THE END OF 9AM LECTURES?

You’re with your flatmates, you’ve had your tea, and you’re deciding what to do this evening. After much deliberation you decide on a night out, maybe Leadmill or Carver Street. And then someone utters the most soul destroying of words…

“Sorry I can’t I’m in at 9 tomorrow.”

At once your plans for the night are ruined. And all because one of you has to be in at that ungodly hour of 9am the next day. We all have them, and we all hate them, so why don’t we just get rid of the 9am Lecture?

Imagine a world without 9am starts. You could come in later in the day, more refreshed and better slept, ready to face whatever work is thrown at you. You’d be more engaged, more energetic and more willing to learn. No more dragging yourself through the door two minutes before the seminar starts clutching a coffee for dear life. It makes sense, you know it and I know it, so why don’t the powers that be just abolish these abhorrent timeslots?

Unfortunately, the reality is less straightforward. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to allow every course to get rid of its 9am starts. Imagine the havoc that would be caused by 30,000 students here at Hallam trying to fit all their contact time into the week with 5 hours a week missing. It would be sweet bliss for students but logistically it couldn’t work.

Then there’s the additional argument in FAVOUR of keeping 9am starts (yes these people actually exist). Some argue that university is preparation for working life, and unless you’re a shift worker like me, you’re going to be expected to turn up at 9am for work every day. If you are a shift worker, the benefits also have to be compensated against the fact that you’ll be working at hours you’d rather not, like weekends, evenings and overnight.

So really, they’re doing the majority a favour by making them turn up at 9 in the morning, aren’t they?

Well, kind of.

Research shows that teenagers start functioning two hours later than older adults, so much so that there is a trial taking place to see if starting the school day later boosts GCSE results. It will be interesting to see what the findings of this are, but you can see where the argument comes from. How many of us wake up feeling groggy after a lie in?

For now at least, it seems 9am lectures are here to stay. We here at the9amlecture know your pain, dear student. We’ve been there, cold, rough, slightly worse for wear, and physically dragging yourself down the road to Uni. It’s tough, we know, but it’s worth it in the long run.

So pull yourselves up, clutch that coffee, and take a deep breath. You can do this, but get a wiggle on, you don’t wanna be late.