I went to the University of Pretoria. More than happy to name and shame. At the time, both their IT department and administrative systems were in shambles.
We had to calculate our own class schedules (which is all good and well), but we found that an easy class (that most had already completed in high school) conflicted with the only (I really do mean only) hard and interesting class. The easy class lecturer demanded attendance, the dean did nothing, and we were told to "fail it and retake it the following year." A hostile business; not an institution of learning.
To make matters worse, the degree was supposed to be game development. On the one hand I am happy that UP robbed me of my dream, because my bigger dream is to have a balanced life and family (which seems to be impossible in AAA studios). On the other hand, having already written games, I miraculously identified that designing websites wasn't exactly what you'd expect from a game development degree.
>>On the one hand I am happy that UP robbed me of my dream, because my bigger dream is to have a balanced life and family (which seems to be impossible in AAA studios).
Just wanted to throw in my two cents - I know it's uncommon, but not impossible. Where I work(Ubisoft) the anti-crunch culture is incredibly strong, to a point where we're told that if you see someone doing overtime make sure it gets reported higher up as no one should be doing it and if anyone is then there are problems elsewhere(after all we have tonnes of producers specifically to make sure it doesn't happen). I personally feel like I have a great work life balance, work from 8-4 every day, never on the weekends, and I'm a lead programmer.
We had to calculate our own class schedules (which is all good and well), but we found that an easy class (that most had already completed in high school) conflicted with the only (I really do mean only) hard and interesting class. The easy class lecturer demanded attendance, the dean did nothing, and we were told to "fail it and retake it the following year." A hostile business; not an institution of learning.
To make matters worse, the degree was supposed to be game development. On the one hand I am happy that UP robbed me of my dream, because my bigger dream is to have a balanced life and family (which seems to be impossible in AAA studios). On the other hand, having already written games, I miraculously identified that designing websites wasn't exactly what you'd expect from a game development degree.