How can universities support students to work harder?

A new generation of ‘dual-intensive’ universities can do the job, argues Edward Acton How many people actually work at the Bank of England?” went the question when I was a trainee there in the 1970s, the answer being: “About half.” That jibe has often run through my mind as evidence has mounted of a sharp decline in the academic effort required of UK undergraduates. Mercifully British universities are now shoring up their weakest flank. That is the heartening message to be taken from the Higher Education Policy Institute/Which? Student Academic Experience Survey, published in May of this year. From a historic low six to seven years ago, UK undergraduates have on average increased the time they devote to study during term by nearly two hours a week. When Hepi did its first undergraduate surveys in 2006 and 2007, the findings were deeply disturbing: incontrovertible proof that in many subjects the time students spend on studying had been gravely eroded. Academics had begun to express concern in the 1980s, and by the early 1990s it was plain that the amount of work required of UK undergraduates was significantly lower than it had been two decades earlier, particularly in essay-based subjects. Two European Commission surveys of those graduating in 1995 and 2000 found that while the average weekly time devoted to study by undergraduates had increased in most countries, in the UK it had shrunk: by 2000, it was down to 30 hours, the lowest of any country surveyed. Having been above the European Union average, the UK had fallen a full five hours below – all the more striking given the shorter duration of our programmes. Next came a 2002 study of Erasmus exchange students, which found that those visiting the UK were much more likely to report finding the courses less demanding than the ones they pursued at home than their peers visiting any other EU country. Five years later came the extensive Hepi surveys showing that the UK study-time average had fallen to little more than 26 hours. The Hepi studies also highlighted wide variations between British institutions offering the same degree subjects. Most striking was the yawning gap between the mean amount of study undertaken at Oxbridge and all the others. On average, in comparable subject areas, students at the University of Cambridge spent 40 per cent more hours and at the University of Oxford 30 per cent more – equivalent to a year’s extra study – than students at other Russell Group universities and their 1994 Group peers. Compared with the sector overall, the differential rose to 50 per cent and 40 per cent respectively. The crucial ingredient, especially in essay-based subjects, is Oxbridge’s insistence on a vastly greater volume of written formative work combined with swift and high-quality feedback. Given the importance of this issue, one might have expected a concerted effort by university leaders and policymakers to tackle the problem. But the response from the higher education Establishment was not impressive. Vice-chancellors went in for stout denial about the international data, and too many in the 1994 Group and the Russell Group refused to acknowledge how far their undergraduates’ workloads trailed behind those of Oxbridge, instead of facing reality and resolving to outperform the antiquated tutorial system. Meanwhile, the Quality Assurance Agency’s institutional audits continued to blithely avoid the question: “How hard do the students work?” While the Higher Education Academy loudly and rightly decried the notion thatcontact hours are the pivotal variable in educational experience, it remained remarkably quiet on Hepi’s findings about total study hours. The Higher Education Funding Council for England did at least commission a comparative analysis of UK and EU study time. But when its 2009 report, Diversity in the Student Learning Experience and Time Devoted to Study: A Comparative Analysis of the UK and European Evidence, confirmed that the UK figure was comparatively low and falling, Hefce took refuge in the embarrassing gloss that although there is evidence of a relationship between time spent on university studies and a successful learning outcome, “the relationship is not particularly strong”. There may be activities where this holds true – tiddlywinks comes to mind – but it is a strange assertion about university-level learning. Source: Education News