The average UK fee for a first degree in UK universities is now £8500 (up from the £3000 introduced in 2006).  Does it represent good value for money?  Are our students well served?

These are the question explored by a new report from the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) and Which? looking at student satisfaction levels and at the type of teaching they are getting.

It makes rather dispiriting reading – even leaving aside the question of whether HE should be free – it looks as if higher fees have had no impact whatever on the amount of contact teaching time, so student satisfaction levels (though still high) are eroding.

Students responding to the survey were asked how they would like to see their raised fees spent. The answer was clear, they want more contact with staff, together with smaller teaching groups.  But that is not happening – in the main because government grants to HE are being replaced by the student fees, leaving universities with no more resources.

It is also shocking to read that although official guidelines (QAA) assume that full time study amounts to 1200 hours a year (contact and non-contact), students at English universities study for no more than 900 hours per year on average.  In other words, students study for less than three quarters of the time that is expected for a degree programme. As the author of the report, Bahram Bekhradnia, comments , study at an English university is more like a part-time than a full-time job!

Nevertheless, the picture may be less depressing that at first appears.  JISC has pointed out that in the digital age, the nature of the student experience is changing rapidly and access to resources and to teaching staff has been transformed. Contact time need no longer mean students and staff sitting in the same seminar room – lectures can be filmed and watched online at a time that suits the learner, academics may engage with and offer feedback to students via email, Facebook and even twitter rather than in time-constrained seminars or tutorials. In this type of model students can engage with digital resources ahead of face-to-face sessions and then use the contact time more fruitfully for discussion and interaction.

There is lots more in the survey – see the summary here.  And tell us what you think…….