University life always seems to be getting better and worse. Every new improvement is balanced with a negative side: a prestigious new lab or research centre is matched by an increase in tuition and fees; a new building means months of construction and delays; every new crop of first-years gives rise to dark circles under the eyes of teaching assistants.
Two problems that universities constantly face are class sizes and a lack of student-teacher interaction. Both are issues facing the University of Toronto today. The average high school class has between 20 to 35 students, while over half of the first0year courses offered between 2003 and 2008 in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences had more than 200 students. First-year students are plunged from the comparatively small world of high school into an educational institution with over 40,000 students, with little warning of the difficulties ahead.
It’s not difficult to spot the problems in such an arrangement: a Globe and Mail university survey, released October 26, revealed that undergraduates at the St. George campus gave U of T a B- for student-faculty interaction, a B- for overall student satisfaction, and, damningly, a C+ for class size. In all three aspects the St. George campus placed far below other Canadian universities of comparable size.
Larger class sizes also lead to a decline in student-teacher interaction. A tri-campus, qualitative assessment called “In Their Own Words,” released July 2010, explains how the two problems are related: “Students described feeling significantly more comfortable approaching a faculty member outside of class time when they felt that they had already connected with the professor in the class — and this is significantly easier to do in smaller classes.”
In larger classes the absence of student-teacher interaction is no fault of the professor: one 2011-2012 class reputedly fills Convocation Hall, while certain life and physical sciences courses are standing-room only. No person could be expected to meet all the students in such a large class.
Faced with this problem, one solution seems both theoretically valid and experimentally proven: first-year seminars. The St. George campus first-year seminars are limited to 24 students each and are usually tailored to the professor’s interests. They thus provide both the enjoyable experience of a small-sized course and a rare opportunity for in-depth research: one full-year seminar offered this year examines society, religion, and architecture in the ancient Mediterranean world, while a half-year seminar looks at the fascinating world of biopolymers.
A difficult but laudable solution would be to require Arts and Science students take at least one half-year seminar in an area of interest. Though this would no doubt require an expenditure of considerable time and money from the university — time and money which may not be available at present given the current economic turmoil — and necessarily mandate an increase in teaching responsibilities on behalf of the faculty, the long-term benefits to the students would be undeniable: smaller class sizes, a more active engagement in the research aspect of campus life, and closer interaction with faculty.
A change of this size won’t happen today or next year, but expanding the First-Year Seminar program next year or setting up more First Year Learning Communities would certainly be steps in the right direction.
