HEPI Student Academic Experience Survey

Wednesday, 21 May, 2014

HEPI published their 2014 Student Academic Experience Survey today with a brief summary over at the THES. Some interesting pull out facts in terms of value for money and cost of the degree - students still smarting from the increase in cost - and also the range of contact hours between courses and universities (although note that contact hours is recorded as the number of staff hours, not the number of attendance hours!). I love this part at the end of the THES article:

“The survey also found that the scheduled contact time for undergraduates across all years (13.1 hours per week on average) was greater than the contact actually experienced (11.9 hours per week).

When asked for reasons why they attended fewer hours than timetabled, the most common reason cited by students was “I didn’t find these lectures very useful” (cited by 50 per cent), followed by “I didn’t feel that I needed to go because I could get the notes online” (40 per cent), “I was ill” (31 per cent) and “I couldn’t be bothered to attend” (31 per cent).”

Besides the obvious problem that 150% of people responded (copy editing THES!!), it does show a lack of independence and responsibility on the part of the student, particularly for something they are so conscious they are paying for. The sickness rate amongst students also seems particularly high - clearly health is a serious issue in universities!!

Nick Hillman, the director of HEPI notes: “Higher education is a partnership between institutions and students. There is an onus on both parties to ensure the experience is as rewarding as possible but only sometimes is that happening.” I would also add that students should be experiencing university in the same way they might experience a gym - there is someone there to facilitate progress, but unless you take responsibility and put in the sweat, you won’t get much out of it. And this is the big rub - students are coming out of a school system where the responsibility for progress and achievement is placed firmly on the shoulders of the schools - its a culture shock to come to university and take over that responsibility. Universities DO need to change and for many that will mean becoming more “school-like” but there is also a communication issue in getting students to engage in determining their own futures.