UCU response to student academic experience report

A Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) report released today said this extra work is 'equivalent in terms of staff time to an additional 10-person seminar each week – or ten 100-person lectures.'

The Academic Experience of Students in English Universities report also reveals that:

• students in English universities typically receive 14.2 hours of tuition per week (compared to 13.7 in 2006)
• the average student spends 12.7 hours per week on private study (compared to 13.1 in 2006)
• the total workload of English students averages 25.5 hours a week (compared to 26 in 2006).

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'Increasing student numbers has inevitably added to the workloads of lecturers. The crucial pastoral care that they provide, alongside academic advice, can often be the difference between a student dropping out or persevering with the course.

'It is this extra commitment, coupled with an admin overload, that contributes to lecturers consistently being named as one of the professions putting in the most unpaid overtime each week.'