Lecturer’s rage as every one of 400 students fails to turn up

FOR most English literature academics, delivering lectures to a less-than-full auditorium may well be considered an occupational hazard.

But for one Russell Group lecturer, having no students whatsoever turn up for her address was a step too far.

The Birmingham University academic took a photograph of the empty lecture theatre and emailed it to English students along with a furious message the following day.

“The picture below is of the secondyear lecture in the Vaughan Jeffreys lecture theatre on Tuesday,” she said.

“I was frankly shocked at this total lack of interest, from roughly 400 students in second year, in a lecture explaining marking criteria and our marking processes. I can only assume that these are not areas of concern after all,” she told students.

The English department will now be “using registers in all classes”, according to the student newspaper, The Birmingham Tab. If English students fail to turn up to two lectures, they will have a meeting with the university’s welfare department over non-attendance.

“I genuinely had no clue and neither did anyone else,” one student told The Tab. Another said: “I think it’s unrealistic to expect students to show up to a lecture in reading week when many students go home and it means coming back for one lecture.”

Although the time of the lecture was not revealed, The Tab advises: “Next time you’re thinking of skipping that 9am, remember everyone else may have had exactly the same idea.”