PROMISE OVER ‘FACE-TO-FACE’ LECTURES AT UNI

Majority of students back campus return

STAFFORDSHIRE University has stressed its commitment to ensuring students have face-to-face teaching after eight out of 10 wanted a return to campus.

During the last academic year, covid restrictions meant students had to spend months learning online.

But the university is now back to delivering most sessions in person. It has guaranteed undergraduates they will have three days a week of campus-based classes and enrichment activities.

Vice-chancellor Liz Barnes, right, was quizzed about the issue when she appeared before the House of Commons’ education select committee this week.

She said: “We’ve gone back to how we always were. We’ve always supplemented with some really good, high-quality online learning, but we haven’t shifted the balance.”

She told MPS that 80 per cent of Staffordshire University students wanted the return to face-to-face teaching. But some students like the blended approach.

“Some of our commuter students have found it an advantage to not have to travel in every day,” added Professor Barnes.

“The move to three days on campus will actually be maintained going forward because they want to have fewer days where they are travelling in.

“It’s the cost of commuting and the time of commuting, and balancing it with part-time jobs.”

She reassured students it wouldn’t mean losing out on in-person classes or social experiences in future.

Committee member Tom Hunt asked the panellists whether they thought students should be able to get a reduction in tuition fees due to the pandemic disrupting their degrees.

It echoed concerns voiced by the National Union of Students (NUS) last year, when it called on the Government to either reimburse students or allow them to retake modules at no extra cost.

But Professor Barnes said: “The online support for students with their learning is a really expensive offer. We’ve moved to a lot of immersive technologies.”

She highlighted how Staffordshire University invested in ‘virtual field trips’ and virtual laboratories.

Other issues she raised included a ‘significant drop’ in applications from mature students.

The panel of experts giving evidence to the committee’s inquiry on higher education and the pandemic also included Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU).

Dr Grady said: “I still think it’s prudent in this moment to be keeping some things online that can be kept online. What students are not happy with is the wholesale disruption of having to pivot between in-person, online and lockdown.”

Most universities, including Keele as well as Staffordshire, have returned to lectures and tutorials on campus. But some institutions are planning to keep lectures online throughout this year.

Higher and further education minister Michelle Donelan, who also spoke to the committee, said it wasn’t simply a case of ‘online is bad, faceto-face is good’.

But she told the MPS: “Online should never be used as a cost-cutting exercise or to devalue education or take away from it, and that we’re very clear on.”