Rajan Patel

News Editor

Results from the International Student Barometer (ISB), a national survey completed by 1459 overseas students at the LSE, place the School 53rd out of 56 UK universities for “good teachers”.

The School scored highly on “expert lecturers” and was placed 5th out of 56 universities for lecturing quality. The National Student Survey (NSS) 2007, a separate survey sampling third year undergraduates, saw the LSE outclassed by other research intensive Russell Group universities (such as Oxford, Cambridge and UCL) on teaching.

Only 59 per cent of respondents believed that they had “received sufficient advice and support with my studies”, compared with Oxford’s 81 per cent and York’s 76 per cent. 65 per cent agreed that “staff made the subject interesting”, the worst result in the Russell Group – Oxford led with 86 per cent.

Yvonne Choi, a second year Economics undergraduate, said, “I’m not surprised that the LSE didn’t score well in the student surveys, but I am surprised we came bottom of the Russell Group unis because the LSE has such a good reputation overall.”

The results were included as an appendix to a report submitted to the School’s Academic Board on 17 October. Entitled “Teaching at the LSE: an Overview and Proposal for a Way Forward”, the report observes that “the School’s performance is not…distinguished”. It calls for the establishment of an “LSE Task Force on Teaching and Career Development” to consider how a steady improvement of teaching might be brought about.

In a statement to The Beaver, Howard Davies, Director of the LSE, said: “The idea of a reassessment of teaching quality at LSE is one I have been considering for some time. We agreed to propose a task force at the directorate annual ‘awayday’ in June, before the NSS or ISB results were known.”

The report was written by Janet Hartley, Pro-Director for Teaching and Learning, and identifies “concerns” about the extensive use of Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) for teaching at undergraduate level. Non-permanent staff – comprising GTAs, teaching fellows and temporary appointments – teach 75 per cent of undergraduate classes.

One GTA from the Government department observed that “there are various factors which affect teaching quality in a negative manner, from too short seminars…via not very clear guidelines as to how much you are expected to prepare as a teacher, up to low pay for GTAs and the fact that as a PhD student you always have to meet your own deadlines for the School as well”.

Many of these issues are noted in the report, which emphasises the need to balance the School’s twin objectives of excellence in teaching and “research of the highest quality”. The report suggests a perception among academic staff that: “the only thing that matters for promotion…is [research] publications”.

It also stresses the need to reward quality teaching. Teaching Excellence prizes (based on student nominations and partly assessed by the LSE Students’ Union) were introduced last year to recognise the best teachers, but there exists “little collective discussion within departments…about whether there is anything distinctive about LSE teaching”.

The LSE is following the example of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, whose own Task Force demanded fuller evaluation of teaching and active engagement with new teaching methods. The report commits the LSE to an equally comprehensive reassessment that will “enrich student learning…and distinguish [the institution] even further in the ranks of leading research universities”.

The Task Force will consist of academics from a range of LSE departments. The LSE Students’ Union (LSESU) Education and Welfare Officer will be the sole representative of students’ interests, although regular consultation with undergraduate and postgraduate fora has been promised.

Speaking to The Beaver, she said: “The new teaching task force is a promising step in addressing some of the concerns surrounding the quality of teaching…I am confident that the School is wholeheartedly committed to improving the quality of teaching through this review.”

Sacha Robehmed and Elle Dodd, both student representatives on the Academic Board, gave a frank assessment of the problems faced by the School. Dodd identified inadequate training for teachers and “the absence of any clear evaluation and improvement system” as being particularly important. Both noted that teaching quality differed widely across departments. Robehmed said: “It has definitely become apparent to me in my time here, as someone who has taken courses in five different departments within the School, that teaching standards vary across departments...I call on those departments who provide poorer teaching to recognise and accept this.”

Internal student satisfaction surveys reveal that the quantitative departments – Statistics, Maths and Accounting and Finance – consistently underperform. Establishing why this occurs will be one of the Task Force’s key aims.

Contrary to many students’ perceptions, formal training programmes do exist for GTAs. All new GTAs attend five compulsory events provided by the Teaching and Learning Centre (TLC) at the beginning of the academic year. About one in six GTAs are also studying for a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education.

However, Janet Hartley, the report’s author and a member of the Task Force, told The Beaver, “You can have all the training you like, but unless you have incentives, I don’t think some of the concerns students have expressed are going to be addressed.” Some lecturers already provide their GTAs with considerable assistance and real incentives. Professor Alwyn Young, who is responsible for EC102 (the largest first-year course in the Economics department), meets his class teachers every two weeks and gives written feedback to teachers new to the course. “I have put in a system where class teachers are encouraged, financially, to attend my lectures if their schedule allows, so that they are better able to field student questions,” he said. However, a former GTA in the Statistics department told The Beaver, “I think there are two lives at the LSE: one for lecturers and one for class teachers. I received excellent training from the TLC at the beginning of the year but didn’t consult with the course lecturer all year.”

The reality of teaching and its inconsistency across departments still disappoints many students. David Hardy, a third year Economics undergraduate, said, “In particular, I am concerned with the quality of spoken English exhibited by some individuals…All teaching I have received seems to be given by highly motivated individuals (very commendable) who in some cases simply do not have the right skills to teach.”

The TLC and the Language Centre provide seminars and practical assistance for GTAs whose first language is not English. Teaching within the Language Centre is high quality – Nick Byrne, Director of the Language Centre, received a National Teaching Fellowship in 2001 for his work on innovative teaching methods – but many students remain frustrated with their teachers’ language skills.

Ensuring that best practice becomes the rule and not the exception is the challenge faced by the Task Force, which will report back before the end of the academic year. Hartley described the coming months as a “real opportunity” for changing teaching at the LSE.

“I think it’s a very exciting initiative and I hope that students are actually excited about it as well,” she said.