Navigating Academic Culture Shock

One of the biggest shocks going abroad is adjusting to each country’s academic culture. As someone who came from a small liberal arts school where all of my classes were tallied for attendance and generally no bigger than 30 students (except for some 100 person lectures!), University of Canterbury was a jump for me. I go to William & Mary, which has about 7,000 undergraduate students, but that number doubled when I went abroad, so I had to adjust to the difference. On the other hand, some of my abroad friends had the opposite experience, where the school was a lot smaller.

The size of the school wasn’t the biggest shock; instead, I found myself perplexed by the system of lectures and tutorials. William & Mary has a regimented system where most classes run at the same time either Monday & Wednesday or Tuesday & Thursday, but registration at University of Canterbury was a completely different experience. One of my classes ran three times a week, but each day it ran at a different time; another one of my classes had a “lecture” and then a “tutorial,” something I hadn’t experienced as an English major.  When I signed up for classes, the academic advisors said that if my lectures overlapped, that was usually okay, but tutorials were the classes where attendance was mandatory. But when the semester started, my tutorials had different expectations. Some were optional, some were necessary, some were just a repeat of the lecture, and it was usually more valuable to attend the lectures. 

The positive side to all this mess? Professors were incredibly flexible with attendance and you got into any class you wanted. (I could rant about W&M registration difficulties for ages, so coming here and having my classes approved immediately was a blessing.) When I got all my classes at registration, I thought the school was just very generous to study abroad students. It took me the whole semester to realize why their system allowed me to get all the classes I wanted. 

A week ago, I went to office hours with one of my professors and asked him how many people were in our class, to which he responded, “About 60, though a few have dropped along the way,” and immediately my memory recounted the seats in our classroom–definitely less than 60. My professor explained how COVID-19 completely changed the academic culture of the school; most students learn remotely now because all professors are required to record and upload their lectures. This system allows the university to increase the class capacity beyond the physical classroom’s limit, which is why I was able to register for all the classes I wanted. 

As a student, I find in-class lectures invaluable; however, as someone studying abroad, I benefitted greatly from the remote lectures because I was able to excuse myself from classes and have a more flexible schedule. But as time went on, I felt more unmotivated to attend lectures when over half of the students had stopped going to class. The decreasing attendance made it harder to engage with classes, but I continued putting my best foot forward because I knew it would pay off in the end.

Classes are more heavily weighted toward the finals compared to my school, where homework and small assignments factor into the grade. Right now it’s finals week and I’m preparing for an essay and final exam, both of which are worth 40% of my grade in different classes. I highly encourage any future students to consider how much time they’re willing to put into classes while abroad. If you know you’re going to be traveling a lot, take some easier classes so you’re not swamped near the end of the semester. You may want to take harder classes to challenge yourself, but sometimes it’s good to give yourself a break! This is your semester abroad, have fun with it!