Apocalypse Forecast-Chapter 583 - 490 Power_1

In the Ivory Tower, students’ academic pursuits could actually be quite relaxed.

After enrollment, they had one month to choose their mentors for the coming years—a two-way selection process where mentors chose students, and students, in turn, assessed the abilities of their prospective mentors.

Some large classrooms offering popular courses were open to all, while some public classes were compulsory. Other classrooms might admit only two or three students each year, or even none for several years.

But choosing a mentor was mandatory.

Depending on the mentor’s choice, the ensuing coursework would either be easy or difficult. Some teachers were dogmatic, rigid, and strict, leaving students so swamped they risked cerebral hemorrhages.

Other professors hardly interfered, leaving students with four or five years of idleness, often leading to intellectual decay.

Beyond the other required courses, students had to pick two to three electives based on their credit needs.

The main part of their university life consisted of studying under their mentor’s guidance. They could officially graduate once their skills and abilities met the mentor’s standards.

Although outcomes could vary, the Ivory Tower’s stringent standards for its teachers generally ensured that the students they taught were competent.

In this context, the allocation of classroom resources naturally became an issue.

The Ivory Tower was spacious enough that providing individual classrooms for every teacher should not have been a problem.

But the administration was very strict about this particular issue.

Thanks to the Vice-Chancellor’s harshness and impersonal approach, the allocation of classrooms could only be described as stingy.

This also served as another form of incentive for the teachers themselves.

Despite many spare classrooms, they were generally intended for rotational use. It was like standard university practice for large classes: one instructor teaches, then another takes over.

Being the primary lecturer for a course and obtaining one’s own classroom was a prerequisite for securing an official position in the faculty research office.

Otherwise, within the school’s internal hierarchy, those without their own classrooms would always be categorized with teaching assistants, considered a tier below.

"Now, do you understand the challenge you’re facing?"

Anton displayed a schadenfreude-filled smile. "Besides the Vice-Chancellor’s faculty screening, you must also vie for a classroom of your own."

"Is it that urgent?"

Huai Shi sensed a different implication. "Is there some rare opportunity?"

"The reassignment and adjustment of classrooms happens only three times a year," Condra, the Alchemist specializing in Transformation, took over. "Namely, at the beginning, middle, and end of the year."

"However, the end-of-year period is typically focused on budget approval. The start of the year is for evaluating the previous year’s performance. For new teachers aiming to secure their own position and classroom, the only real opportunity is when the school reopens mid-year." 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"Out of consideration for new faculty, the Academic Affairs Office gives new teachers some preferential treatment during evaluations. If you can’t secure a classroom this year, then by next year, you’ll have to compete with other new faculty members."

This was the competition Ye Su had mentioned to Huai Shi.

It was also the reason the former brat, Martin, had regarded Huai Shi as a major rival.

Huai Shi had a moment of sudden realization.

Simultaneously, he felt enormous pressure.

"For arts-focused departments like ours, this is a fatal disadvantage," Kelly said with a smile. "You should understand what I mean, shouldn’t you?"

Indeed, the importance of various courses differed. The degree of teaching excellence could be more or less apparent, and evaluating standards was often ambiguous.

But what was more critical was that many arts courses were immeasurable.

"Let me give you an example," Kelly began. "For oil painting, there are no set class hours. As long as the submitted work is approved by the mentor, the student qualifies for graduation."

"In principle, it’s possible to graduate the day after enrollment—"

He paused, a smug smile spreading across his face. "And by the way, I was that person. On my third day, I became an instructor for the Classical Oil Painting department and secured my own classroom."

Andrea chimed in from the side, "Since then, over seventeen years, only twenty-three people have graduated from the oil painting department."

"Ahahaha, I can’t help it. Perhaps I set the bar too high? But students these days are indeed too foolish, always disappointing." Kelly commented nonchalantly about his students, then shrugged and looked at Huai Shi. "If you were from the Academic Affairs Office, how would you assess my contributions and my level?"

If I were in the Academic Affairs Office, I’d probably want to gouge out my own eyes.

For such a capricious teacher to be in charge of the Classical Oil Painting department meant only one thing: he was so phenomenal at oil painting that the Ivory Tower considered him worth retaining, even if he slacked off every day and did nothing.

"And at the other extreme is the one beside you," Anton said, pointing to Condra.

"He primarily lectures on Transformation in Alchemy."

"His classes are once a month for six hours. Five of those hours are for students to conduct experiments on their own, with the teacher providing guidance from the side. The teacher distributes the materials, and the students largely teach themselves. They just have to plod through five years, obtain the Stone Pot Society certification, and then they can graduate."

Andrea sighed. "Which means this fellow spends no more than twelve hours actually teaching in a year. Over five years, the students receive less than sixty hours of actual instruction."