The law faculty (Pravni Facultet) is housed in 5 different buildings around the city. I have been in only two, both of which are on Trg (Square) Marshala Tita.
The university is huge (60,000 students), though like the law school there is no real "main" campus. There are 6000 students in the law school, but keep in mind that law is an undergraduate subject here, as in most of Europe, and it takes them 5 years to get their degrees. I had lunch with the vice rector of the law faculty (their academic dean) this week. She told me how European integration, through the Erasmus program, is opening up possibilities for their students to go to other universities to study for a year and vice versa. They now have exchange programs with 94 other schools.
We've just finished the second week of classes. My class is in the other building on Marshal Tito Square, right next door to the Cafe Hemingway (it would be to the left if it were in the photo).
There are 15 students (13women, 2 men) + 1 American Fulbright student who is sitting in because she's thinking about going to law school. Two more from Austria are joining us this week. Apparently, trends in university enrollment are the same here as in the states -- women are now in the majority. The students told me that in general women predominate in the social sciences while there are still more men in the technical fields.
The students are mostly in their 5th year. We are doubling up the classes (2x/week instead of 1) so they can finish early and study for exams. I still can't figure out how they do scheduling here. The days, time and room for the class were not fixed until a couple of days before it started. There are exams scheduled throughout the year. We're taking a week off for exams in April. Then there is another round in June. That said, everything else feels much the same. Some students are well-prepared, some not. Some participate in class, some do not. Although there has not been the problem with class participation that I was warned about. I think it helped that we started with a PBS documentary on the Nuremberg trials. That jump started the conversation. It wasn't long before I found myself trying to defend (not very successfully) the fire bombing of Dresden. What fun!
Attendance, so far, has not been a problem either. The students told me that in most of their classes they are expected to know the contents of a long, dense textbook for the exam, yet the professors cover only a small percentage of the the book in class. And, of course, there is no Socratic method. So, why come to class? I guess it made a difference that I told them that the material covered in class would be tested on the exam.
I am giving them an option of a paper or an exam. The ones who want to write a paper came in for conferences to discuss their topics this week. They had given their topics about as much thought as I am used to, e.g., "I'd like to write a paper about war crimes." One of them explained the reason to me, "Here it is different because we don't tend to focus on things until there is a deadline." My response, "What makes you think that is different."
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| The main law faculty building |
The university is huge (60,000 students), though like the law school there is no real "main" campus. There are 6000 students in the law school, but keep in mind that law is an undergraduate subject here, as in most of Europe, and it takes them 5 years to get their degrees. I had lunch with the vice rector of the law faculty (their academic dean) this week. She told me how European integration, through the Erasmus program, is opening up possibilities for their students to go to other universities to study for a year and vice versa. They now have exchange programs with 94 other schools.
We've just finished the second week of classes. My class is in the other building on Marshal Tito Square, right next door to the Cafe Hemingway (it would be to the left if it were in the photo).
There are 15 students (13women, 2 men) + 1 American Fulbright student who is sitting in because she's thinking about going to law school. Two more from Austria are joining us this week. Apparently, trends in university enrollment are the same here as in the states -- women are now in the majority. The students told me that in general women predominate in the social sciences while there are still more men in the technical fields.
The students are mostly in their 5th year. We are doubling up the classes (2x/week instead of 1) so they can finish early and study for exams. I still can't figure out how they do scheduling here. The days, time and room for the class were not fixed until a couple of days before it started. There are exams scheduled throughout the year. We're taking a week off for exams in April. Then there is another round in June. That said, everything else feels much the same. Some students are well-prepared, some not. Some participate in class, some do not. Although there has not been the problem with class participation that I was warned about. I think it helped that we started with a PBS documentary on the Nuremberg trials. That jump started the conversation. It wasn't long before I found myself trying to defend (not very successfully) the fire bombing of Dresden. What fun!
Attendance, so far, has not been a problem either. The students told me that in most of their classes they are expected to know the contents of a long, dense textbook for the exam, yet the professors cover only a small percentage of the the book in class. And, of course, there is no Socratic method. So, why come to class? I guess it made a difference that I told them that the material covered in class would be tested on the exam.
I am giving them an option of a paper or an exam. The ones who want to write a paper came in for conferences to discuss their topics this week. They had given their topics about as much thought as I am used to, e.g., "I'd like to write a paper about war crimes." One of them explained the reason to me, "Here it is different because we don't tend to focus on things until there is a deadline." My response, "What makes you think that is different."
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