Universities reduce teaching hours

Universities have reduced the amount of time students spend in direct contact with their lecturers over the past year, an NUS survey has revealed.

UK students received an average of just 13.4 hours of contact time a week in 2010, compared with 14 hours a week in the previous year. The data also shows that student satisfaction has fallen sharply amongst first year undergraduates.

The biggest decrease in teaching hours was at Russell Group universities, a group of the most prestigious universities in the country, including the University of Edinburgh. On average, contact time at Russell Group institutions fell from 15.6 hours a week in 2009 to 14.7 in 2010.

At the Million+ group of universities, a collection of newer institutions that includes Edinburgh Napier, students received only 12.4 hours of teaching a week. The research comes as universities struggle to balance funding cuts with the pressure to deliver a better experience for students ahead of the rise in tuition fees next year.

Although satisfaction with the quality of teaching remains high, the proportion of first year students rating their course as ‘excellent’ fell by 20 per cent. Students identified more teaching hours as the main factor that would improve their university experience.

At the University of Edinburgh, which last year received the lowest student satisfaction rating in the country for feedback, many final year humanities students have just four hours of contact time a week.

Charlotte Lemaigre, a fourth year philosophy and psychology student, told The Journal: “This year I have had only four hours of contact time a week, and I had my last lecture today. For the rest of the year I won’t have any contact time – no lectures and no tutorials. It’s frustrating to feel that I have no direction in my studies and haven’t been able to get the most out of my university experience academically.”

Liam Burns, president of NUS Scotland, told The Journal: “It is astonishing that at a time when fees are going up, contact time is coming down. Education should never be a ‘value for money’ exercise but these results will understandably be difficult to swallow for students south of the border who are seeing their tuition fees triple."

Mr Burns added that it is not just a question of the number of hours that students have with their lecturers but how those hours are spent. He believes universities should be focussing on teaching in small groups and tutorials, rather than big lectures where students act "as human photocopiers" and receive little feedback on their work.

Lectures currently make up more than half of the contact hours a student will receive. Last year’s Browne Review, which recommended raising tuition fees in England and Wales, suggested that prospective students should be informed about the minimum number of contact hours they will receive.