I'm sick of this country and our education system
Do Algerian university students feel like we have no voice or right to complain?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot since something happened to me yesterday, and I genuinely want to know if other Algerian students feel the same way.
I recently started my Master’s in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. There are only three girls in the class, and honestly, the schedule is already exhausting. We have a huge gap between some morning and afternoon classes, which means I sometimes have to go to university twice in the same day. And our classes end at 5:30 PM every single day.
This is becoming a real problem for me because I’m also starting a job, and I need my evenings to work.
Yesterday, I went to university at 2 PM for a three-hour class. Me and the other girls were sitting there waiting for the professor. An entire hour passed.
Then two guys came and told us that the professor wasn't coming because he had a soutenance.
And this is where I got really angry.
I completely understand that he had a soutenance. That's an important event, and obviously he should be there.
But this wasn't an unexpected emergency.
He knew about his soutenance in advance. His supervisor and everyone involved obviously knew the date and time beforehand. It wasn't an accident or something that suddenly happened that morning.
So why couldn't he—or whoever is responsible—just post a message on the university platform saying:
"Today's class is cancelled because I have a soutenance."
That's literally a 10-second message.
Instead, we went to university at 2 PM, with all the difficulties that come with transportation, waited there for an hour, and only then found out that there would be no class.
That's what bothered me the most.
It's not that the professor had to cancel the class. It's that our time didn't seem to matter enough for anyone to bother informing us.
And when I said something about it, basically asking why we weren't told beforehand, I felt like even bringing up the issue wasn't appreciated.
That situation honestly made me think about something much bigger.
Why do Algerian university students sometimes feel like we aren't allowed to complain, criticize or even ask for basic accountability?
Because public university is free, sometimes it feels like students are expected to simply accept whatever happens and be grateful that they're receiving an education at all.
But free education is a right, not a favour.
We're still students with transportation costs, jobs, responsibilities and our own lives. Our education being free doesn't mean our time has no value.
And this made me start questioning the relationship between free public services, quality and accountability in Algeria.
Does the fact that students don't directly pay tuition make institutions less accountable to them? Does it create a mentality where students have less power to demand better organization and treatment?
I'm not saying every public service is bad because it's free, and I'm not saying professors are supposed to be perfect. I'm asking whether there is a connection between the way public services are funded and the way people sometimes treat the people receiving those services.
There's also the bigger problem with higher education: huge numbers of students graduate every year, while the job market obviously can't provide enough opportunities for everyone. We keep pushing huge numbers of people toward university, but then don't necessarily have enough jobs or career opportunities for all those graduates.
Maybe I'm looking at all of this through the frustration of yesterday, but I genuinely want to know what other Algerians think.
Do you feel like Algerian university students actually have a voice when it comes to criticizing professors or the university system?
Have you ever felt that you couldn't complain because you were expected to simply accept things?
And what do you think about the idea that free public services can sometimes lead to less accountability and lower quality?
I'm genuinely interested in hearing different opinions, including if you completely disagree with me.