Why should you want to go to a seminar?

This is probably a question that a large number of students would ask themselves. So here I wish to suggests some reasons why it is important to attend for seminars.

One of the reasons for organising seminars is to give students a broader view of the subject as a whole. The lecturing activity is mainly concerned about the theoretical basics – which might not always be much fun but are necessary. There is little time that can be spent on what is going on at the forefront of research activity, where the real fun and exotic stuff lies. So seminars are not only a way of keeping people in touch with the latest innovations in a particular field but they also allow them to view the subject in a more comprehensive and stimulating way.

A second reason for participating in seminars is that later on in your professional life, you are bound to be asked to present your work at seminars, workshops, meetings or conferences, whether or not you work in research or elsewhere. Naturally, if you decide to teach, you would practically be involved daily in giving “seminars” where you would need to use such techniques to expose the subject to your students. Thus seminars present the opportunity to observe other people in communicating information, an essential activity for which your BSc course does not as yet provide specific training.

For advanced students, or those who intend to get involved in research, a further reason for participating is that seminars are meant as forums for discussion that can bring insight on the subject both to the one delivering the talk as well as to those who are listening. Different people will have different ideas on the same subject. So discussing what you are doing with other people might allow you to view things in a different light, raise concerns over things that you might have been taking for granted, or open new gateways for your own future research prospects. It is not important that the talk concerns what you are actually working on – cross fertilisation from different branches of science is an important tool for research progress. In fact, it is at the fringes between traditional disciplines that nowadays we see the most important and exciting discoveries being made.

Finally, a university is the place where intelligent and open discussions should be held. Seminars have traditionally been the foremost method for furthering this essential intellectual tradition in tertiary education.