To ask if you work in a university have you noticed a recent change in student behaviour?

[0987ghj]

I graduated from university in 2019, and have now returned to study a different course. I've noticed a big difference in student behaviour and I wondered if it's something that university staff have also noticed or if it's just my course.

I'm hoping that this thread doesn't seem like I'm trying to slate current university students/gen Z. A few of the examples I've seen are from mature students, so I don't think it's generational/an age thing.

There's a lot of talking now during lectures, people just talking loudly whilst the lecturer is talking (not even whispering). It's pretty brazen and full on conversations, not just a quick question or comment, and really distracting. People are often late quite a lot, there's routinely a few students who are 40+ minutes late to a 2-hour lecture. I know there are some reasons people may be late such as childcare issues, or traffic or illnesses like IBS that make it hard to leave the house in the mornings so that might just be why, but it's a lot more lateness than I ever saw in my degree before. There would be the occasional person 5-10 minutes late, but not 40+ minutes.

People also start packing up and starting to leave before the lecturer has even finished talking. Our lectures always finish slightly early to allow time to walk to other lectures so there's not really any need for it. I don't remember this happening before, unless it was because the lecture had ran over and even then people would quietly/subtly pack up.

It can be a mixture of points, that said I'd consider another degree.

People in general are more selfish. Look at the news/past threads about theatre behaviour

Growing narcissist world. Most of current students have been educated in covid times in their bedrooms.

Yes I'm a lecturer and the pre-term teaching meeting for our course was spent talking about the poor behaviour of students last year and hoping it was a blip. Mainly students talking through lectures and being on phones constantly. The theory is they got so used to online learning they now forget they're not 'on mute'.

Genuinely surprised phones are permitted during lectures. I presumed it would be like theatre or cinema, you get a warning and a minute to sort yourself out.

Agreed, I went to uni 25 years ago and most of us had part time jobs. It’s really not a new thing.

Loans have never covered rent surely? My loan (the maximum I could get from SAAS) was £1100 a year in 2005. That covered fees I think and that was it.

As I mentioned in my OP I graduated from my last degree in December 2019 (so just before COVID kicked off), so it's not been that long and I still had the high tuition fees (albeit £9000/year rather than £9250/year). The only thing I can think of that may have influenced things so quickly is COVID. However, interestingly it's mainly the mature students who are showing the poor behaviour. Constant lateness (20-40 minutes late everyday) and walking out mid-lecture with no attempt to be quiet and discrete (letting the door slam on the way out), and I've noticed some rudeness towards the lecturers too which is shocking.

I'm a mature student currently studying undergraduate degree, chatting in lectures and coming in late is fairly standard.

Some of my fellow students are also fed up with it - particularly in seminars where half of us are having a relevant discussion with the tutor and the other half are having a social, it's distracting and rude.

I work in a university as a lecturer and the behaviour of students is different. I work with PGTs and they often seem like UGs due to a lack of social skills and opportunities that weren't afforded to them due to Covid. I think this has had an impact on a lot of young people in terms of normal social development, as well as just life experience.

I couldn't care less if students are on their phones during lectures. They're grownups, it's up to them if they want to engage with the material. If they're only sabotaging themselves by not paying attention or falling asleep (yup...) then that's on them. I only speak up if they're distracting others. Different in a seminar.

Besides, all of the notes are online, they need to record their attendance on their phones, I use polling software during lectures so they answer multiple choice questions on their phone throughout the lecture, so banning them wouldn't work.

Also an academic, and would agree with the big dip in academic and social skills caused by Covid. Genuinely, it felt for a year or two there as if students managing to show up to a seminar on time, with the reading done AND a copy of the text, was a really big ask. This year’s cohort are far more together.

One of the big differences I’ve noticed over the past 25 years is that no phones go off in my lectures any more. I slightly miss saying ‘James, tell your mother I was asking for her, but call her back later?’ while James died inside.

Now I’m more likely to say ‘For the love of Jesus, no breakfast baps in a lecture.’

Other things bother me more than the chatting tbh. When I did my first degree, we would ask the lecturer for permission before recording their lecture on dictaphone.

Now students brazenly get out their phones and start filming without it even occurring to them that permission should be sought.

This is part of the problem, we constantly make excuses for them, no accountability, nothing. Yes COVID didn't help but they are not the first generation to face adversity.

You try closing the door on latecomers now and their parents will come and fight you. There will be protests outside and you will be cancelled.

I can already see the Mumsnet post, "AIBU for telling my child's lecturer off for locking my child out simply because he was 35 mins late???"

Our lecture theatres record automatically now. It means you have to be careful what you chat about before/after lectures when the mic is still on. It's also meant lectures are a bit more dull as I used to provide lots of personal anecdotes but I stick to the research and case studies now.

Were you teaching my lecture today op?? Because this all happened in ours this morning, worse than ever. People strolling in extremely late blaming traffic but with a coffee from the uni coffee shop in hand. Everyone constantly talking, so much the other students had to step in and tell them to stop. It's honestly so irritating, I don't know why they bother coming to the lectures if they are just going to talk all the way through.

Wow. Thisnis fascinating. What a different world.

When I was at uni I never saw anyone speak in a lecture unless it was to ask a question. If they’d started chatting they’d have got booted out of the room pretty fast.

I don’t understand why they aren’t being told to leave the room.

Is interesting as I have noticed a massive change in theatre going behaviour. Eating noisy snacks throughout instead of only in the bar at interval, talking and using phones during performance. It’s very odd and not a good change.

We stopped recording last year after the previous year was, frankly, a disaster. People teaching to a class that should have had 200 students but only 5 showing up, record fail rates, things like that.

It's so much better now we're not recording.

I had no idea. Sad and worrying.

I'd love not to record but we then get slammed for being inaccessible. It's frustrating! We just put all the interesting content in the interactive sessions that can't be recorded as we would have to get all students permission to do so, which is impossible.

Well they're customers now. The customer is always right.

Yes, so relieved we’re no longer recording. Last year I got so tired of giving lectures in a module that had 100 people registered but where the average attendance was eight, rattling around in a giant lecture theatre, that I started doing it in my office.

If people talk in my lectures (other than very very quiet comments) I do ask them to be quiet, and if they carry on - which they don't - I'd boot them out. Other colleagues complain about their students, but I don't tend to have a problem. I think I might look terrifying. It helps.

I don't care about eating or not paying attention if it doesn't disturb anyone. I'd happily ban phones, but they are often used for taking notes, so I can't.

I’ve just started uni and agree with this. It’s normal for students to turn up late. In fact I haven’t been to a single one where nobody came late.
And the eating is so annoying!! It’s really off putting and I find it disgusting tbh. I’m very sensitive to smells and don’t want to smell BBQ crisps whilst I’m trying to listen and equally, I find the constant crunching irritating.
As for the talking, my lectures have all been quite strong on telling students off for it. They will normally issue a warning like ‘if you continue to disrupt the class I will have to ask you to leave.’