Undergraduates in the nation’s tertiary institutions have come under severe criticism following what observers term as their inability to strike a balance between academics and leisure. This situation experts insist, has the potential to negatively impact on not just students’ personal lives but also the opportunities open to them after graduation.
While it may be argued that tertiary education in the country terribly stressful and leaves little time for social activities, stakeholders nonetheless maintain that it is possible to juggle both aspects of school life so that positive spin-offs would result from the process.
Desmond Uchegbu, an education consultant, observes that the difficulties experienced by most students in this regard has evolved from a point where they pay attention to both studies and leisure, to a more worrying trend where they now rely on shortcuts to gain academic success in tertiary institutions.
While Uchegbu admits that the overall routine of students in most citadels of learning comes with new habits, responsibilities and increased workload which makes the learning process more cumbersome, he however adds that they should be able to devise strategies through which they can maintain a balance between high-level academic success and social life.
“A situation where some students only focus on the aspect of knowledge acquisition with no social integration skills will hinder them in the real world where some level of social and networking experience is required to effectively fit in as a team player,” he declares.
On the basis of this, he urges management of tertiary institutions to encourage a mix of learning and social activities in the ivory towers saying that this can be beneficial to both parties and produce rounded students in this global age.
For Adeoti Akinolu, a Lagos based management skill expert, there is the need for students to set their priorities right as far as their academic and social life is concerned.
Akinolu points out that it is important to all concerned the way undergraduates handle these issues, clamouring for a more disciplined measure to be employ by students in their academic acquisition and social lives in order to blend the natural process of learning and social world around them.
According to him, this explains why stakeholders should devote their attention to how undergraduates manage their time, while insisting that it is crucial to their overall development given the prevailing academic culture in schools, where student do well in some courses but perform woefully in others.
