9th February 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Cambridge University has announced that it might significantly reduce the number of one-to-one tutorials that students can attend. In a report on the BBC website, a spokesperson for the university explains that increased pressures on budgets, and a review of the value of one-to-one tuition mean that they are seriously considering whether the money saved by teaching larger groups at a time is more valuable than the benefit the tuition provides.
The information was leaked to the media, but has been confirmed since by the university. The estime is that £600 million could be saved by changing all individual supervisions to tutoring sessions with pairs of students. Currently only 13% of supervisions are one-to-one.
Rahul Mansigani, president of the Cambridge Students’ Union, said that while there is concern about the cuts to the higher education budget, one-to-one supervisions are not always the most beneficial way to teach something. However, he added that in some cases individual tutorials are invaluable, and that it’s reassuring that Cambridge is committed to preserving at least some one-to-one lessons.
Gill Evans, a professor of Medieval Theology and Intellectual History at Cambridge said that it would be a “serious error” for the university to change their teaching practices now under the influence of temporary financial pressure, and that it threatens to destroy the uniqueness of Oxford and Cambridge. Professor Evans said that the weekly struggle to finish an essay and defend it to your supervisor creates the type of graduate that many businesses are looking for. She added that she fears that the smaller group tutorials of 2-3 students would be turned into bigger classes if the number of one-to-one lessons is decreased.