Oxford and Warwick universities- another example of bringing out the worst in so many areas

I wonder if there are any figures as to how many students dropped out over the last 2 years compared to earlier years?

The last time I commented on students and lecture halls I was shot down - but basically the lecture hall is the easiest part of university education to do online anyway. As Maddyone says, the 1-1 tutorials and small group seminars are what really makes the education work. The going-online of lectures is frankly harder for the staff than the students. Giving a lecture to a microscopic group or in an empty space is quite challenging!

So back to the hall hire... I'd say why not? It reduces costs and helps prevent redundancies. All good news for students. Also, it's been going on forever. I remember corporate events at my university in term time as far back as 1976.

At Oxford university (St John’s College anyway) students were not required to go to lectures, they were optional. This was when my son was there, 1997 - 2000 if I remember rightly. They were not allowed to miss tutorials though, sometimes one to one, other times two or three students and professor. They were required to have read certain documents/cases/ books in advance, or written an essay in advance, and be prepared to discuss them at this tutorial.

I think the issue is though maddyone, with it all being online I suspect those that might need the most help or support just don't have access or the confidence to access what support they need. I've posted about one of my sons before who is at uni. He didn't have a very easy A level experience and then went off to uni (yes he was on site throughout the pandemic spreading his germs) and did online tutorials and some unsupervised lab work. When he got home he was convinced he had failed the year because he hasn't had any (I suppose) personal 1:1 input off anyone. He has obviously been getting his % grades but not any sort of guidance. Lots of his friends from school dropped out of their courses. I don't know how usual that is.

Tbh I don't care about the universities renting out their spaces. Maybe if they could do it more they could reduce costs in other areas...

I understand Jane because obviously my son was at university some years ago, and there was no Covid then. I don’t know how Oxford University in general, or my son’s former college have coped with their students during Covid. I imagine that the tutorials could be done via zoom, as that would allow for the same sort of teaching as my son experienced. But not all universities teach in the way that Oxford teach, and so I don’t know how they’ve coped. I feel so sorry for students caught up in this situation, and also for our children, who have had disrupted schooling for two years now.

Remember that many overseas students are no longer enrolled and paying fees because of Covid restrictions. The universities have to make money somewhere because the government really doesn’t help these days, at least they don’t where we live. My husband used to lecture at Warwick back in the day along with Germs Greer and even then they were short of cash. He moved to Australia and often commented how the mass lectures were not the best, much better to have smaller groups where the students were more engaged and could ask questions freely. They now repeat all the lectures online anyway, so what’s the difference?