The new tap-in lecture system is an attack on everything that makes uni great

Remember when you wanted to miss a lecture so popped a message in the group chat and and asked a member of your course squad to scribble your name on the register?

You might have been hungover, flu-ridden, or simply couldn’t gather the motivation to drag yourself out of bed. The thought of sitting in a lecture hall listening to Professor what’s-his-face talk about sustainable development policy for two hours made you simply say: “fuck it, I’ll go next week.”

Well, thanks to the new tap-in system, those days are long gone. And it’s shit.

You’ll have noticed this year the university has installed a system of card readers in all lecture rooms, requiring students to tap in with their Aber cards to log their attendance.

This all sounds great, until it dwans on you that it unless you give someone your Aber card to tap in for you (which probably involves getting out of bed anyway), your attendance record is going to look a bit sorry for itself this year.

This draconian move by the university might cause initial inconvenience but, more importantly, impinges on our personal liberties.

Student life is about being lazy, doing what you like and having fun. Of course learning is important, but we should be granted to freedom to miss a few lectures because we’re nursing hangovers from the night before. We’ve got the rest of our lives to worry about getting into work on time, and we should relish these few years where we can actually choose the lounge around in bed and not face any punishment.

To take that freedom away is to take away the irresponsibility and spontaneity that forms a crucial part of growing up.

mfw I get attendance emails

We shouldn’t be treated like school kids. We’re responsible adults and should be given the choice to attend lectures. We should be able to judge whether we want to attend or miss the 9am on Wednesday after a rogue Vodka Tuesday.

Being at university is all about learning to live independently and understanding you can’t do something without repercussions. If people want to miss their classes, let them. They’ll learn eventually.

But for the university to relinquish this freedom is an attack on everything that makes student life so great.