Compulsory open units are stressful and flawed

By Tamara Obradovic, First Year Psychology

Open units are detrimental when they're compulsory. Any academic enjoyment is curbed by the stress of their difference to the rest of your course and limited choices.

In theory, open units expose students to alternative ways of thinking, prevent students from narrowing their academic interests and provide the opportunity for further intellectual curiosity.

But with the attachment of ‘compulsory’ to their title, open units become chores rather than windows for academic enjoyment.

University is the perfect time to explore new academic interests and open units could succeed in providing a platform for just that.

However, crippled by the restrictions of timetables and individual commitments, open units fall short of their promise. Students only have the choice of just two or three units that actually fit their timetables - not to mention their interests- and so, are sentenced to weekly lectures and seminars on a subject they, at best, tolerate. The uninspiring list of options left after timetable restrictions and intimidating workload requirements take their tolls, meaning students ‘choose’ the units with the least demanding assessments, or the ones whose descriptions come across as the least soul destroying.

As a consequence, open units lose their capacity to provide students with the means for pursuing the passions that their courses do not cater for, and instead, become burdens that students must suffer.

open units become chores rather than windows for academic enjoyment.

But it is not just that making open units compulsory has compromised their very purpose.

The added workload means open units impose an unnecessary additional stress that may distract students from their main paths of study. With open units being tailored for students taking the unit as part of their main courses, open unit students could struggle to keep up with the demands of their chosen unit and also find themselves overwhelmed and floundering in the requirements of their own courses.

Beyond the threat to academic success, if open units create a fear of failure in students, they might even discourage students from taking academic risks and broadening the limits of their comfort zones again in the future.

While all students should take advantage of their time at university by exploring novel disciplines and pursuing new academic experiences , compulsory open units have no role to play in this domain.

Yes, open units would be an excellent way for students to broaden themselves academically, however, mandatory open units merely force students to take units out of obligation, and not out of personal curiosity. So, despite all the best intentions behind demanding students yawn through a couple of extra lectures a week, forcing open units does not benefit anyone.

In order for open units to hope to make any positive impact, students must choose to take them out of pure interest in the subject, not for the purpose of meeting credit requirements.

Featured image: Epigram/Ffion Clarke