James Shaw

I am a new kind of university drop-out

The system is now geared to phoney success, not true education

issue 28 October 2006

It’s been more than a month now since thousands of fresh-faced young students began their first year at university, full of excitement, confidence and hope. Poor souls. I felt that way at first, but it didn’t take long for my first doubts to surface.

When I set out I was innocent enough to think that university was all about working hard (I was studying theology), absorbing facts and learning how to think and argue — as well as having fun, of course.

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