Contact time a matter of degree

It's good to hear that £9,000 tuition fees are purchasing 18 minutes extra teaching per week (Rise in university fees outpaces tuition time, 15 May), but it's difficult to find out where this is being delivered to arts students at one prestigious London university college. Students are offered eight hours of contact time per week (four of lectures, four of seminars) in the first term, seven per week in the second and no contact time at all in the third term. This amounts to 21 weeks of lectures and seminars during the year ie 165 hours at an average cost of £54.54 per hour per lecture or seminar. The quality of the lectures is reported to be mainly poor. Postgraduate students run the seminars and the quality of these is reported to be of better quality than the lectures. An explanation for this is that university reputations are based on the quality of their research and researchers are required to lecture undergraduates. But good researchers do not necessarily make good lecturers. Read more...