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9 hours of online and face-2-face lectures/week (Ist year undergraduate)

Hi Parents,

I am concerned because my son told me he only receives a total of 9 hours of lectures online/week since he started in September 2020. I find this alarming. With tuition of over 9K and accommodation of over 5K, a student only receives 9 hours of both online and face-to-face lectures/week as an undergraduate at a University in Nottingham. Please can someone tell me I am being naive or ignorant of trends?
(edited 3 years ago)

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Hi I'm a Second Year Student at Abertay University. In First Year I had 3 hours of lectures a week, and 6 hours of practicals a week. Currently with covid, I have the same amount of lectures online. 3 hours a week since September.

That is very alarming how it's only 9 hours total since September. I'm not sure if it would depend on the course, but definitely should be getting more lectures.

Maybe with coronavirus the lectures are pre recorded somewhere online that maybe your son hasn't seen? My first couple of lectures this year were live, but rest have been recorded. Ask your son to fully check the online platform Uni of Nottingham uses for recorded lectures. A few of my friends forget to check sometimes, and they have lectures to watch.

Hope this helps in some way, and give you some insight into how my experience has been.

Paddy.
Reply 2
When I did my masters at the University of Nottingham I had 6 to 9 hours of lectures and seminars a week, a total of 9 hours of online and face-to-face lectures since September is terrible. Even if being an undergraduate student involves a lot of learning how to do research independently the lack of lectures your child is receiving is frankly alarming and scandalous. I would consider complaining, reporting this to the press, demanding for tuition fees and/or accommodation refunds or even consider looking into legal action (extreme I know!). As there's no way your son is getting value for money right now if they've only had 9 lectures in total since they started in September. Either way I definitely believe your concern is well founded and wish you and your son the best of luck in getting the uni to provide the services they should have been providing from the start.
(edited 3 years ago)
Reply 3
Original post by Heeck
When I did my masters at the University of Nottingham I had 6 to 9 hours of lectures and seminars a week, a total of 9 hours of online and face-to-face lectures since September is terrible. Even if being an undergraduate student involves a lot of learning how to do research independently the lack of lectures your child is receiving is frankly alarming and scandalous. I would consider complaining, reporting this to the press, demanding for tuition fees and/or accommodation refunds or even consider looking into legal action (extreme I know!). As there's no way your son is getting value for money right now if they've only had 9 lectures in total since they started in September. Either way I definitely believe your concern is well founded and wish you and your son the best of luck in getting the uni to provide the services they should have been providing from the start.

@Heeck, Now I know I'm not ignorant. The idea of luring students back to Uni this session is already a scandal and I will definitely pursue justice because it is not fair to parents and their children. Thank you so much for taking the time to respond.
Reply 4
Original post by Paddylonglegs10
Hi I'm a Second Year Student at Abertay University. In First Year I had 3 hours of lectures a week, and 6 hours of practicals a week. Currently with covid, I have the same amount of lectures online. 3 hours a week since September.

That is very alarming how it's only 9 hours total since September. I'm not sure if it would depend on the course, but definitely should be getting more lectures.

@Paddylonglegs10ave been recorded. Ask your son to fully check the online platform Uni of Nottingham uses for recorded lectures. A few of my friends forget to check sometimes, and they have lectures to watch.

Hope this helps in some way, and give you some insight into how my experience has been.

Paddy.

@Paddylonglegs10, Thanks for your response. The lectures are 9hours only/week. I will look into this injustice.
More lecture time does not necessarily mean better education in my country, but I can say this, we get nearly 6 hears of labs, practical and lectures a DAY !!
And for a fraction of a cost !
10 percent of what you pay !!
Original post by smiley2015
Hi Parents,

I am concerned because my son told me he only receives a total of 9 hours of lectures online since he started in September 2020. I find this alarming. With a tuition of over 9K and accomodation of over 5K, a student only receives 9 hours of both online and face-to-face lectures as an undergraduate in a University in Nottingham. Please can someone tell me I am being naive or ignorant of trends.


