Campus Culture Across The Pond

• 

Today’s Ypulse Youth Advisory Board post comes from Megan Reid who recently returned from a semester abroad in England. Meg graciously agreed to share her thoughts on how university life in the U.K. compares with college in the States. Remember, you can contact any member of our Youth Advisory Board directly, just email them at youthadvisoryboard at ypulse.com.

Campus Culture Across The Pond

Studying abroad was an option I never thought much about, but in the back of my mind always something I knew I’d do. Not only did my parents grow up outside of the US, but I was probably influenced by the fact that my stepfather is the Vice-Provost of my campus’ Center for International Education. My not going abroad would have been a little like the proverbial shoemaker’s children going barefoot. I’m sure I was privy to more than my fair share of family dinner table conversations about “the growing need for global competency in our current political and economic climate.”

Of course, my parents didn’t exactly have to push me out the door to spend the semester in England; it was more of a “Thank God” sort of thing. At the same time, I have to admit I went into my semester abroad pretty blithely; I knew life would be different in England, but I don’t think I was prepared for just how different. Of course, lots about university life was similar — “Family Guy” and High School Musical obsessions, a horrifically fluctuating stress level, and a general love of football, though with different rules, teams, and ball shape (GO CHELSEA!) Still, I found the dissimilarities pretty striking.

First, English university students seem much less dependent on their parents than American students. Maybe it’s because the concept of taking a post-high school “gap year” to work or travel is more prevalent, or because their educational system encourages more self-motivated study, or the fact that the drinking age is lower, or even that many campuses don’t have cafeterias and expect students to cook for themselves (a concept that would have many of my usually competent American friends running for the hills). Whatever the factors, British faculty, as friendly and supportive as they were, regularly reinforced this message of independence: the point of university is to learn to figure it out yourself.

I also found that British teens and twenty-somethings watched MUCH more TV online than my American friends. In my almost-four years of college, I’ve never had a roommate without a TV in her bedroom, but only one of my 13 British flatmates brought their own TV set. With the major British TV networks (BBC, Sky, and Channel 4) streaming full, commercial-free, legal versions of their most popular shows, it’s just as easy to watch “The X-Factor” or “Top Gear” on your laptop as on a television set. When I compare that to my trying to round up all the clips from a Season 1 episode of “Entourage” on SurfTheChannel back home, I cringe. MTV and the CW’s efforts are moving in the right direction here, but British networks are definitely equally, if not more plugged in to how students watch programming.

Surprisingly, as I gathered from watching the stacks of newspapers accumulate on my British flat’s kitchen table, print media appears to be faring better with youth overseas. Of course, a number of titles abroad are getting slashed just as brutally as they are in the US, and my friends there did check BBC online just as often as I do NYTimes.com. Still, I noticed a strong connection to old-fashioned newspapers and news magazines. For one thing, they were actually read. It’s a harsh stereotype, but American students are much less globally aware than their counterparts in other countries. My flatmates thoughtfully and critically assessed the issues at play in the US election on a regular basis, from the economy to environmental issues to a level that even I, a lifelong citizen, was challenged to meet.

I realize that not everyone is lucky enough to go to a school like mine, where basic tuition, room and board prices also cover housing and education abroad (I also worked all summer to save up for traveling and personal expenses.) Still, there are things I learned abroad — both inside and outside the classrooms– that I could have never learned on my American campus.

About Megan Reid
Megan is a college student, freelancer and hardcore bookworm. She began writing fashion articles for her hometown newspaper at age 15, and her work has since appeared in publications like Boston magazine, Mountain Living and CosmoGirl. Meg also loves theatre and the arts, and when she’s not sending postcards, devouring YA novels, or reading up on 19th-century cultural studies, she’s probably dragging someone along on a late-night ice cream/Starbucks run. Meg has lived in three (soon to be four) countries and five states, though she currently resides in Arizona.

• 

Categorized under: Youth Advisory Board

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. If you are a Facebook user, comment using your Facebook account.