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Thank you all for supporting LazyStudents over the past two years. I’m wrapping the website up to concentrate on other projects. You can still contact me at duncan.robinson AT lazystudents DOT co DOT uk, or follow me on Twitter @duncanrobinson.

Cheers for all the comments and all the support,

Duncan

Editor,

LazyStudents.co.uk

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Students are the masters of procrastination. There’s always something more interesting than work. As a deadline nears, vacuuming the house and cleaning the windows suddenly begin to appeal. They can be an ergophobic bunch, but there is one force that compels even expert procrastinators to work: The Fear.

The Fear is the realisation that you have left your work too late and that, unless you start actually doing something, you will fail. Panic sets in, but work begins to get done. The Fear fuels bouts of revision and all-night essay-writing sessions better than any espresso or Red Bull. Once the deadline passes, The Fear leaves and university life returns to normal. Students can get on with the important bit of university – joining a lot of societies to give the inevitable 2.1s on their CVs some sheen.

In the third year, however, The Fear does not leave. When I handed in my final coursework after Christmas, there was no relief. Instead, there was panic. I realised I had just 16 weeks of student life left; only 12 weeks until my first exam and a mere eight weeks until my dissertation was due. It seems The Fear is here to stay. In fact, it’s spreading.

With just four months between the real world and me, my thoughts are turning towards jobs, or rather the lack of them. Suddenly, The Fear is telling me that I should have done more internships, or at least picked up some extra brochures at the careers fair. Last year, friends graduating with vocational degrees in things like ICT walked into jobs, even in the recession. Friends without such degrees – like me – struggled. I might fail the final and most important test of university: getting a graduate job.

It’s not just the jobs market causing The Fear. There are other traumatic parts of graduation. Leaving university means the end of cheap cinema tickets and discounted bus journeys. It’s full price from now on. The end of my degree also means paying council tax, which causes a slightly bigger dent in finances. Students live in a bubble where they are given special treatment. When they graduate they are just another 20-something member of the public – and probably one without a job.

The thought of the real world and the inhospitable economic climate has caused many soon-to-be graduates to become soon-to-be postgraduates. Scurrying back into the student bubble is seen as the easy option. While jobs might be hard to come by, universities are more than happy to take your cash in exchange for a shelter from reality and a few extra letters after your name. But even this choice is harder than it appears. You do an MA to improve your career trajectory – but what if you don’t know which career to choose?

The Fear is justified. First years get it when they haven’t prepared for an exam; third years get it when they haven’t prepared for life.

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In his piece, Sabir points out that this is a bit silly. People need to be able to study terrorism to understand why it happens and even work out ways to stop it. This point was sadly missed by hordes of commentators, who left missive after missive declaring:

Y R THEY TEAHCIHING TERRORISM AT UNIVIERSTY?!?@!

Or something along those lines. CJCJC said:

Beyond parody.
This sums up the current academic mindset in a nutshell.
Teaching “terrorism” as an academic subject while turning a blind eye, indeed actively refusing to co-operate with the police, to the radicalisation taking place right under you noses.

It’s political correctness gone literally mad. polishsupporter said:

I mean what does studying terrorism teach. There a lots of angry people in the world and lots of martyrs who are prepared to blow themselves in the name of some bogus interpretation of religion.

Innit. Except for the terrorists who aren’t religious. Or those who don’t commit suicide. Hang on, this terrorism thing is slightly more complicated than it looks. kevwell was more suspicious:

One does have to wonder why there are those who are so interested in Islamic extremism & terrorism, that they wish to study it at university.

Yes, bit funny that. And all those historians interested Fascism. And what about Chemists? They like chemicals. What are explosives made out of: chemicals! QED.

Anyway, head over to The Guardian and give yourself a giggle.

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Over the past few weeks, we have been pelted with chunks of information about the Detroit terror attacker, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab. What family was he from? Where was he studying? What countries did he visit? Tons of news about him has hit us from all directions. This has made it a little hard for the public to put things into perspective, but the media has had no problem at all. As soon as news of Umar Farouk’s connection to UCL and its Islamic societies broke, leading newspapers have made it look like British Universities are breeding grounds for terrorists. Meanwhile, the majority of Muslim students clutch their hearts and try to convince themselves that all is well.

But the truth is all isn’t well. It’s been days since the attempted attack but my friends and I are still scared to talk about it, or discuss surrounding issues openly. The UCL’s Islamic society have disabled their website and gone completely under the radar, while dozens of UCL’s Muslim students refuse to comment on this story. Muslim students across Britain realise that they must bear with the consequences of Umar Farouk’s actions, when they still haven’t recovered from the scrutinising aftermath of 9/11 and the 7/7 bombings.

We are moving towards a society, where we won’t just get prosecuted for our actions, our words but for our thoughts. These days, any type of information is easily available and accessible due to the internet and most authorities have realised that you really can’t stop someone with radical intentions, therefore you must stop those intentions being born by any way possible. Universities and their Islamic societies will no longer have the same freedom of expression as they used to have. We no longer have the luxury of reading Islamic literature on the tube without raising alarm or at least receiving scrutinising looks. In months to come, there will be lots of investigations and observations trying to determine what kind of Muslim you are. Which mosque do you pray in? What events are you attending? What kind of thoughts are you thinking? 2010 is the beginning of the era of “Trial by Thought”.

The investigations are not the only thing Muslim students will have to put up with. Around, two months ago there was an attack on the Muslim students of City University. A mob of 30 youths, screaming “Paki” along with other offensive words, stabbed four Muslim students. This incident showed the spread of Islamophobia across the country. I don’t even want to imagine how far Umar Farouk’s action will fuel those attitudes.