Misunderstanding what University education is, versus school education, rather than naive or missing trends.

Depending on the course, (practical subjects like medicine, vet med etc work slightly differently) university is not about teaching to a complete syllabus. It's about delivering a framework of concepts and developing in the student the space and resources to go and fill the framework themselves, to their own syllabus.

The charge is not only for face-to-face teaching, but also the extremely expensive library resources and the many hundred licences the university holds for access to journals, as well as the libraries themselves. It's for the additional lectures from invited lecturers and its own academics expanding the opportunity for knowledge. It's about all the sports facilities, the healthcare, the labs, the careers service, the building maintenance, the cleaning, etc etc.

Just like you keep having to pay your council tax, the window cleaner, road tax etc during covid when you aren't getting the same use out of them, universities have to continue to keep their buildings going. iN fact, they have a double blow, because they have to keep working in different ways, plus are unable to make any of the supporting income from holiday lets, conference hosting etc.

But to your point, 9 hours is a decent amount of face-to-face time for any undergrad course, regardless of covid. Your child needs to understand that they are getting a framework, and they should be structuring the remaining 24 or so hours of their working week with reading, research, preparing essays, using the careers service, attending other lectures offered etc. Undergrad is the first step to a pure research degree. University simply isn't school.
It does depend a lot on the subject that's being studied. I did a science-based degree so had more contact time than those who were doing humanties subjects, for example, because I had lab work and computer-based work to complete alongside lectures. I also think some students struggle with the move from A level to university teaching, A levels and similar qualifications are very much spoon-fed whereas the emphasis at uni is for independent learning more than anything else. Lectures are supposed to give the backbone or introduction to a topic and the student then does more research or reading around the topic in their own time.

However, 9 hours of contact time since the start of the semester is ridiculous. Are you sure he didn't mean 9 hours a week?
(edited 3 years ago)
Original post by smiley2015
my son told me he only receives a total of 9 hours of lectures online

Original post by smiley2015
@Paddylonglegs10, Thanks for your response. The lectures are 9hours only/week. I will look into this injustice.

Can you clarify - is it 9 hours total or 9 hours per week? The former seems very low, the latter seems very normal.

Most universities publish the approximate contact hours per week on the course pages so check that for consistency.

You son may tell you he only has 9 hours but is he right? You need to check intranet pages to be sure.
Reply 9
Original post by threeportdrift
Misunderstanding what University education is, versus school education, rather than naive or missing trends.

Depending on the course, (practical subjects like medicine, vet med etc work slightly differently) university is not about teaching to a complete syllabus. It's about delivering a framework of concepts and developing in the student the space and resources to go and fill the framework themselves, to their own syllabus.

The charge is not only for face-to-face teaching, but also the extremely expensive library resources and the many hundred licences the university holds for access to journals, as well as the libraries themselves. It's for the additional lectures from invited lecturers and its own academics expanding the opportunity for knowledge. It's about all the sports facilities, the healthcare, the labs, the careers service, the building maintenance, the cleaning, etc etc.

Just like you keep having to pay your council tax, the window cleaner, road tax etc during covid when you aren't getting the same use out of them, universities have to continue to keep their buildings going. iN fact, they have a double blow, because they have to keep working in different ways, plus are unable to make any of the supporting income from holiday lets, conference hosting etc.

But to your point, 9 hours is a decent amount of face-to-face time for any undergrad course, regardless of covid. Your child needs to understand that they are getting a framework, and they should be structuring the remaining 24 or so hours of their working week with reading, research, preparing essays, using the careers service, attending other lectures offered etc. Undergrad is the first step to a pure research degree. University simply isn't school.

@threeportdrift, Thanks for passing by and expressing your opinion which does not communicate any justification whatsoever. I went to University here at both undergraduate and Postgraduate level so I know I am neither naive nor ignorant but simply too flabergasted hence my choice of words. I totally disagree with your opinion.
Reply 10
Original post by chazwomaq
Can you clarify - is it 9 hours total or 9 hours per week? The former seems very low, the latter seems very normal.

