The Whole Hog Student Special: "We are never the finished article. But everything we do should be a form of learning"

The big wheel keeps on turnin’. A good summer yields to an uncertain autumn. Centres of learning have reopened their not-so-pearly gates to welcome hundreds of thousands of students.

Schoolkids know the score. At secondary level, for better or worse (and many would say worse), studying is a matter of endurance, compliance and concentration, and carefully curated parcels of information focused on an all-important terminal exam.

Higher education is different.

You’ve new arrangements to make. And farewells, perhaps, to old familiarities, friendships, haunts.

Yes, there are stresses, loads of them. But for all the trepidation and tests, it’s a new stage to play on, a new life to fashion.

But it’s not enough to have arrived. Teamer or loner, the best advice you can get is to live it to the full over the next nine months or thereabouts. You only live once.

Interests Of Students

There’s a lot of higher level knowledge to absorb, for sure, but being a student should also be about stretching away, firming up on personal and vocational identity, and on values and beliefs. On what makes you tick.

Psychologists call it agency, a person’s ability to initiate and control their actions, and their sense of being in charge of their station.

It’s not as easy as it sounds.

For a start, education in the 21st century is a long haul. It continues for decades after biological maturity and, in many cases, delays entry into work and independent income.

And the housing shortage is a corrosive problem, socially and personally. Accommodation is a massive issue for students.

Throw in the lingering effects of lockdowns, the pressures piled on by social media and all the other shit that’s happening and you have the makings of a toxic cocktail.

Is it any wonder then that mental health is one of the big issues in higher education?

But for all that, there’s a freedom and idealism afoot that only fully exists within the cloisters, as it were.

The sheer numbers – as someone entering college, you are one among thousands – release you from the proximities and constraints of family and local community.

Whether in relationships, or the broader issue of identity, there’s much greater freedom to choose who you want to be with, rather than who you have to be with.

And a college is one huge dating agency. Bin the apps! Talk to people. Most of then are very nice.

Heads of university enthuse about the richness of campus life, listing the clubs, societies and associations and events, and there’s truth in this, if you can find the right connection.

But college life can be agonising for some and much more work is required on supports and services for those teetering on an edge. Student unions have a huge part to play here. They are your voice, and their

job – in part a least – is to represent the interests of students to the college authorities, succcessfully and effectively.

Large Language Models

In addition to the personal, social and sporting side, it’s long been a solemn duty for students to hold up a mirror to society, to express beliefs and passions, to hector and accuse and protest, and to espouse campaigns and crusades.

There’s plenty to choose from in 2025.

The abhorrent situation in Gaza tops the list, almost matched by that in Ukraine.

The campaign to combat climate change needs eloquent, informed champions too.

Housing is the overriding issue in Irish society. Solve it and you solve a lot.

These are projects to lean into and to learn about – specifically what might be done to shift the dial.

The flip side is being alert to insidious influences.

The far right is home grown, up to a point – but one shouldn’t underestimate the burgeoning level of external meddling and interference by right wing influencers, religious extremists – and by organisations and even States who want to see Irish society being divided, and our belief in democracy undermined. And it’s not just about race.

Back in 2022, ‘diplomats’ from the Russian embassy were expelled from Ireland for linking up with paramilitaries on both extremes in the North. There can only have been one intention. But the threat will come from the West too. US imperialism operates through the big tech companies – and the billionaire right wing supremacists behind the ‘maga’ mvovement are making money available to Europian bigots too.

And then there’s the breakneck speed at which AI and AGI are being released into the wild, a phenomenon demanding stern student critique.

An example of such can be found in a recent Observer column by the ever-interesting John Naughton on the launch of OpenAI’s latest large language model (LLM).

The problem, he says, is that while LLMs mash vast amounts of data they don’t “know” anything of the world beyond what humans tell them. They’re fluent but that doesn’t mean they’re intelligent.

The French literary philosopher Jacques Derrida saw language as a self-contained system. This, says Naughton, is what happens in an LLM, for which “the words only refer to other words rather than having a relation to external reality.”

Given that a lot of people are betting their houses on AI and AGI, it’s an important insight.

Of course, on any or all of these issues, fightbacks should be constructive. Nothing is easier than finding problems. We need solution finders too!

Embedded In The Anglosphere

After all that, what about the core business of education?

Up on Hog Hill we think that, after the rote learning straitjacket of secondary education, higher and further education should be explosively liberating and intellectually enriching.

The benign view is that it’s exhilarating and challenging, that it encompasses exploration, discovery, revelation and innovation, that it’s both hotbed and seedbed for generating and interrogating ideas and theories, and that it’s characterised by research rigour and rational and informed discourse, yielding logical conclusions and meaningful progress.

That sounds good, but neither academic staff nor students are entirely convinced.

Perhaps it’s a legacy of the over-emphasis on university-level qualifications, and the professional and vocational nature of many courses, but many academics struggle to adapt to the radical broadening of the student base and programmes, and the possibilities of digital technology.

They fear they’re now offering training as much as education. At very high levels, for sure – but what’s achieved beyond preparation for a given employment? And is this the job of academies?

They also worry that rote learning is being normed in higher education, that students are not intellectually curious now, and just want lecture notes and exam preparation, as in school.

Is this so? That students don’t care about the journey and just want to be the finished product, already in their perfect place, their dream job, their Insta apartment, a beach in Australia?

There may be two sides to this one.

There are other concerns, for example about how deeply Irish students are embedded in the Anglosphere (and increasingly so).

It’s not just about world view, it’s that almost everything that pops out of a smartphone here is in English and, to a large degree, originates in the UK, the USA or Australia.

An emphatic pivot to the Eurosphere is required, and this is a responsibility of students as much as it is of academic staff. It’s not just about languages either. Erasmus partnerships rank among the most enriching activities going.

A Vital Battleground

Finally, it’s worth remembering that what you study may have nothing to do with what you spend your life at. You may change, as may the world outside.

Programmes aimed at specific jobs and sectors are at risk to future developments like AI and AGI.

Yet again the seers are suggesting that general academic programmes may prove a better fit for the jobs of the future.

Either way, here in Ireland, we have to stay alert, outward-looking, flexible and future-focused or our goose is cooked.

There’s a paradox in all this. If students are less engaged beyond what they need to know for their exams, and if HE education is devalued by being so career and occupationally-focused, it may well be that smartphones, podcasts and the like are central to broadening their intellectual fields and should be embraced with enthusiasm.

The very thing that dumbs us down may also be the thing that smarts us up! But not if the algorithms are used to push disinformation, conspiracy theories and ‘alternative facts’. That looks increasingly like a vital battleground.

And so we wish the best of luck to each and every one of the nearly 2 million students in Ireland and Northern Ireland combined.

It’s a time that’s intense and full but (sadly) passes by all too quickly.

For now, trust yourself, take a deep breath and dive right in.

And, as Bob Dylan said, “Don’t follow leaders, watch the parkin’ meters.”

• The Hog