Another thing that’s really irritating about the University of Ghana is the course registration process. While there are handbooks for the various departments uploaded on the school’s website, not every student can get access to that and due to the complex nature of the content of the handbook, even the students who get access to it hardly know what they are supposed to do with the book.
While I was working on my online registration, all the courses available in the humanities department were displayed and I had to choose just three of them. The moment I saw courses that seemed interesting, I completely ignored the courses that they stated on my admission letter and started adding the fresh courses. I was disappointed when, after clicking the submit button; I got a notification that I could not register for those courses because they were not the courses I had to study.
One other misleading fact about the courses displayed in the students MIS web (a portion of the University’s website where students’ information is displayed) is the fact that, the names of the courses displayed differ completely from the main courses stated on the admission letter. This is because on the MIS web is a breakdown of courses of the program stated on your admission letter. Simply put, the admission letter had the program of study while the MIS web shows the specific courses within the program of study for students to study each semester. Still confused? Don’t worry, the feeling was mutual.
So, what I’m trying to say is, for example, on my admission letter I have Sociology as one of my programs of study. The corresponding course for my first semester in the University which is stated in the MIS web is ‘Introduction to peoples and cultures’ which has no mention of Sociology in it, hence the confusion in regards with which course to register for. I hope you understand now.
INFS 111 HERE I COME
After my staircase climbing adventure at the BS, I decided I’d done enough walking for one day. I went back to the hall, ate and took a nap. I woke up an hour earlier to get ready for my Information Studies lecture, which was scheduled to take place at 3:30 pm that afternoon. When I was ready, I took my bag pack and started walking towards the Jones Quartey Building (JQB) where my lecture would be held. I need not talk about my getting lost on the way because it’s a routine now.
I got to JQB at 3:00pm and was elated about the fact that I’d made it to the class 30 minutes earlier. I walked to the JQB 22 lecture theatre, on the first floor of the building, only to realize that the theatre was already full. The lecture theatre which has a capacity of close to a thousand students was already full even though the lecture was absent. I was dumbstruck. How did this happen? I was 30 minutes early, so what had I done wrong? Was my nap a mistake? I decided not to give up. I walked to the back of the lecture theater and tried finding a seat. Luckily for me, JQB 22 just like the other lecture theaters on JQB had pews instead of individual desks. So, I could just squeeze myself beside some kind student who would have mercy on me and allow me to seat beside him or her. I looked at the students on the very last pew and their facial expressions told me they were in no mood to accommodate any other person on the pew. I moved to the second pew, and the reaction was no different. I was getting ready to just stand at the back of the theater for two whole hours during my very first lecture by deciding to try my luck with the third pew. I plastered the biggest smile I could muster on my face and walked towards the guy seating at the end of the third pew and asked him if I could get a space to seat. He looked up at me, smiled and said yes. I said a quick ‘thank you’ prayer in my head as I moved to join him on the pew. After I had sat down, it seemed as if the entire room had become quiet (I’m just kidding, the people on both sides of me were quiet, the rest of the class continued chattering).
Since I could not endure the deafening silence, I mentally prepared myself to start a conversation with the guy who allowed me to sit beside him. After I had given myself a pep talk, I asked him what his name was, and he told me his name. After the introduction, which would have not been complete without asking each other about the various courses we were studying, the conversation seemed to have come to an abrupt end. I was brainstorming another topic about which we could talk when I was saved by the lecturer-actually, lecturers and their TAs (Teaching Assistants). It was a few minutes after half past three that they arrived in the lecture hall. The lecturer who took over and gave an introduction to the class was a tall lanky middle aged man with a few specs of gray hair spread randomly across his heard. The other lecturer also tall but bulkier than the first and he also seemed to be middle aged though he had his head clean shaven. The first lecturer stepped on the podium to introduce himself.
After he had stepped on the podium, the huge turnout surprised him . According to him, he had not expected such a huge number of students to show up on the first day of the lecture, so he hadn’t even planned to use microphones. He introduced himself as one of the two lecturers who would take us through the course and said they would introduce the second lecturer in due time. After he had tried his best to shout so we could hear him, he gave up and called for the guys in charge of the technical issues to provide a microphone for him. After they had provided the microphone, he moved on with introducing the course and giving out the course outline while those of us at the back of the classroom, continued our chattering.
to be continued...
PLAYLIST
Rise up by Andra Day
Halo by Beyoncé
Category: UG Escapades
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