, I think, especially in some departments, like Architecture.
Also, there are good faculty members, and it’s cheap here. We need more money, we need to develop some things, like lab equipment. This university, with student fees lower than others, they need to use the money.
If you could change one thing about the university, what would it be?
They need to reduce the costs for international students per course — that would be good for us. In the summertime, they offer a few courses. If they offered more . . . I find it’s a problem, I have other things to do.
Mike
Fourth-year School of Business
Is quality of education a concern for you?
I haven’t really noticed, to be honest. Maclean’s goes on about how many PhDs there are at each university, but they’re not always the best teachers . . . professors that give real-life accounts, instructors by trade, I find them to be better teachers . . . as opposed to a person who’s had years of school, [who is] very book-smart, but the communication skills are lacking.
If you could change one thing about the university, what would it be?
I don’t have any real complaints . . . aside from the parking, but that’s the structure we have to work with here, we don’t have a large campus.
