Do students get enough contact time with tutors?

By Harriet Swain. A report for consumer watchdog Which? and the Higher Education Policy Institute last week found that nearly one in three first-year students at UK universities felt their courses were not good value. We ask: would you like more contact with your tutors?
Bob Hughes graduated recently with a BA in English from York University
I had four to eight hours of seminars and lectures a week, with anything from 30 students to around 200 in lectures and around 10 to 15 of us in seminars. It gave me a lot of time to find my own arguments and thoughts and critically engage with it. Had we had more contact hours in certain areas, it would have detracted from our independent studies. But I know for a number of students paying £9,000 a year the expectation is higher. Some have tried working out roughly how much per hour a seminar or lecture costs. I think that number is arbitrary and doesn't reflect all the university experience. But they do want more bang for their buck. Read more...