Day 4: First day of class in London

Sorry for the late post. I know today is day 5 but I am having way too much fun in London! I will try my best in remembering everything that has happened yesterday.

My roommate woke me up at 7:30 am to get ready for the day. I had a short simple breakfast, mango, rasberries and blueberries with a english muffin. It was quite good. We had to meet with the ACCENT group at 10 am outside our flat. We then had to walk about 1 block  to get where our classroom is. Class is in the Hogarth room.

I arrived to class and finally met my two interpreters! They are both from the states. One interpreter actually been living here in London and works at a private interpeting company in London. The other one is from Washington DC. I am learning some new signs. A mixture of British Sigh Language (BSL) and the Universal Sign Language. I bet the first question is coming to mind is what is the difference between the two. Well as you know each country has their own language. BSL is very different from ASL (American Sign Language). The Universal sign Language is a series of signs that were created to hep with the Deaf Olpmics or when there are several deaf together from different counties. It has been fun learning new signs and being exposed to different languages.

After meeting my interpreters it was time for class to begin! We had a guess speaker, Joy Elliott-Bowman, who is the Policy and Public Affairs Manager For Independent Higher Education in the United Kingdom. She cover over so many topic and was speaking so fast that I could not keep up with the interpreters and write at the same time. I will mention a few things that she talked about and compare it with the Untied States higher Education stystem.

1. Student loans

           In England there was free tuition for all students that decides to continue their education at a university. However, UK realized that it is not possible to proved free education since the number of students entering the University. Because of this they decided to start charging students. This began in 1992. The rate was 850 pounds. Over the past several years that rate has gone up. Higher Education finally put a cap on it that can not be change it is now 9000 pounds. With the increase of tuition UK wanted to allow everyone to come so therefore the student loan was created. England is having the same problem as the US students are not paying their loan and therefore its creating a default and causing a debt problem. The biggest difference in student loans is that England is actually making movement in fixing the problem. Were as in the US student loans is not a big issue even though its about to surpass the housing market loans.

     So what the UK solution. First of all they put a cap on the rising tuition and therefore it can't change.  The Second thing is that they have determine if a person make 28,000 pounds a year they are aware that student will never pay off a their loan. So they created a forgiveness plan for them. For those who  make more than that they automatically take a percentage out of their income. After 10 years that loan can be forgiven even if its no payed completely off. The concept that I like is having a percentage be taking out of a paycheck each time is a great idea.

      2. How universities are graded

           In the US universities are graded by students enrollment rather by success in my opinion. When student go "shopping" for school they usually look at recreation center, club that are there, and other things that are not strictly related to education. Where as in the UK according to Joy and to some of the students we met most universities in the UK are more focus on quality of education rather than quantity. The example she gave was if a student studied to be a art teacher when they graduate they get a job working as an insurance person the school counts that as a failure on the school part. They feel that if the student cannot get job in the field of study they expressed that the students are not getting their money worth in other word quality of education.

      The other thing that stood out is that student in the UK it only takes three years to finish there undergrad. The reason why is so simple they do not have to take general classes like we have to in the US. I think if the US higher education got rid of general ed classes several things will happen at once, tuition would go down, students would more like graduate and not change majors. students will be able to focus on goals quicker and not be burden with classes that will not benefit them. For example a student majoring in social studies program, biology and advance math is not going to apply to their program and therefore students are putting in money into classes that are needed. 

Those were just some of the things that was talked about. After class was over we had a short break for lunch. We the girls ate lunch at a park. There was gate into this park but we didn't read the sign carefully as we went in after another person went in. The sign said " this park is only for this particular resident that have a key, please close the gate completely behind you." We all read it but we thought we would be able to get out. We learned that lesson the hard way! 

After lunch we had to go back to the ACCENT classroom and have a class discussion. It was very intellectual. It was good short class. We were all dismissed a little early so we can get ready to have afternoon tea with some students that are taking classes at the universities. Tea was taking place at the British museum. I had a peppermint herbal tea and scones. It was like the cutest little things. I really didn't hear much from the students because we were in a public place and the interpreters could not hear. So I just enjoyed getting to know my interpreters. 

After tea we went back to our flat to prepare for a fun night in the city. Two of the students left to go

visit another country so we were short in numbers. We decided to have dinner at place in Leicester Square. That is an interesting part of town at night. I would not recommend going to that part town by yourself at night. All kinds of people come out. Weird things to see as you walk past the stores. We arrived to dinner a small Italian place. Everyone ordered drink excepted for me. I was quickly hounded for questions in the end they all respected me for not drinking. In fact one guy said "good that you do not drink it becomes a habit and sometimes its not a good habit." They all ordered shots and when they raised their glass I raise my water it was awesome! After dinner they all expressed they wanted to go gambling and do a few other things that I had no desire to do. So a person walked me back to my flat. I was so tired that I went to sleep instead of working on my blog.

The British Museum

The awesome class

Dinner

China town in London

Leicester Sq.