REF:66-2010-391226 - Teaching hours
Your comment: The amount of teaching this semester is an absolute joke. I only have pre-recorded lectures and I get 2 a week. That's all the teaching I'm getting, 1 recording per module a week and links to youtube videos or free online articles. Is the university really suggesting that 1 30 minute lecture a week is an appropriate amount of teaching? Never has my timetable consisted of just 2 lectures a week. There is no excuse, I'm not even getting any live online lectures, the university is literally providing the minimum teaching that is possible as you can't really go any less than a lecture a week. I'm still paying full 9 grand and getting youtube videos for that?
Our response:
I am very sorry to hear about your concerns regarding the contact hours on your course. Unfortunately, I cannot give you a detailed response about your individual circumstances without knowing your year of study and the modules you are studying, your name and your seminar stream, and your workgroups etc. I would be keen to get those details in order to look into this in more detail. The levels of contact hours you report do not chime with the levels of provision which have been planned.
The University has worked very hard over many months to adapt our campus and activities in light of the global pandemic. Despite the enormous challenges that COVID-19 has posed to all universities, and society as a whole, the University’s aim has been to offer students an experience that is as similar as possible to the high-quality experience we always aim to deliver.
In the psychology department, the number of teaching contact hours varies from week to week, and depending on the year and module of study, whether you have workshops and tutorials, whether you have coursework etc. Some weeks will have higher contact hours than others, and we do not have a reading week so continue throughout the semester. The level of contact hours also varies depending on coursework and other assignments given to students, so there is sufficient time for these to be completed, and self-directed study should take up the majority of your time, as it should in a ‘normal’ year.
We appreciate that very many students have shown enormous empathy, understanding and patience for teaching staff in light of the pressures on them, and indeed us all, because of COVID-19.