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Lukas Coevering | Why does Ancient Studies struggle to create a sense of community?

Lukas Coevering,
24 oktober 2024 - 10:22

Why does PPLE but not Ancient Studies manage to forge a sense of community, columnist Lukas Coevering wonders. “For most people in my program, I would not notice if they stopped showing up to seminars and lectures. That is strange.”

Community forms the basis of human civilization. We have developed through the ages by working together on shared common goals. To this day, our entire lives center around the groups we are a part of. Our nationality, family, culture, and even values are relevant only insofar as they allow us to relate to the people in our lives and vice versa.
 
As a result, it makes sense that the life's purpose we choose for ourselves should also somehow connect us to other people and a community. In the case of us as students, university and the courses we pursue are our primary purpose, and so is a place where we should theoretically find community. We came here to choose a direction for ourselves as we enter adulthood, so it would benefit our educational experience to share it with other students we can relate to and grow with. Studying at university is just as much about the interaction between students as it is about the course material and lectures themselves. If it weren't, everyone would be taking online courses. Thus, higher education institutions should make allowing space for inter-student interaction a central focus.
 
However, some programs at the UvA bring their students together more than others. I learned this after doing my last year at PPLE but switching to Ancient Studies for this academic year. Last year at PPLE, I felt like I was part of a community, knowing everyone in my course, at least vaguely. Now, having switched to Ancient Studies, I find myself seeing a new face at every lecture, even though my class is half as small as it was at my former program.

“There are ways to give our courses community and really get us involved in our learning”

At PPLE, there was a freshman weekend trip, a student association that organized popular events, and a dedicated common space where students interacted. This year at Ancient Studies, there was an intro week where my colleagues and I introduced ourselves to each other and shared a laugh, but any meaningful social interaction has been limited since then. People mainly connect during class discussions rather than organically through out-of-class interaction. For most people in my program, I would not notice if they stopped showing up to seminars and lectures. That is strange.
 
The root word of university is universitas, which originally meant a whole organization comprising multiple individuals. In other words, a community. University should be given our full attention as students, but without a sense of togetherness with our peers, it is bound to be unengaging. So why do certain courses have less community, and what can we do about it?
 
The main reason is the much lower number of contact hours. Ancient studies have only half of the contact hours of PPLE, with only 8 hours per week. Upon further research, I found that most social science, law, and economics courses at the Roeterseiland campus have significantly more classes than we do in the humanities. The main reason for this is the relatively low number of staff. There aren't enough faculty members who could teach more hours, so we are left with a ‘full-time’ week at university that could fit in the space of one working day.
 
This is a predicament because more teaching hours would require more staff and, as a result, more money to pay said staff to teach at humanities programs. Given that funding for higher education has just been decreased, increasing funding for faculty is unrealistic. However, creating more contact hours and thus engagement and comradery between students doesn't have to involve more teachers. Making the 'self-study hours' more interactive is an excellent start. One form of this could be more group projects. This way, working outside of class would bring people together regarding what they study and make the process more fun. Having teacher-free student-led class discussions or work peer-review sessions based on canvas instructions would also work. The only thing required for this would be an empty room.
 
There are ways to give our courses community and really get us involved in our learning. All it would take is energy from both faculty and students. So, to my instructors and my peers in the humanities, let's start a conversation around this. Let's see how we can make our faculty more innovative and community-oriented, so that students can really get excited about their studies.