Britain
Student juries fear falling standards
Universities “don’t fail enough people” and are setting pass marks too low, panels set up by the government to gauge student opinion have heard. Events held in four English cities as part of a plan to give students a say in institutional governance have revealed concerns about academic standards and student-to-staff ratios.
Government expansion targets are being blamed for stretching university budgets and for large class sizes, reports of the events released by the department for innovation, universities and skills (DIUS) show. “One of the downsides of the government trying to up the numbers in higher education is that universities don’t fail enough people any more,” according to one juror.
“There are students who don’t even know how to use the library by their third year. This kind of approach will only be counter-productive in the long run, because it’ll devalue degrees,” said the juror. Another added: “Assessment is not tough enough: 40 percent to pass is too low.”
Moreover, students say that large class sizes could leave them feeling isolated and anonymous. Some argue that institutions’ heavy focus on research means that leading researchers are not teaching and support for learning is inadequate. “Research-oriented faculty spend most of their time sourcing funding to buy time out from teaching, leaving most of the teaching load to… inexperienced staff,” is one complaint.
Students were asked to give their verdict on university life at “student juries” held in London, Manchester, Bristol and Sheffield. The results will help inform the work of the new National Student Forum set up by DIUS in January.
Supermarket tutoring chain model
The tills are ringing for a company offering state-school pupils cut-price private tuition in supermarkets while their parents do the weekly shopping. Explore Learning already has an annual £4.5 million (Rs.37 crore) turnover and 20 centres in Sainsbury’s and Tesco branches from Edinburgh to Bristol, where pupils aged five-14 are taught English and maths. It is inaugurating a new centre every month and plans to operate in every major town in the UK.
Heather Garrick, Explore Learning’s educational content director, says the demand is coming from parents who feel their children are not getting the personal attention they need in school. “The thing we hear repeatedly from most people is that they are pretty happy with their kids’ schools, but just feel that the individual needs of their child are not quite being met,” she says.
That is exactly the personalised “catch-up and stretch” approach that ministers have been calling on schools to use extra funding to deliver since 2003. But Explore Learning is not unduly worried about state-sector competition and expects its American-inspired model to expand rapidly into a 200-centre chain. It offers a ratio of one tutor — usually not a qualified teacher — to six pupils. The children are taught using the RM SuccessMaker integrated learning software package.
They work at computer stations, answering questions tailored to suit their particular needs and complementing the national curriculum work they do in schools. The company, in which the education philanthropist Sir Peter Lampl is a major investor, says the approach allows pupils to make a year’s progress in six months.
Garrick says tutors are paid from £5.50 (Rs.450) an hour. Many are graduates, and some trainee teachers. But others are sixth-formers still studying for A-levels. “They need to have a strong academic background,” she says. “But primarily we look for people who have that passion and ability to inspire kids.”
Parents pay a fee of between £89 and £98 (Rs.7,400 and Rs.8,100) a month, depending where they live, which entitles a child to two sessions a week, each lasting an hour and a quarter. They use Explore Learning as they would a gym, dropping in when it’s convenient. The fees compare favourably with the £25 (Rs.2,077) an hour that can be charged by private tutors.