What are we paying for?

Student disappointment over the cost of their university education has come to light in a recent YUSU survey.

Only 47% of the survey respondents felt their degree was worth the money they were paying. Students also highlighted their distress at the additional hidden costs of their university experience at York.

The survey demonstrated that within every degree the most important variant in determining value for money has been the number of contact hours received by the student. 80% of students with 16-20 contact hours felt their course was good value, but only 40% of students with 0-5 contact hours could say the same.

The response, unsurprisingly, was particularly damning from students studying History, Archaeology, History of Art, Politics and those studying at the School of Social and Political Sciences as these disciplines have pitifully few contact hours, some as low as three to four hours a week.

A second-year English and History of Art student commented: “I have exactly four hours of teaching time-tabled over the next 10 weeks. I appreciate it is exam term, but with only one exam, I really don’t understand – where’s my money going?!”

In contrast, students studying Biology and Biochemistry, at HYMS, and those studying Chemistry and Electronics, with their relatively good number of contact hours (between 16-20) were the most content and felt they had the best value for money.

The report was completed by over 1146 students, having launched on week eight of the Autumn term and running for seven weeks. The report came at this time because of the rise in tuition fees from £3,375 to £9000 this coming academic year. The rise in tuition fees is predicted to see students demanding more from their university experience than they currently are.

As it is, Sally Hill, a second year History student, commented; “each lecture costs me £25, I am essentially paying for a library card.”
On top of tuition fees, the survey also asked students about the extra-curricular and unexpected costs that they had been made to pay.
The report revealed that the most widely shared extra cost to students was textbooks with a total of 59% of the respondents saying they had bought them.

Numerous students commented that they were frustrated by the library’s inability to provide essential course textbooks. One such student commented; “I find that the books that we are expected to buy for English incur outrageous costs. It is at least £60 per term, and that is because there is usually only one copy of the book needed in the library, if there is even one.”

Other costs included printing credits, course materials and course trips, for which undergraduate Environmental Studies students spent an average of £351.

Printing is the second highest extra cost for students after text books, and a total of 43% of students reported that they had paid for additional printing credits as part of their course. Of these, 23.5% stated that they had not expected to pay, and 25.9% paid more than expected, which is the equivalent of 3,644 students at York.

Tim Elllis, YUSU president, commented to Vision that he believes, “in light of the £9000 fees next year, this dissatisfaction is only going to worsen. Departments and the library need to invest in more key text books and core texts so that students aren’t having to fork out huge sums for a book they may only use for one term.”

One of the other hidden costs of university life with which students were most dissatisfied was the expense of joining societies and playing sport. Of those who had paid for York Sport membership 30.9% had not expected to pay and 37.9% had paid more than expected.

One student commented in the survey that, “of all the extra costs, York Sport annoys me the most. The sports club I wanted to join did not use university facilities and I have my own private insurance in case of an accident, so I really shouldn’t be required to pay as I am not getting anything for my money. I don’t mind paying club membership of £25, but paying double that to York Sport for nothing in return other than the University’s permission to participate is a massive rip-off.” Additionally, students wanted to see parking, food on campus, and accommodation costs reduced. One student gave the following comment,”the accommodation is ridiculously priced and shabby. The whole application process was unfair and allowed a situation where the only accommodation left is more than I can afford.”

Ben Dilks, YUSU Campaigns Officer, commented; “It’s completely unacceptable that, having already paid thousands of pounds in tuition fees, students are expected to dig even deeper into their pockets in order to participate fully in their courses.

“This year the NUS has set out to tackle the problem by encouraging institutions to get involved with the NUS program ‘Come Clean on Hidden Course Costs’. We want to raise the same issues with departments here at York, which is why we’re launching an ‘Out of Pocket’ campaign this term.”

John Robinson, the University’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and Learning, responded saying; “YUSU has been involved in drafting the new policy on student representation in academic departments going to the next meeting of the University Senate.”

Neither the University nor specific departments with low student satisfaction rates as revealed by the survey have yet released information about how they will tackle these issues in the future.