Yeap Xin Wei 18056


                “Oh man, these lecture hours are killing me, literally!” Does this sentence ring any bell, especially after a long, tiring day of lectures? Lectures are the main element for students studying in a university as they provide knowledge and information. However, it is not easy for students to maintain their focus and attention for prolonged periods. Such long lecture hours are due to three main causes – quality control, poor timetable arrangement and limited concentration among students.

                Starting off, to ensure high quality graduates, lecture hours have been lengthened. Through extended lecture hours, students are able to thoroughly understand the topic as the syllabus is taught at a slower pace. In addition, students are given more opportunities to approach their lecturers as lecturers have more time to assist the students with the problems they face. However, this has caused students to become over fatigued. Besides that, students will also have less time studying at their hostel. Even lecturers suffer the same fate as they have to work longer than usual.

                Moving on, long lecture hours in Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) are caused by improperly arranged lecture schedules. To accommodate with the extended lecture hours, the management of UTP has chosen to place all the lectures on weekdays. Consequently, the timetable has moved from a state of packed to overly packed. Students have to sacrifice their free time at night to attend lectures. Moreover, students receive more assignments, which make the situation worse. Overall, students will lack sleep which will accumulate, leading to physical and mental stress in a long run.

                Lastly, the short attention span of students causes lecture hours to be felt as being too long. As the concentration of students reaches a maximum limit after a certain period of time, they are only able to pay full attention during a short span of time in a lecture. Consequently, this makes lecture hours seem long and tiring. In addition, students will not be able to focus during the second half of the lecture, causing them not being able to understand the lectures as well as the first half of it. Eventually, students begin to generate fatigue after lectures, which cause them having to rest or take a nap after lectures, hence having less time for personal study.

               In conclusion, long lecture hours are caused mainly by the policy of the university to maintain high quality graduates, badly arranged lecture schedules and short attention span of students during lectures. Thus, management should consider reducing the lecture hours or rearranging the schedule so as to make them less packed. By doing so, we will be able to ensure better quality graduates being produced every year.

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