Post by KosmoThe latter point is particularly different to my own experiences some
50+ years ago. In those days first years did not automatically get a
place in hall so I always felt remote from other students. I just about
got a degree at the end of it and will forever think highly of the place
- but I wonder if things could have been better. I suspect that even
with more modern attitudes I doubt that my eventual degree would have
been any better. However I cannot complain - I feel I enjoyed most of
my working life and have been able to return something to the community
subsequently.
I think I have posted some of what follows here over the years. I
never lived in hall.
Looking back on my career as an electrical engineer, whilst I
would not have been able to get the jobs I did without a degree,
and for one post Chartered status was required, in truth I can't
think of much academic knowledge above A-level physics that I
personally made use of.
When I finally ended up designing electrical propulsion equipment
for railway rolling stock, one of the "old school" engineers
explained that all that was needed was Ohm's Law, plus 25 years'
experience. They were, up to a point, quite right.
There were times when I was amazed how folk with much better
academic ability than me seemed lacking in the skills to
translate that into hardware. I suppose each of us has aptitudes
in areas which others find challenging.
I took a "thin sandwich" degree, in electrical engineering at
Salford, which was (probably still is) a pretty good way of
combining academic study with industrial experience. I worked at
what was then AEI (later became GEC, finally, after I left,
Alstom) at Trafford Park.
Their apprentice training school was large and comprehensive. We
only had an accelerated passage through the various disciplines,
but it was a valuable introduction to the realities of heavy
engineering.
The first three years we had 20 weeks at college, the
rest in industry, and the final year was a standard 30 weeks,
finishing with a full year back in industry.
The timing left us (or at least me) oddly disconnected from
standard academic terms, and general student activities. We
started in September, and had been there a month before the other
students arrived, but a couple of weeks later we disappeared for
a half term break. By Christmas (our holiday was shorter than
theirs) we had just about finished the syllabus, returning in the
New Year for revision and exams at the beginning of Feb.
Salford had just gained university status, having previously been
the Royal College of Advanced Technology, and the teaching
method was pretty much indistinguishable from school, no dreaming
spires for us. I never was a good self-motivator, and I left with
a third.
On my course a fair proportion of the students were from
industry, which also had a distinct influence on the atmosphere
of learning. One guy had turned up for work as usual, only to be
informed that he should actually be down the road at college,
hadn't anybody told him?
One thing I never realised beforehand was how much of a
university engineering course is actually maths. There is just so
much that I never understood, and even the bits I did grasp are
lost in the mists of time. I remember my disappointment, having
chosen a "machines" option, to be presented with a large matrix
and being told that, for the purposes of this analysis, the
design details were pretty irrelevant, all large machines reduced
to this grid of numbers.
It was also clearly my personal ceiling for physics - I had to
re-sit in my first year at university.
I believe I had managed a grade A at A level on what (to me)
seemed like common sense, and managed to avoid too many proofs.
The university focus was rather different, and additionally I
suppose I allowed myself to think I could get away with less
revision than it actually needed.
We did have some sessions timetabled as "tutorials", but that was
just the whole group doing (or not) worked examples.
As for personal development, in all honesty that passed me by
too.
Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham
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***@cdixon.me.uk @ChrisJDixon1
Plant amazing Acers.