ScienceGeek Report post Posted October 2, 2008 Ok this morning was a complete disaster! We had a tutorial in a room that should hold a maximum of 30 and the lecturer was trying to squash 50 people in there!! I think there was some kind of timetabling error, but she still could have dealt with it better... In the end T (other aspie friend) had a meltdown, I was unable to speak and my notetaker (who actually shouldn't have been there) rescued us both and took us out of the room. You should have seen how squashed it was in there! People got shouted at for leaving and she only made matters worse I'm hoping it will be sorted by next week as neither T or I can cope in that sort of environment. If it isn't sorted, I'm going to get my mentor to kick someone up the bum to get it changed. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
puffin Report post Posted October 2, 2008 Excuse me - tutorial - should have been 30 :hypno: Thats just nuts - it's not a tutorial but a mini lecture even if 50 had not turned up Are those sort of numbers normal at your place?? Ithought tutorials were aimed to be forums for individual help and in-depth discussion whereas yours sould like crowd control At the Uni I work at (not UK) a few years ago there was outrage when number hit 20 - so now a rule as passed that limits groups sizes to 12 to enable everyone to participate Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ScienceGeek Report post Posted October 2, 2008 It wasn't this big last year. The official numbers were 70 but only 25 ever turned up, then only 15 came regularly.. This year the official numbers are 60 but 50 turned up, so it could have been even worse. For the other modules the course is split into 2 tutorial groups, but this module and one other has visiting lecturers and we are all lumped into the same tutorial group.. Even so my maths tutorial group was 25 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
something_different Report post Posted October 2, 2008 oh well if they don't get it sorted out then don't go! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NobbyNobbs Report post Posted October 3, 2008 ahh, i remember that situation fondly. our department was based in one of those two room temporary huts so we didn't have tutorial rooms or lecture space so we were dumped wherever was free... cue a first come first seated situation. if you didn't get to class 15 minutes early you didin't get a seat, if you didn't get there 5 minutes early there wasn't even space to sit on a step! then again i was used to it. i had a GCSE class with 46 kids in and only table space for 36 kids (and that was literally as many seats as they could cram in the room, we had to shuffle in based on where our seat was and then couldn't get up again!) if everyone was there that day some people had to sit on chairs in the doorway and at the teachers desk. the good news for you SG is that by the time you're a month into term only 15 people will be showing up again. its always mad the first couple of weeks then people get bored and dont show due to being drunk/lazy/stupid or all three. good luck next time, hopefully some will have fallen off the perch by then our tutorials average 15-30 if we have more than one a term in first and second year, theres just not enough hours in the day to have less when there are 60 in the course. (that and lecturers are lazy) third year it seems most people have quit the course because numbers suddenly drop to about 12 per class total! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
warrenpenalver Report post Posted October 3, 2008 Are all unis this crowded these days?? I remember when i was at Imperial College we had tutor groups of 5!!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NobbyNobbs Report post Posted October 3, 2008 its a wonderful(!) result of a certain politicians goal to send everyone to university. my department had 5 lecturers, 4 academic years for the course and an annual intake of around 150-200. 6 modules per academic year. for first year there were no options so there were 200 people in each module. one tutorial per semester with 30-50 in each! no wonder so many people drop out. the other three years you choose 6 out of 8 courses, but the drop out rate is so high class size does go down thankfully! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
warrenpenalver Report post Posted October 3, 2008 surely if theres so many more students they are getting tons more money in fees and income so therefore can build more facilities and ger more lecturers?? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ScienceGeek Report post Posted October 3, 2008 You would think that, but if they can squeeze more students in the space they have and with the current amount of lecturers they will go for that. This means they don't have to pay out any extra but are getting more revenue as well. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
warrenpenalver Report post Posted October 3, 2008 surely there are fire safety rules for overcrowding lecture halls in public buildings??? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NobbyNobbs Report post Posted October 4, 2008 i know in the case of my uni (Swansea) the only way they can build more facilities is to literally pick the uni up and move it somewhere else! they looked into it but picked to move it to llanelli and noone who doesn't know welsh can say that right! needless to say that idea seems to have dropped off the table. it seems that rather than spend money on better facilites they just drop the number of classes in certain departments. one of my biggest issues with the uk system is i pay the same fees as someone on the law course, but they get 12-14 hours of class a week, and i only get 6. the only reason i can see is that law have their own facilities and we dont as for fire safety, they would say they had unexpected turnout for that class if inspected. i know of one lecturer in my departments who refuses to teach any 2 -> final year classes with more than 15 students in, which is great if you can get on her classes, but a nightmare at the same time because it puts more pressure on the other classes. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ScienceGeek Report post Posted October 4, 2008 I think in the past the actual number of people turning up to classes has been a lot lower than the official enrolled figure. So they timetabled a small room expecting only half the amount of people to turn up, but in reality a lot more turned up than expected. I think a different room is being organised for next time (the class is every other week). Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
warrenpenalver Report post Posted October 4, 2008 They need the government to review the A level exam system!! Only a small percentage of people used to go to Uni for a reason, ie only a small percentage of jobs need a degree. Now it seems you need a degree to be supervisor at MaccyD's Kind of belittles the purpose of degrees really. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NobbyNobbs Report post Posted October 4, 2008 yup. plus working with stupid people is a right pain! you get grouped up against your choice and half of the people did NVQs in tourism and childcare and who knows what and haven't got a clue what way up a book goes. (no offence to NVQ people but my mother is currently doing one and my goodness, no brain needed for that one). then they just sit around going 'duhh' until you tell them what to do. i'm all for ability streaming. some people are very very good at being bricklayers and hairdressers, and some people are very good at being scientists and doctors. not everyone needs a degree. at my 6th form if you hadn't applied to universities you got constantly pestered by the staff to do so. in the end only two people got away with not applying and they both went into the Army/Navy! i can't get the job i want because in order to do it i have to have an NVQ. there isn't anything higher, its NVQ or no job and i think my brain would fall out of my ears if i had to do my mothers work, so no job for me being clever now excludes you from certain work, because you HAVE to go to uni instead. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CEJesson Report post Posted October 10, 2008 (edited) I have an issue at the moment for my thursday module - we are in a computer room and there is not 1 computer per person. Use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) on a computer is essential to the module. It can get rather crowded and this will be something to raise at next week's meeting with my department on student issues. Edited October 10, 2008 by CEJesson Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
