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Comment by onion2k | Hacker News Reader

For labs it's not like you get any help either. You just have to follow some instructions point by point and if you do not understand something, tough luck, the professor has already moved to the next exercise.

People shouldn't just accept this sort of thing as normal. You're paying (in the US or UK anyway) a lot of money for a degree level education. That means it needs to be fit for purpose, and if you're not learning then it isn't. You need to stop the lecturer and ask them to go over the point you didn't understand, or ask for additional time after the lab, or at a push, make a complaint to the course leader that the lecturer isn't teaching you well enough.

Learning to stand up for yourself and ask for what you need is a big part of the university experience.

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Education is "free" (paid by taxes) where I come from (Poland). Private universities are not very popular.

> People shouldn't just accept this sort of thing as normal

It's not "normal", but it's the norm. It's not the fault of the professors, because the truth is they should not teach in the first place, but the education system requires them to.

> make a complaint to the course leader that the lecturer isn't teaching you well enough.

There's no such thing here as the course leader. Most of the time you have a prof. responsible for the theory and another one for the practice.

You can complain to the dean (what multiple students did), but there's no replacement or no one cares.

I don't want to put any blame on the teachers here. I see this as a systemic issue.

> Education is "free" (paid by taxes) where I come from (Poland).

If the people of your country are gifting you free education, you have even a higher responsibility to ensure that their efforts are not wasted.

> Learning to stand up for yourself and ask for what you need is a big part of the university experience.

You're not graded on standing up for yourself.

In this area universities are not different from standing in line or negotiating a job offer.

> You need to stop the lecturer and ask them to go over the point you didn't understand, or ask for additional time after the lab, or at a push, make a complaint to the course leader that the lecturer isn't teaching you well enough.

I foresee this strategy ending badly for a number of professors I've had.

Professor here. Any professor that punishes you for asking for stuff/asking for time is not doing their job and you should feel happy to complain about them. Ditto if they bawl you out or make you feel bad. Don't tolerate it.

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