State of Sheffield and Think Create are back, and freshers are not happy

It’s that time of year again, and arts, humanities and social science freshers throughout Sheffield are being forced to attend mandatory lectures and workshops all week, addressing team work, global issues and culture. 

The compulsory lectures and activities are “about giving students the time, space and freedom to think about how the world should be”, according to the University website. They are part of the University’s ‘Achieve More’ scheme, which see the social science department hold a week long event called State of Sheffield and the arts and humanities hold Think Create.

The projects encourage freshers to consider some of life’s biggest questions, like “If I were a shape, what would it be?”, and to travel to different areas of Sheffield, taking photos and videos and exploring the “culture of the area”.

Unfortunately, many people seem to think that the events are taking “time, space and freedom” from them, rather than giving it out, and freshers have complained about the 9am starts and “pointless” thinking exercises they’re having to endure.

There was a similar uproar last year, which saw the University’s hashtag #stateofsheffield14 be taken over by social science students in protest against one particularly tedious lecture.

Both Think Create and the State of Sheffield projects don’t even count towards your yearly credits, so humanities and social science freshers are being asked to attend on a compulsory basis, even though it doesn’t benefit their records.

Megan Rammikins is one of many first years to complain about the time commitment that Think Create expects of her. She said on Twitter: “Why would I wanna do ThinkCreate all day, every day for a week when we get zero credits for it?”

sounds like a blast

Kieran Barnes, a second year who took part in Think Create last year said: “It was the worst week of uni so far. We were put into these groups and had to make shitty videos on culture.

“We had to trek down to ponds forge every day for 9am, and it was so poorly organised when we got there. I just remember thinking that I should have stayed in bed.”