28% of UK university courses still using hybrid teaching
Close to a third of university courses in the UK are still using a combination of in-person and online teaching.
A BBC investigation found 28% of university courses are using hybrid teaching for the 2022/23 academic year, compared to 4.1% in 2018/19.
The BBC’s survey had responses from 50 universities out of 160 contacted. At those 5o universities, over 3,500 of the 12,569 courses offered were using hybrid learning.
Universities in the UK switched to online learning after the outbreak of Covid in early spring 2020. Since then, courses have slowly returned to being in-person.
Vice-chancellor at Birkbeck, University of London, Professor David Latchman, said: “Maybe I’m just old-fashioned, but I still think that face-to-face is a better learning experience.
“But I think the way that it [blended learning] can help people to keep up and keep going is tremendously important.”
A first-year Economics student at the University of Bath, whose course is partially online, told the BBC: “It’s not good value for money at all. It’s just like watching a YouTube video.
“When it’s online, you’re in your room and you’re on your own, you can just sit in bed and watch and then think, ‘that’s that done – I can go back to sleep
“It doesn’t get you in a good routine, a good rhythm or a good learning mindset.”
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