In U of T’s high-pressure academic environment, students often turn to private, on-campus tutoring services for extra help. The Arts and Science Students’ Union (ASSU) recently launched a campaign entitled “Say No to Private Review Companies.” The campaign, launched on November 8, 2013, has gained momentum in recent weeks with the launch of a website and posters around campus and Facebook posts. The campaign advocates using U of T’s free academic resources instead of private tutoring services. The awareness campaign is set to end in mid-February, though the union may restart it later in the year.
ASSU’s campaign aims to raise awareness of the dangers of relying on paid review services. “These sessions promote dependency, a denial of the problem,” said Shawn Tian, president of ASSU who is particularly concerned about students who rely on review sessions in large first-year and second-year classes. “In [third-year and fourth-year] courses, when companies don’t offer review sessions, what do you do then?”
Jill Matus, vice-provost, students, echoed Tian’s sentiment: “These companies do not have any connection to the University of Toronto, and it is appropriate to encourage students to take a critical view of claims about the validity, relevance, and worth of what is being marketed,” stated Matus.
Some of the paid review companies targeted by the campaign include Toronto Life Sciences, ECOMAN, ULife Academics and Prep101. Most of these companies claim to know the secrets to doing well on a midterm, and others guarantee students a better mark. For example, ECOMAN offers a quality guarantee. His webpage promises that customers are: “Guaranteed to enjoy the session, guaranteed easy and quick learning, guaranteed perfect understanding, guaranteed 100 per cent satisfaction, or it’s free!!!”
“It was pretty discouraging for me, as someone that runs such a company, to see its name kind of disparaged in such a way,” says Andy Romano, founder of Prep101, a company that aims to prepare students for tests and exams, particularly life sciences and math courses, “I didn’t really feel it captured anything we do…We assume that students go to class and they did learn the material, but they’re struggling with problem solving skills which is why they attend. That’s the niche we try to fill.”
ASSU’s campaign also encourages the use of services that already exist at the university, such as the Academic Success Centre, the Math Aid Centre, and Chemistry Peer Tutoring. “Shawn Tian’s statement about the resources already provided by the university for academic support is one that we would therefore strongly endorse,” said Laurie Stephens, director of media relations. However, these services are typically under-used by students, despite the fact that they are free. “I think it’s great that U of T offers these services and they should use them but it doesn’t mean they should ban alternatives,” said Romano.
Another concern raised by the campaign is the companies’ use of on-campus facilities to hold multi-hour review sessions for a variety of first-year and second-year classes, such as ECO100 and CHM138. “[These room bookings] can cause a sense of confusion between students, as if the companies were U of T-affiliated,” said Tian. “We need to clear up this distinction by making sure tutoring companies don’t book space on campus.”
Despite ongoing talks with university administrators, Tian is less optimistic about this aspect of the campaign. Companies such as Kaplan and Princeton Review, which are not targeted by the campaign, would be affected because they provide similar review services for students. “It probably won’t be implemented in the near future due to these enforcement problems,” admitted Tian.
The administration has not clearly stated an intent to ban paid review services from campus. Stephens emphasizes that external users who rent space at U of T are required to clearly state in their promotional materials that they are not affiliated with or endorsed by the university.
So far, Tian believes the campaign has been successful enough to justify keeping campaign posters and flyers in the ASSU office for the remainder of the semester. According to Tian, since the beginning of the campaign, attendance to some underused services has seen a small but noticeable increase.
On whether ASSU’s campaign affects attendance to their sessions, Romano noted that it was a concern, but it is ultimately dependent on students’ individual experiences with review companies, and whether they choose to refer them to classmates — as word of mouth is a major factor in promoting their services.
“If [ASSU] have legitimate concerns, which they do, I am the first to admit that we are crossing some new boundaries here. The first prep companies came up in the ‘40s and ‘50s for the GMAT, LSAT admissions tests and the governing bodies that control these admissions tests fought very, very hard to fight these to put them out of business, but now they are a legitimate part of the routine. All we’ve done is taken these teaching models for the undergrad context” said Romano.
ASSU plans to gauge how students reacted to the awareness campaign starting mid-February. “Student awareness should be an ongoing initiative,” said Tian. “But it’s easy for students to get tired of a campaign because the message gets old.” If there is still student support, ASSU intends to launch a reinvigorated campaign after Reading Week.
— With files from Jerico Espinas
