Universities ‘must win value argument’ as lectures stay online

Universities have been urged to make a stronger case for the benefits of blended learning as a Times Higher Education survey reveals that most UK institutions will keep lectures online during the autumn term.

With digital learning perceived by many undergraduates to offer poorer value for money than in-person teaching, one MP warned that vice-chancellors risked being forced on to the back foot as ministers reportedly consider cutting the tuition fee cap to £7,500 in England.

In THE’s survey of teaching plans for the coming academic year, all 65 institutions that responded said they planned “as much in-person teaching as possible”. However, three out of five (61.5 per cent) said most lectures would remain online, with decision-making driven by the Covid-19 transmission risk posed by large lecture theatres filled with undergraduates, as well as recognition of the pedagogical benefits of a hybrid approach.

Steve West, the University of the West of England vice-chancellor who started his term as Universities UK president this week, put it bluntly: “Sticking 300 students in a lecture theatre and talking at them with some PowerPoints isn’t a good experience.”

Blended learning offers some “really important opportunities for learning for students”, insisted Professor West – for example, the ability to revisit recorded footage. “Then, when they are on-campus in smaller group teaching, [students] have more meaningful engagement and a rich learning experience,” he said.

Class size will be a key factor in decision-making for many institutions. Both the universities of Glasgow and Warwick said lectures would be online if classes were bigger than 50.

In THE’s survey, 35 per cent of institutions said they planned to hold some in-person lectures, but even these recognised the benefits of digital offerings. The University of Bristol said that while its lectures would be face-to-face, “some activities have worked well online, so the best elements of our online provision will still be available”. The University of Oxford said it planned to provide most teaching in-person, “enhanced by high-quality online resources and, in some instances, online teaching”, while the University of Cambridge said lectures would be online where it “improves the educational experience”.

However, the argument is yet to be won in the eyes of many students and policymakers. Only 27 per cent of respondents to this year’s Student Academic Experience Survey, conducted by the Higher Education Policy Institute and Advance HE, felt that they were getting good value for money from their course, with the lack of in-person teaching the key factor.

At the University of Manchester, more than 8,000 students have signed a petition opposing online lectures and arguing that tuition fees of £9,250 a year would be “unacceptable” on this basis.

Paul Blomfield, the Labour MP who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Students, said he feared that universities had jumped “too quickly” into espousing the benefits of online learning without “recognising the political storm that was down the road”.

While there were obvious benefits to a blended approach, “universities have got to make the case”, the Sheffield Central MP argued, considering the disruption faced by students this year and the suggestion that the English tuition fee cap could be cut.

If universities could win the argument that they were keeping some learning online “because it’s educationally beneficial, then there won’t be a case for a fee reduction because the learning experience won’t have been reduced”, he said.

Universities will be wary of any loss of funding because of the costs of maintaining online education. All respondents to THE’s survey said they were preparing to make all tuition available online this autumn in case international students cannot travel to the UK, or further restrictions are imposed domestically, or both.

Danielle George, associate vice-president for teaching, learning and students at Manchester, acknowledged that there had been some misunderstanding about teaching next term. “What we’ve been doing during Covid is not blended, it is online,” she said. In contrast, Manchester’s plans for next year were “about augmenting in-person learning with some high-quality online materials for self-study”, something that the university had been looking at before the pandemic.

The pace of change may have caught the public off guard, and institutions that have consulted with students about what they found useful might find their path to blended learning easier. The University of Liverpool, which will keep larger lectures online next year, said its plans had been “largely informed by direct feedback from our students, who have told us that they appreciate being able to pause, rewind, review and learn at their own pace. However, they have also told us that they would like more time to meet with their peers and tutors on campus.”

For Professor West, the challenge was getting people to understand that quality online education does not equal “bad and cheap”. “Bad online education is the same as bad in-person; you’ve got to have good online and good on-campus,” he said.

anna.mckie@timeshighereducation.com