Ways the university landscape has changed since "our day"

[ACJane]

I see a fair few posts on here making judgments about today's kids' university choices based on the higher education landscape of our own generation.

Rankings and general prestige have changed, workloads and expectations seem to have changed. Parental involvement is far higher - presumably due to middle and higher income parents having to contribute but also some extending of childhood.

What are the main things you think are different?
Personally I've been surprised by the changes to the top 10/15 Uk universities - a couple that were seen as lower "prestige" have rocketed (which is great but surprised me).

People complaining about their dc's Oxbridge workload is noticeable too - most of my friends who went seemed to have plenty of time for hobbies and drinking. Much less so now reading threads on here?

I wonder if the gap between Oxbridge and other leading universities is narrowing too due to the former being far more competitive to get into.

What changes have you noticed?

I think a change we’re starting to see and will continue to increase, is the number of students staying at home and commuting to a local university due to costs.

Much more assessments now.

in my day degree class determined by exams at end of final year (substituting at most one paper for a dissertation/ project). There were class exams in early years (one per subject per year) and if you did well enough (fairly low barrier if I remember) you didn't need to sit degree exams.

My DC have had weekly quizes, marks for tutorial contribution, midterms and end of term exams for each module.

SandyIrvin, I think that depends on the degree course. I was studying medicine in the 1970s, and there were tests, module assessments, etc, throughout all the terms, and major exams at the end of each term and year.

I think a bigger change is in the suppression of free speech. In my day, students held a range of political views and opinions, from extreme left wing Communist to extreme right wing fascist and all shades between, and we debated, argued and exchanged views in healthy discussion.

Nowadays, there is only one accepted dogma and students are treated as heretics if they don’t sign up to the misogynist doctrine of gender ideology.

Open discussion has been replaced by “no platforming” and “safe spaces” - a travesty of what a university should be.

My northern uni was never a bastion of free speech if you didn't hold left wing liberal views so not so much change in my opinion.

@ACJane by our day are you referring to late 70s into mid 80s, or a slightly later period?

Thanks for reminding me of my increasingly advanced years!.Not!😀

Loughborough was not highly ranked back in my day.

Far fewer students

much less of a commodity

Accommodation less in real terms back then. Although en-suite accommodation unheard of.

Library probably more of a thing - no internet.

balancing an aerial on a stack of books on a portable black and white TV to get a signal.

every hall, where I went to uni at least, had a bar, JCR, pay phone to queue at to ring home, TV room. Plus although a number lived out in 2nd or 3rd year the halls were very mixed, not just all freshers.

i don’t think the ubiquitous league tables existed back then.

Well, the support on offer to students at university is amazing. I am familiar with one post 92 uni and one RG uni.

At the post 92 there are over 80 support service for students. Some examples - you can book a one to one, one hour appointment with your subject specific librarian. There are workshops in the library (tours, referencing help, understanding journal articles, general study skills, how to write an essay etc). In the library there is a centre for academic writing. You can book one to one appointments with them or attend their workshops. The same for maths support. There are student success coaches. Mentoring schemes, world of work schemes, (all offering one to one appointment sand various daily workshops). There are English classes, confidence in English classes, pet an animal to make you feel better sessions, student support workers (one to one appointments available!). Every member of staff has a booking page for (you guessed it!) one to one appointments. And this is just a snapshot.

Less provision at the RG uni, but still lots on offer.

I mean, we were lucky if our lecturers turned up some days! If you went to the department's admin team you were treated like a nuisance. The library was full of librarians doing library stuff, not putting on workshops or sessions or one to ones. If you asked where something was you were waved in the direction of a stack.

Is this what you mean?

If we are referencing back to the early to mid 1980s, then we are talking about a period when only 40-50% of 16 years continued in education and fewer than 15-20% of 18 years were doing so; the stats were probably even lower for young women though I have not seen those figures broken out. This aspect, together with the overall real rise in land values, as mentioned by a PP and so feeding through into relative accommodation costs, will have unpinned many of the other elements of change.

Op which unis do you think have risen in rankings?

@boys3 simply the generation who are now parents of university age children. So for most people I guess that would mean people of 45-60ish now so at university in the 80s and 90s.

Oh yes, shared rooms with no separation at all and 3 sinks in a line with a bath behind a 2m screen in The Holt and Bill Morris older houses! And the line of bath cubicles on each floor in West Grove where you could throw things to each other across the partitions- I'd imagine they've all gone. All bar one of the halls were fully catered if you wanted, or you could opt out of breakfast or weekend meals after your first term - but there were no cooking facilities other than fridges & kettles.

NCTDN - I'm not sure there were rankings circa 1990 when I went to university but certainly I've noticed Loughborough and Lancaster have shot up in the intervening decades.

Also the blurring of "former polys" and lower ranking "always unversities" in the rankings (a good thing as there was misplaced snobbery about polys).

Much higher numbers of overseas students, better but much more expensive (commercial) halls, accommodation is generally harder to find.

More academically demanding than 00s and 10s. Seem to be returning to levels of 80s and 90s.

More attention given to 'student experience'. Universities are now big business and compete more among themselves.

Far less contact hours! I remember my first year of a geography degree and I had lectures/seminars/tutorials virtually 9-5 apart from Wednesday afternoons. It was a bit of a shock after A levels!!
Also I had to lodge with a family my first year - there were only a few halls of residence, not nearly enough for all first years.
My parents didn't see my uni until they came to my graduation.
I rang them once a week from a public telephone box.
Started mid-80s

OP, I’m out of touch, (children too young still) but when you say “Parental involvement is far higher - presumably due to middle and higher income parents having to contribute but also some extending of childhood.” do lower income parents not have to contribute?

