University applicants ‘expect more contact hours than at school’ | Times Higher Education

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"Unrealistic expectations of would-be students revealed by major survey" reports "Jack Grove, covers careers in higher education, in particular matters relating to early career academics and PhD students, for Times Higher Education."

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More than half of applicants to UK universities expect to spend more time in lectures than they do in school lessons, a new report says.
 
In one of the first major studies of student expectations when they arrive on campus, the Higher Education Policy Institute and accommodation provider Unite Students found that 60 per cent of students believe that they will have more time in class than at school. Only 19 per cent of students find that this happens.

The study, which polled about 2,000 university applicants, also provides an early insight into applicants’ perceptions of the new teaching excellence framework, with 72 per cent of applicants saying that whether a university has a ‘gold’ rating is important to them.
 
It says that almost half (46 per cent) anticipate more one-to-one support than at school, but only 36 per cent of students find this to be the case, according to Unite Students’ annual Student Insight Survey.
 
Evidence of students’ inflated expectations about teaching and learning is likely to fuel debate on the use of student satisfaction surveys to assess quality.
 
Universities minister Jo Johnson has said that he is concerned that many students do not feel that they receive value for money from their courses, where undergraduates often only receive a handful of contact hours a week.
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Source: Times Higher Education