To: Marium Hamid, President of Student Council of UBC AMS
From: Mahsa Ehtemam
Date: January 30, 2019
Subject: Proposal for the Addition on Practical and Life Related Courses at UBC
Introduction
Many undergraduates in UBC specialize in their field but upon graduating, many are left with minimal to no understanding of practical real-like knowledge. These practical skills include topics such as taxes, social etiquette, or even basic health problems and principles. Providing access to these courses aimed to provide experts with knowledge that can be applied in their day to day lives should become a part of Shaping UBC’s Next Century.
Statement of Problem
Although UBC offers courses on these topics, they are served for those who wish to specialize in that area. They are too detailed and serve those who wish to know more than what the average person is required to know about it, making individuals reluctant to step outside their comfort zone in fear of lowering their GPA. Those with a heavy school load and work may not have the time and resources to access such information outside of UBC.
Proposed Solution
A possible solution for this problem would be for AMS to bring a variety of short courses students are able to take. Such courses should cover the necessities and basics of the topics and should be geared purely towards educating the students as opposed to going into details that are for experts in the field. This will promote students to take such courses and acquire skills and knowledge they can utilize in their day to day lives on campus, for easy accessibility and with their peers.
Scope
To assess the feasibility of the addition of such life basics courses from the AMS Society, I plan to assess 5 areas of inquiry:
- How many students would want these courses available to them?
- What are the costs and time required to develop these courses?
- What current courses are available that may address such life applicable topics?
- What course topics are beneficial and demanded by students?
Methods
My primary data sources will include questionnaires and interviews with undergraduate UBC students and alumni in a variety of faculties and majors. I will also interview and survey several professors in regard to their opinion on such a proposed plan. The majority of these will be open ended questions with a quantitative set of questions to gather the percentage of those who want these courses to be developed.
My Qualifications
I am an undergraduate Biology student at UBC and am graduating in May 2019. My colleagues and I have learned a lot about our respective specializations during our time but we are not knowledgeable about other areas that will come into use in the course of our lifetime. My association with many students and colleagues will allow me to gain a representative insight on the perspective of the collective student body.
Conclusion
While specializations and extensive research and knowledge in every niche major and topic is crucial for our world to continue being innovative and advancing, it is also important for individuals to be well rounded and know basics of what is required in a variety of areas. Many from all over the globe come to UBC to expand their knowledge, and such courses will help build the fundamentals of their knowledge and skills.
February 6, 2019
Hello Marsha,
Thank you for your report proposal. I am sorry to say, this is not a ‘doable’ idea. UBC is a higher learning institution; the types of courses you are proposing do not ‘fit’ into UBC’s mandate as a research institution. However, it is a good idea to see if there is a fit between your idea for practical courses and some of the ASM clubs; do the research, find out which Student Clubs might be interested in a report recommending they create some practical courses using volunteer instructors ….. Please do submit a new proposal a.s.a.p thank you.