£9000 a year and it’s not even worth it

No student can deny the chip on their shoulder regarding the hike in tuition fees from £3375 to £9000, but surely we are getting more for our money now…

Studies show that the average class size and contact hours remain unaffected by higher fees. The Higher Education Policy Institute discovered that on average, undergraduates in the UK received 13.9 hours of formal teaching a week in 2011-12. This figure is almost the same in 2005-6 when tuition fees were almost nine times less, at £1225 a year.

Students don’t see the point in turning up

But surely, the less time stuck in uni the better? And schools are forever reminding sixth formers of the self-motivation they’ll need on arriving at uni. However figures suggest that 45 per cent of students are not satisfied with the contact hours they receive (for those with less than 7 hours a week).

Nevertheless, this figure drastically drops to 10 per cent when students receive between 16 and 20 contact hours a week. It seems that this rate of satisfaction reflects tuition fees, with those students receiving sufficient teaching hours being hesitant to complain about the increased £9000 tuition fees.

Putting this into perspective, the 45 per cent of unsatisfied students have reason. Take this example: at UoM, a first year physics student has as many hours in 1 week as a first year history student has in 1 month – 24.

A history student distraught on hearing this

Another example to portray this injustice: on average, a third year humanities student with a mere three hours of lectures per week pays £136 per hour. At that rate, for the price of 2 hours at uni, you could send a Kenyan child to school for 1 year.

So maybe we should be questioning whether all students should pay the same tuition fees, regardless of their course, as well as whether the extortionate £9000 a year is worth it.

Supposedly, tuition fees pay for more than teaching hours, including student support facilities. This would grant a plausible reason for equal fees for all courses. But if we’re paying so much, surely the support should be more accessible than the lack of instant feedback we seem to receive at the moment.

All the hard work for nothing?

With this in mind, you can understand why a lot of students are becoming reluctant to turn up to lectures, when more often than not, they can just catch up in bed by reading a PowerPoint presentation.

But realistically the fact of the matter is that we go to uni to get a degree, to then get a decent job.

It must be worth it seeing as 91 per cent of UoM students go straight into employment.

And if you’re still willing to complain about the high fees, be thankful that you’re a student at a uni that dishes out £19 million of financial support to students.