‘Worst’ British universities ranked by disgruntled students – Social work fared particularly badly

The worst-taught degrees in the country have been exposed by disgruntled students, with subjects taught at Britain’s elite universities ranked among the worst performers.
  A total of 33 courses provided by universities in the Russell Group and 1994 Group, generally regarded as the best in the country, were ranked as the worst.

Three of the worst ranked courses were taught at Edinburgh, five at Manchester and seven at Bristol University.

Social work fared particularly badly with four courses – at Swansea, Brunel, Royal Holloway and Birmingham City universities – in the students’ bottom five, along with business at the University of the Arts London.

The Swansea course received the lowest rating of all in National Students Survey of 200,000 people.

It was given a rating of just 44 per cent by the students who ranked almost 2,200 courses.

This was less than half the ‘mark’ given to the top performer, Exeter University’s finance and accounting course, which scored 96.2 out of 100.

The law course at Sunderland was next with 95.8, followed by medical science/pharmacy at Keele on 95.

Common students complaints were classes becoming bigger, teaching time being reduced and the use of postgraduate students as a cheap form of teaching.

Aaron Porter, vice-president of the National Union of Students, said: “It is vital that institutions listen to student feedback on the development of courses provided in higher education.

“I think lecturers welcome feedback from students and some of the very best lecturers really want to her what their students think of them.”

Education expert Anna Fazackerley, of the think tank Policy Exchange, said universities were failing to tell prospective students about how little teaching they would get on some courses.

“The government should collect data about how many hours of teaching students receive, whether postgraduate students or professors are doing that teaching and how many students are being packed into classes,” she said.

“This information is kept incredibly quiet, but parents and students have a right to know what they are paying for.”

There are growing signs of student rebellion against the lack of teaching.

Last weekend, economics students at Bristol submitted complaints about marking being done by other students, rising class sizes and exams being reduced from three hours to two.

And at Manchester, law students walked out of a lecture and protested outside the vice-chancellor’s office when they heard of proposals to reduce teaching time.

Politics at Manchester was ranked 2,064th in the survey but, despite this, there are plans to reduce teaching time.

Manchester University admitted there had been problems and said it was reviewing all its teaching.

“We have had instances of students saying they have not seen any academic for two years. That is not acceptable,” a spokesman said.

A spokesman for the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills said the survey, which asks a total of 22 different questions about student experience, including how happy they are, was designed to help people decide where to study.

“The National Student Survey is part of the whole process of enabling potential students to have as much information as possible, so they can make their own, informed choice about which institutions to apply to. It’s up to the students,” he said.