People often complain that the news is full of terrible, tragic and depressing events, and that reporters very rarely comment on the good news stories that make people feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The sad reality is that often this is because when they are reported people often have the tendency to say “so what?” Now, it can be argued that this isn’t the case with the University of York winning the Times Higher Education University of the Year Award – after all, who wouldn’t want to know that the University they study at has been recognised as the best in the country? One student I spoke to recently summed it up perfectly – “I’m just going to use it to lord it over my friends and boast that I go to the University of the Year”. A little over the top, but it illustrates my point – this is just another empty award that isn’t going to change anything for students, apart from meaningless banter and one-upmanship.
Now, don’t get me wrong, the University does deserve to get recognised for something like this – a lot of time and investment has gone into improving the University recently (some might say right up until the spending cuts announcement). Taking just one example, the state of the art facilities at the new Department of Theatre Film and Television really have to be seen to be believed. My problem is more the fact that whilst it is great in this time of educational uncertainty for the University to get some good news to flout on the website for prospective students, by doing so it makes every student at York question – shouldn’t I be getting more out of this University, if it’s the best in the country?
The comments on The Times Higher Educational website, whilst again more exaggerated than I would express, explain what I mean, with one stating that whilst it was good that the University was investing a lot of money into facilities it was roughly 30 years after they should have started doing so.
Anyone who has visited the library recently will be able to sympathise with this – I almost cringed in freshers’ week when one first-year on a library tour asked “How long is there going to be noise like this?” and all the tour guide could do was shrug and give an apology. Naturally to get better facilities we cannot expect them to be built and ready for us in a matter of weeks, but the library “fiasco” has been happening for over a year now. It’s an example of how hypocritical this award makes the University seem to students in the know – on one hand being patted on the back for investing in hi-tech and modern buildings on Hes East whilst on the other hand having one of the most vital structures of a University for students – a library – still not up to date or finished.
Students will always have quibbles with their University, but if York are going to trumpet this award in all of their marketing campaigns, which they have already begun doing, then we as students have the right to say “so what?” to it as well. It’s all well and good to go proclaiming from the rooftops that we are better than everyone else, but to everyone studying here it becomes embarrassing when it’s clear that this will be an empty claim to impress everyone except for York’s current students. Facilities will no doubt be slowly but surely improved along with the academic side of our institution – but don’t think that just because we’re the University of the Year that we should expect to suddenly feel like we are at one. The University of York is certainly not the cesspit that some angry students make it out to be and it has some very good attributes, but we’ll have to wait until next year to see if it’s lived up to its own award.