SU to report on absent lecturers

A report on unreasonable cancellations of contact hours is being compiled after a number of lectures and seminars were cancelled during Week 1, many without justification or rescheduling.

Students’ Union Education Officer Sean Ruston and President Leo Boe will be producing the report.

An online survey created to gauge the severity of the issue was launched and received over 34 responses in less than an hour, many of which saw students complaining of losing up to five hours of contact time.

The findings raise concerns about the number of contact hours students are receiving, especially considering the low number of contact hours attached to some subjects.

The survey received 656 responses over a period of three days. 339 respondents reported that they had experienced cancelled lectures and 85 said that their seminars had been called off in the first week of term.

150 of those who had reported cancellations said that they had not received an explanation of why the lecture had been called off, or had the contact time rescheduled for a later date.

Explanations submitted by lecturers included illness, fire alarms, mixing up times and even being away in Thailand.

Whilst this can be explained in departments such as Maths by the clearing of contact hours to provide extra study time for exams, other lecturers appear to have simply aborted their contact hours without any sufficient explanation. Various courses were affected.

Boe said that key members of the University were “intent on making sure that academics are meeting the set requirements and taking their jobs seriously, and not thinking that the first week of term can be considered an extra week of holiday.”

Many students reported that they were not affected. Emily Wright, a first-year Mathematics student, said that she had “only ever had one lecture cancelled and that was last term.” Some students did feel that the cancellations meant they were not receiving good value for money, a particular concern for many in light of the recent tripling of tuition fees.

The next step will see Boe submitting the report to the University, who will then decide how to proceed with the issue, and whether or not to impose any disciplinary measures on the staff members involved. He expects the problem to be taken seriously as “it is in the institution’s interests to meet students’ expectations and maintain a high level of academic excellence.”

Ruston added that “if it’s merely about lecturers being ill, there’s a limited amount the University can do, but if it’s a more systematic and unacceptable pattern, or lack of professionalism, then hopefully something will be done.”