Petronella Sibeene
THOSE who have been to university would remember how excited they were when they received their letter of acceptance. And even more, they would vividly remember how special they felt when they received their certificate, diploma, degree and or other higher qualifications.
I was told university is about studying, a place where students experience the broadest range of intellectual, creative, sporting and social life. Universities have traditionally been about the transfer of knowledge; they have been about giving people the opportunity to transform themselves for the better.
Places where future opinion leaders and passionate citizens are formed.
At its best, tertiary education is about producing well-rounded people. It’s about giving people an interdisciplinary education, an understanding of the history of ideas and cultures, and an ability to see the world through something more than a specialist or materialist lens.
Despite all the definitions or terms one can relate a university to, I dare not hesitate to say that universities or institutions of higher learning have become rendezvous where most young people compete for labels and trademark blends from, who drinks what hot stuff and who wears what type of watch or whatever bling- bling!
From what I have seen and have heard, more and more students are using their time at university to go wild. Life at university has turned out to be about clubbing, drinking and dating.
I am yet to confirm rumours that there are strippers manning the nights of our dear Unam.
Many young people at university are opposing the kind of life that their parents, and more pious peers want them to lead. These social rebels could easily be labelled – defiant, intractable. It’s actually easy to mark the campus rebels with a scarlet letter.
Students are found all over town shopping, they are found at every eating outlet, at every bar and club in town. It’s party … party… and party with money parents struggle to find just to support their “well mannered child pursuing a bachelor’s degree course”.
After all, most parents always thought that clubs, alcohol and sex wouldn’t mix easily with books judging by the way they have brought up their children. Yet at university it does.
I have spoken to a few I have come to know as my little brothers and sisters but hey, they argue all they ever wanted was to have a little fun, just like everyone else. Struggling to balance their family expectations and peer pressure.
But why are these students risking incurring the anger of their families and challenging the moral directives of their parents?
One of them answered, “At home we’re constantly subjected to tyrannical parenting and hampered by endless rules which dictate our every move. University is the first and only chance one gets to lead her/his life exactly the way s/he wants it.”
Those are the realities of university life.
Eewa