Universities ‘failing to
stretch their students’

Bahram Bekhradnia, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, claims students are being “short-changed” by undemanding degree courses.

He claimed UK students do not have to work as hard as those in other European countries.

Speaking at the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference Mr Bekhradnia said UK universities were very good in areas such as research and pastoral care.

But he added: “The one area I think we need to be seriously concerned about is the question of degree standards. There’s ample evidence now that universities don’t stretch their students enough. Our research, we’ve surveyed over 100,000 students over five years, regularly, and it’s shown that on average students are studying less than 30 hours a week in universities across all subjects, whether we’re talking about medicine or history.”

He said there was big differences in the amount of time students study in the same subjects at different universities.