3 ms·

> The supervision system guarantees all Oxbridge students weekly, small-group tutorials, We had that in Physics at Manchester in the 2000s. 4 students. I'm gue

by exe34 1y ago

> The supervision system guarantees all Oxbridge students weekly, small-group tutorials, We had that in Physics at Manchester in the 2000s. 4 students. I'm guessing they got the idea from Oxbridge, but I don't think it's been a USP for a very long time.

ics 1y ago
Unique Selling Point?
- mrcarrot 1y ago
  yes
spacedcowboy 1y ago
Same, at Imperial in 80’s
quietbritishjim 1y ago
That sounds like a similar idea but I doubt it's to the same extent. When I was at Cambridge in the early noughties, supervisions for maths and computer science (and physics I believe but I didn't go to any of those) were 2 students in 4 1-hour sessions per week (1 per 24 hour lecture course). [Edit: hmm, actually maybe it was just 2 per week.] In maths, if there were an odd number of students then one would get 1 to 1 supervisions, but I'm sure that depends on the college. For computer science, I was put in a 3 person supervision when they had an odd number (and I wasn't happy about it at the time!) I later did teaching at UCL and Imperial and the difference was huge. When they get to it, I would advise my children to go Oxford or Cambridge in a heartbeat. (For reference, my parents were too poor to even consider university.)
- exe34 1y ago
  cue the Harvard graduates tell us they had 5 teachers for 1 student in their tutorials. A large part of uni is about learning to learn on your own and learning in groups - if everything is spoonfed, it might not be the best training.
  - ninalanyon 1y ago
    We certainly didn't get spoon fed in tutorials at Exeter Uni. in the 1970s!
  - 2dvisio 1y ago
    Tutorials are all but spoon-feeding. Tutors are strongly encouraged not to give just solutions, but actually to teach the approach to solving problems and creating connections with adjacent topics where possible.
- danlitt 1y ago
  When I was there (maths, 2010s) it was 1 supervision per course per fortnight. You had 4 problem sets in an 8 week course (for long courses). 16 lectures meant 3 sets, 12 lectures meant 2. I never heard of a college doing more than 2 students in a supervision.
2dvisio 1y ago
I used to teach tutorials at Keble college (Oxford). Not sure how they were run in Manchester. Tutorials in Oxford are impressive for me for many reasons: 1. Those teaching were generally of a higher level beyond Ph.D., post docs or professors, all paid, all assessed against an NPS from students, and the performance of the students in exams 2. Tutors are generally teaching more adjacent topics (creating connections), students are challenged to think beyond the assignments (which are generally tough), 3. Tutorials are calibrated and personalised to students and made sure all students are challenged at the right level, I had tutorials where I had to teach 1:2 because the students were excellent and needed a higher level of complexity.
- vmilner 1y ago
  Video of maths one here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTAUsTZbiZk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTAUsTZbiZk
blibble 1y ago
2 is the norm for supervisions/tutorials and having 4 people is very different from 2

by exe34 1y ago

ics 1y ago

Unique Selling Point?

mrcarrot 1y ago
yes

spacedcowboy 1y ago

Same, at Imperial in 80’s

quietbritishjim 1y ago

That sounds like a similar idea but I doubt it's to the same extent. When I was at Cambridge in the early noughties, supervisions for maths and computer science (and physics I believe but I didn't go to any of those) were 2 students in 4 1-hour sessions per week (1 per 24 hour lecture course). [Edit: hmm, actually maybe it was just 2 per week.] In maths, if there were an odd number of students then one would get 1 to 1 supervisions, but I'm sure that depends on the college. For computer science, I was put in a 3 person supervision when they had an odd number (and I wasn't happy about it at the time!) I later did teaching at UCL and Imperial and the difference was huge. When they get to it, I would advise my children to go Oxford or Cambridge in a heartbeat. (For reference, my parents were too poor to even consider university.)

exe34 1y ago
cue the Harvard graduates tell us they had 5 teachers for 1 student in their tutorials. A large part of uni is about learning to learn on your own and learning in groups - if everything is spoonfed, it might not be the best training.
- ninalanyon 1y ago
  We certainly didn't get spoon fed in tutorials at Exeter Uni. in the 1970s!
- 2dvisio 1y ago
  Tutorials are all but spoon-feeding. Tutors are strongly encouraged not to give just solutions, but actually to teach the approach to solving problems and creating connections with adjacent topics where possible.
danlitt 1y ago
When I was there (maths, 2010s) it was 1 supervision per course per fortnight. You had 4 problem sets in an 8 week course (for long courses). 16 lectures meant 3 sets, 12 lectures meant 2. I never heard of a college doing more than 2 students in a supervision.

2dvisio 1y ago

I used to teach tutorials at Keble college (Oxford). Not sure how they were run in Manchester. Tutorials in Oxford are impressive for me for many reasons: 1. Those teaching were generally of a higher level beyond Ph.D., post docs or professors, all paid, all assessed against an NPS from students, and the performance of the students in exams 2. Tutors are generally teaching more adjacent topics (creating connections), students are challenged to think beyond the assignments (which are generally tough), 3. Tutorials are calibrated and personalised to students and made sure all students are challenged at the right level, I had tutorials where I had to teach 1:2 because the students were excellent and needed a higher level of complexity.

vmilner 1y ago
Video of maths one here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTAUsTZbiZk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTAUsTZbiZk

blibble 1y ago

2 is the norm for supervisions/tutorials and having 4 people is very different from 2