But we are stronger than the cowardly actions of Umar Farouk or the gang which attacked City University’s students. We will rise above this and prove University is a place of learning and enhancing yourself and Islam is a religion of Peace.

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According to the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, who graduated from UCL with a degree in Engineering and Business Finance, served as the President of the University’s Islamic Society between 2006 and 2007.

In a recent press release, Faisal Hanjra, spokesman for FOSIS said: “There was nothing in his behaviour during this time that would indicate that he would commit these alleged acts. During his tenure as President, the Islamic Society forged closer relationships between other student groups, of all faiths.”

Faisla Hanjra went onto say that Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab’s fellow students and staff were shocked and horrified by his alleged actions and that the purpose of Islamic Societies in Universities is to build positive cross-campus relations.

Scotland Yard and MI5 are currently investigating whether the 23 year old, was radicalised during his three years at University. The FOSIS claim that Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab has ceased contact with friends and colleagues in London, after graduating in 2008. The Federation also urges all those who can help to come forward and cooperate with the relevant authorities.

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Today, as predicted, the Daily Telegraph contains an editorial jumping on this bandwagon, pointing the finger at universities for failing to fight Islamism. Its headline is the completely reasonable: “Academic liberalism is a danger to life”.

The editorial states that “institutes of higher education in London have consistently provided sanctuary for Islamist students who parrot the hate-filled rhetoric of al-Qaeda and its allies.” The editorial also blasts “liberal British academics” for their “habit of diverting any discussion of terrorism away from Islamism towards the evils of Anglo-American foreign policy”.

“Again and again, speakers have been invited and rooms provided so that, in the name of free speech, vulnerable students can be indoctrinated,” the editorial continues. The Telegraph, however, is being misleading – as many of its education news stories are. Universities are not designed to fight extremism. They are there to teach and facilitate learning. They are not there to censor.

Students at universities are no more susceptible to extremism than any other young person. UCL did not teach Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab to allegedly strap explosives to his legs and kill 250 people. “Perhaps they picked up their expertise in a British university laboratory”, asks the editorial. Or perhaps they typed ‘how to build a bomb’ into Google. None of the 7/7 bombers had a BA in Bomb-making.

The only way universities can fight against extremism is through giving their students the critical faculties not to be indoctrinated. Banning speakers won’t help. Nor will banning courses that might improve a student’s bomb-making skills (which is surely the next step up from the Telegraph’s innuendo above). Academic liberalism, despite the Telegraph’s claims to the contrary, is not a danger to life.

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Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, accused of bomb plot

A student at University College, London is in custody after reportedly attempting to blow up a plane in the USA. Thankfully Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab was studying engineering and not pyrotechnics: his explosives failed to go off and he ended up burning just his own legs. More here.

Following Mutallab’s alleged actions, there will probably be a purported crackdown on ‘extremism’ within universities. Since 2006, universities have been regarded as ‘fertile recruiting grounds‘ for extremists. This means we can probably expect more cases like Rizwaan Sabir’s, from Nottingham University, who was arrested for downloading an al-Qaeda training manual for his PhD – a PhD on radical Islamic groups. Sabir’s case was bad enough, before it emerged that the manual was even available on Amazon, for £7.55. Sabir was held for six days, without charge.

Treating universities as fertile recruiting grounds for extremist groups has a logic. An angry, young man (of which universities often hold many) is more likely to become an extremist than someone with a secure job, wife and kids – thus universities should be watched. But universities are part of much wider communities, embedded in cities. They are not islands. Some young people might be tempted by extremism, but this could happen whether at university or not. Universities are not hotbeds of extremism. With a million students in higher education, there will always be a few nutters. There is no need to treat university populations any differently to the rest of the country.

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The two who took the buck were Wallace Gray, the SLC’s ICT director, and Martin Herbert, the marketing and customer services director. But Ralph Seymour-Jackson, the Chief Executive – who described 50,000 students being without any funding as ‘reasonable’ – is still in charge.

Seymour-Jackson, the man behind the cock-ups

A number of dumb ideas caused the cock-ups. My favourite has got to be that the ‘SLC staffed its call centres to meet average demand throughout the year, rather than putting extra staff in place in busier times.’ In other words, a systemic problem.

The scanning equipment failed and the decision to process applications by hand was taken far too late for many students – particularly the ones who were income assessed, i.e. the ones who really need the money. Again, a systemic problem.

Also ‘board members were unaware of many of the company’s problems, partly because key information was not revealed to them by the executive, but also because “the non-executive directors did not challenge the executive team sufficiently”.’ Another systemic problem.

The system failed, but the man who presided over it remains. Ralph Seymour-Jackson should be sacked.

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It would be churlish to say that nothing’s changed. You are armed with three years of character-defining experiences, of intellectual rigour and of social development. You are a completely different person to the one who left three years earlier. And let’s not forget the old degree, you’ve definitely got that: there’s a picture of you holding it on the mantelpiece.

Except that isn’t quite true because they don’t have scrolls any more, just certificates like the ones you used to get for swimming, so it’s actually a picture of you holding a roughly cut piece of white, plastic piping with a red bow tied around the middle. It would be glib to imply a symbolic connection between an undergraduate degree and a plastic pipe beyond that of visual similarity, but sometimes, just sometimes, when every single job that you actually want requires experience that you haven’t got because every single job that you want requires experience that you haven’t got because every…well, sometimes you wonder.

However, there is one thing that your arts degree fully qualifies you for, and has provided you with all the experience necessary. Congratulations, I hope you’re ready for post-grad, it’s going to be a hell of a ride.

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