Most universities publish the approximate contact hours per week on the course pages so check that for consistency.

You son may tell you he only has 9 hours but is he right? You need to check intranet pages to be sure.

@chazwomanq, I'm sorry for the confusion I have just updated the post. It's 9hours weekly. I have a copy of his timetable so he's telling the truth.
Original post by smiley2015
@chazwomanq, I'm sorry for the confusion I have just updated the post. It's 9hours weekly. I have a copy of his timetable so he's telling the truth.

Which course does he do? Or if you're not comfortable saying, which department would he be in e.g. Sciences, Humanities, Health etc.
Original post by smiley2015
@chazwomanq, I'm sorry for the confusion I have just updated the post. It's 9hours weekly. I have a copy of his timetable so he's telling the truth.

OK, thanks. 9 hours per week is pretty standard. Bear in mind that there might be teaching other than lectures (e.g. seminars, tutorials, workshops, individual meetings etc.). You may not like it but there is nothing unusual about those contact hours.

I recommend my students should be doing at least 1 hour of extra learning for every contact hour, often reading. If they want to do well make it 2 hours. They will then have assignments on top so it adds to 20-30 hours per week, only somewhat less than a standard working week. University is mainly about learning for yourself and managing your own time, not being told what to do every hour of the day.
Original post by smiley2015
@threeportdrift, Thanks for passing by and expressing your opinion which does not communicate any justification whatsoever. I went to University here at both undergraduate and Postgraduate level so I know I am neither naive nor ignorant but simply too flabergasted hence my choice of words. I totally disagree with your opinion.


It's not my opinion, I have worked (and studied) in many universities in the UK, it IS how they work, whatever you wish to be the case. Maybe you should do some more research, given you've been taught how.
Original post by smiley2015
Hi Parents,

I am concerned because my son told me he only receives a total of 9 hours of lectures online/week since he started in September 2020. I find this alarming. With tuition of over 9K and accommodation of over 5K, a student only receives 9 hours of both online and face-to-face lectures/week as an undergraduate at a University in Nottingham. Please can someone tell me I am being naive or ignorant of trends?


This is fairly normal for a lot of courses particularly in first year He should be using the remaining time to study what those sessions cover and to work on assignments most courses expect about 35 hours a week total including lectures. I know it seems like a lot given the present situation but remember there is also all the facilities and things that are/will be open to him do cost money and some of those things will be bleeding edge.

You are by no means alone it’s a shock for many parents but that’s just how it is.
Yeah those contact hours seem about right tbh, esp for this year. I doubt you'd get anywhere complaining.
I don't think those hours are significantly different from when I completed my undergrad degree a bit over 15 years ago.
In the Netherlands my online MSc four classes each week-off on Tuesday at 3 hours for lectures plus extra for group work all for a €2092 a year. UK universities really do know how to rip ppl off. Dutch universities you get bang for your buck.
(edited 3 years ago)
Original post by Other_Owl
In the Netherlands my online MSc four classes each week-off on Tuesday at 3 hours for lectures plus extra for group work all for a €2092 a year. UK universities really do know how to rip ppl off.

I think that's just England and maybe Wales BTW. Scot students it's about the same price as you (if you pay at all) Not sure about NI tbh but I don't think they pay top whack either.
Original post by Other_Owl
In the Netherlands my online MSc four classes each week-off on Tuesday at 3 hours for lectures plus extra for group work all for a €2092 a year. UK universities really do know how to rip ppl off. Dutch universities you get bang for your buck.

Do they teach how to write English at Dutch universities? Are you trying to say you have 4 classes which are each 3 hours long i.e. 12 hours a week of lectures? That's comparable to many UK courses. And the cheaper price doesn't necessarily mean more bang for the buck. It probably means the Dutch government subsidises the cost more i.e. taxpayers burden more of the costs rather than students.

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