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Unreasonable Lecture Hours Causes Outrage

1 September 2018 No Comment

Evening lectures that last some evenings till 9 pm has caused outrage with students, while universities use this option to cope with the ever-rising increase in the number of students. At some of the universities in the United Kingdom, students had their excitement for the start of the new term diminished by the fact that late lectures are bound to clash with their pre-drinks.

Universities explained that these schedule changes were only made in an effort to cope with the huge number of students and to accommodate the fast-growing student population and therefore several universities plan to extend lecture hours till 9 pm. The first, forced to change their schedule was Durham University when its lectures scheduled till as late as 8 pm was criticised by both students and some of the lecturers, the question is now, why are student numbers increasing at such a pace?

Number of Students Increases at Rapid Pace

The government in 2015 lifted the cap in place regarding the number of students any university could admit, and that same year the number of 18-year olds starting university was 235,000, which was a record figure. The record figure further increased yearly, and by 2017 the number of freshers reached 241,000.

Most universities are taking advantage of the lift of the cap, and even though the number of 18-year olds is decreasing in the country, this year the number of first-year students increased by 23% which means 58,000 compared to a 13% increase in 2016 and in 2013 a 1% increase of 2,500. The governmental cap lift has been criticized, and many feel that universities are bound to lose educational value while the unconditional offers many argue will result in students not working as hard to reach A levels.

Universities Plan to Expand Lecturing Hours

It is evident that several universities are planning to extend lecturing hours since it is struggling to cope with the student volumes, quite a few online voting options are now in place for students to vote on the matter. The voting options offered include latest lectures 5 pm or later, 6 pm, 7 pm or 8 pm or later.

Students feel that lectures till 9 pm is night classes and not even evening classes or extended hours and at KCL many were dismayed to discover the extended lecture hours. Although it is not only the students that are sceptic about the new hours and Mohamed Salhi started a Twitter poll that revealed that students across the country were unhappy with lectures ending at 8.30 to 9 pm. Other universities forced to take this route includes Brunel University and the University of East Anglia that now runs lectures until as late as 8 pm. Most students feel that the last classes should not end any later than 7 pm although the problem with Sciences and Arts classes is that the lecture theatres can only hold a limited number of students and therefore the only option is to extend lecturing hours.

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