I've recently done some postgrad stuff at the same university I attended 25+ years ago. The cost of everything has rocketed. The most basic hall accommodation then was £35.00pw. It's now £140.00pw and hasn't been refurbed! the only difference is the inclusion of broadband. Even accounting for inflation that's quite a hike - my public sector wage has not quadrupled in that period. There also used to be lots of university and student union run teabars and cafes on campus, whereas now there's a Five Guys, Starbucks, Pret etc. It felt like it would be so much harder to live on a tight budget.

I went to a very highly regarded uni in the early 2000s, the sort of place where one of the getting to know you questions in freshers week was which oxbridge college were you interviewed and rejected by. We had 3 hours of lectures a week (recommended but not compulsory) and a 1 hour tutorial you had to write an essay for. The topic for the essay and tutorial usually bore no relation to any of the lectures you went to that week - you might have had that lecture 6 weeks ago or you might not have had it yet. We were basically teaching ourselves then coming to tutorials to discuss what we'd learnt, which was really excellent preparation for work and probably life in general.

That system has since been replaced with a much more spoon fed system and large seminars instead of tiny tutorials in someone's office and I think that's probably why the course is no longer so highly rated (also pulling out of the University of London and all its lovely obscure libraries and courses to go it alone, why, WHY). But then who would be happy paying £9k a year for 4 hours of contact time per week? We've turned students into consumers.

Maintenance loans are based on parental income, on a sliding scale. If students receive a lower loan due to their parents income, their parents are expected to top up to the maximum loan (about £9k if the student is not living at home, or their uni is not in London). The minimum loan is about £4.5k, and parental earnings for this are about £60k. Not all parents can afford the top up, but for those that can that’s about £5k+ a year they should be contributing.

I’m not 100% sure I’m the exact figures as they change slightly each year but they’re around about those amounts.

I went to a fairly prestigious RG uni in the early 00s (a social science) and a post 92 uni recently (a humanity).

I think there has been grade inflation but also as a Pp said there is SO much support now that didn’t exist even 20 years ago, that enables students to really understand what’s being asked of them and then how to go about achieving it.

Eg, previous uni, dissertation guidance really was one session at the beginning of the year, basically saying include these sections and a few sentences as to what should be under each section. Then it was a case of bugger off and get on with it! Post 92 in 2021- two hours a week for half a term going into great detail about what was required and how to go about it. Therefore we had a much better chance of getting a good grade with the extra support- not necessarily that the uni was throwing free marks at us. The mark schemes were clearly available online (even if a little vague). I don’t think I ever saw one or heard it mentioned at previous uni. The feedback is much more detailed. Previously it was a sentence or two written by hand on a form attached to the hard copy you had handed into reception… now it’s all online but it means tutors can add comments on your work, as well as overall general comments.

Equally technology makes life so much easier and quicker. Eg in 2003 to get the material to write your essay, you physically had to trek to the library. There might be 5 copies of a really helpful book…. But 50 people in your lecture… so unless you were quick you weren’t getting a look in. Then you’re physically searching the shelves for a title that sounds like it might contain relevant content… when/if you find it you’re having to read or at least skim read masses of text to see if you can find anything helpful.

Now, you search on your online library account. The majority of books, and certainly journal articles, are digitised. So everyone has equal access. Once you’ve got hold of the text you can then search for a phrase very quickly with the search tool.

The above has cut the effort and time required to be able to have the resources to do well.

I was a fairly standard 2:1 student in the 00s. I got a high 1st/distinction recently, I think this is heavily due to the points mentioned above.

DH has a bee in his bonnet about things being 'easier' for today's students, but certainly in terms of academic content, when I looked at DS's course, nominally similar to mine back in the 80s, I thought a lot of it was terrifyingly difficult. DD's course is in a different field and way over my head. Although when I read about the oppressive workload that exists at Oxbridge, it doesn't seem very different to me from my very mid-range redbrick back then.
DH and I were both able to stay in catered halls throughout. There was some university-owned self-catered accommodation, which was quite popular. Private rentals seemed to be mainly the preserve of postgraduates.

Yes Pinkfrogss those figures are only a bit off the actuals.

Harsh on middle income parents, especially those who have two kids at university at once, but also on students from lower income families graduate who presumably graduate with about 15k more debt.

A big yes to the grade inflation! Firsts were so rare on my course and a 2:1 was seen as decent enough.

And also a huge yes to the fancy halls! Totally different to those at my university circa 1990!

@CocoonofDavid

I am coming to the end of my OU degree and it’s been very efficient. Worlds apart from the brick experience of course.

Oh and I’m doing a collaborative activity for one of my final essays, and there are a LOT of bambino’s on the course (late teens, early twenties lol). So the OU demographic is also changing.

THREE sinks.????!!!!!

one of the posher uni halls then. 😀

Exeter Uni 1968. Newly built women's hall, about 60 rooms - the individual room doors had NO LOCKS ! Only the main entrance could be locked, and then only at night.

The cost was £6 a week, which included three meals a day, and afternoon tea. Allowing for inflation that's £81 today. In fact, Exeter Uni charges now start at £177 a week, and I don't think that includes meals.

I lived in 'digs', where the landlady allowed us ONE bath a week.

The bathroom was kept LOCKED; we had to ask for the key. No-one complained, or even remarked on this.