Arts students are being conned and deserve cheaper degrees

As Arts students, we sometimes feel smug about our one 9 am a week. We spend the day after a night out snuggled up in bed whilst our science, medic and engineering friends go to university and endure lectures 9-5 whilst nursing a serious hangover. 

It’s tough work being an Arts student…but should they get cheaper degrees?

But it’s not all good news. We’re all paying £9,000 a year, yet everyone else seems to be getting so much more for their money.

I was talking to my Aerospace engineering friend the other day, and he just happened to drop into the conversation that his course was paying for him to go on a flight simulator. “What????” I spluttered. I’d just come back from a long day at the library where I’d been told that I had to walk in the rain to another building so I could PAY to print out my essay and reading for my course. I was already feeling a great sense of injustice, but this flight simulator comment tipped me over the edge.

It doesn’t end there. The university pays for incredible labs and equipment, shipping in parts of cars and aeroplanes for all the students to work on. Yes, I understand it’s necessary for their degree, but why should I be paying the same amount for my course every year only to be told I have to pay for paper and ink?

An Arts degree…an expensive library card?

Plus, they get so many more contact hours than us. I get six hours a week of time with lecturers, whilst my engineering friends get thirty. It’s not that I’m a strange person who loves spending time with lecturers or wishes for more 9ams (my one a week is already too much to handle, thanks), but if we’re talking about value for money, this is most certainly not it.

I worked out I spend around £136 for each contact hour, whilst they spend around £14. Considering the time I spend in Sainsbury’s debating whether to buy Sainsbury’s Basics ambiguously named ‘cheese’ which I know tastes of nothing, or spend an extra pound on cheddar, this kind of rip off seems like an absolute disgrace.

Too much independent work, not enough time with tutors

The Engineers’ and Dentists’ smugness carries on beyond university. They can happily stroll into jobs expecting a starting salary of between twenty-five and thirty thousand pounds. What can Arts students hope for? Maybe eighteen to nineteen grand – if you’re lucky.

This isn’t an attack on university Arts departments. I understand we do not need as much equipment or contact hours as subjects like Engineering and Medicine, but surely we should get a bit of a discount for being so self-motivating?

This article was originally published on The Tab Bristol.