One-to-one tuition

On Sunday, 30 July, The Times reported that students of some subjects at British universities receive the equivalent of only 26 hours of one-to-one tuition during their three-year degree.

The findings claimed that Economics and History students received the least one-to-one tuition on average over three years. Students of some other subjects, such as Physics, receive significantly more, despite paying the same fees.

The Universities Minister, Jo Johnson, has already set out plans to provide better value for money from the higher education system for students and taxpayers.

We plan to launch a pilot plan to assess teaching in universities at a subject level in the autumn. This will be the next phase in the development of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) and will support students to make better-informed decisions between courses and institutions.

In addition, the next round of institutional TEF assessments will incorporate new analysis of graduate outcomes to help students decide where to study based on the careers of previous graduates.

University’s Minister, Jo Johnson, shared his response to this story on Twitter today:

Read more about Minister Jo Johnson’s plans for subject-level TEF here.