Play Nicely

By Søren Niedziella from Denmark [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

I once heard a story regarding the Main Library at the University of Manchester.

Law Students were so caught up in the perceived level of competition for high grades that they removed essential chapters from textbooks or just stole them outright.  This was back in the day where the internet was pretty useless, so if you were in a higher year you could be industrious and make some money by pretending to be a library.

Getting one up on others, in a fair way, is how things work. I’m all for it –  at the top didn’t get where they are by being the same as others.

This behaviour of the students is just a substitute for hard work, revolving around jealousy.

The reality is that most of these students ended up with pretty normal degrees, predictable CVs, and bad attitudes.  Not surprisingly this isn’t good conduct for people who want to be counsellors of Her Majesty’s Justice.  

The culprits most probably failed to secure placements and Training Contracts, and can be sighted in middle management at your local Adecco or Paddy Power.