Students at esteemed universities have been refused entry to overcrowded lectures and advised to watch courses online or in extra rooms. The Observer established that students paying £9,250 or more at Manchester, Lancaster, and Nottingham were finding it difficult to secure a lecture hall place. Manchester University maths students in a hall with 600 seats were handed slips with YouTube live stream links and given permission to watch from an alternative overflow theatre, without the scope for any interaction or lecturer questions. The University of Nottingham offered a job in October at £9.65 an hour to an employee who would supervise overflow live stream for first-year law students. Psychology students at Lancaster University were given the choice to watch courses on their laptops or in overflow rooms in November due to lecture hall capacity restrictions. All three universities stated that overflow classes were a short-term solution to manage excessive student numbers at the start of the academic year.
According to Sofija, a University of Manchester student that attended math lectures, people were turned away, and she found it too difficult to concentrate, making it impossible to learn anything. Resultantly, she stopped attending lectures and resorted to watching the courses online. The National Union of Students, which represents higher education students, believes that packed lectures are a result of universities being forced to generate as much tuition-fee revenue as possible.
Other incidents of overcrowded lecture halls include students being told to squeeze in to the auditorium at King’s College London during a physics lecture, with attendees standing at the back. International student Julio Figueroa, who pays over £25,000 a year at King’s College London, encountered this issue and had to bring his own chair with him at least twice. Universities UK, which represents higher education providers, stated that it was crucial that all students had access to lectures, while ensuring that the quality of teaching was not affected. The University of Manchester, University of Nottingham, and Lancaster University have all said alternative measures are taken in case of overcrowding.
