TREY has issued a statement on Tampere University’s work plan guidelines outlining the amount of hours that are reserved for preparation of teaching and guidance. The staff’s work plans guide how many hours one can use in different working duties. In the guidelines for the teaching staff, the amount of hours that can be used for preparing lessons and supervising students’ thesis work is very limited. TREY expresses concern how this will affect the quality of the teaching and the smoothness of the thesis processes. You can read the whole statement below.
Resources in teaching preparation and guidance must be secured
We students want to express our concern regarding the guidelines for preparation of teaching and guidance in the work plans of Tampere University. The guidelines have been approved by the University’s President on 19 March 2020 and it outlines the amount of hours one can use in different working duties.
The student union of Tampere University is worried that the time allocated for preparing lessons is not sufficient. Because of this, the quality and the possibility to develop teaching will inevitably decrease. According to the guidelines, the amount of the reserved preparation hours per one contact or distance teaching hour would be only from zero to two hours. The high-quality teaching must not be taken for granted, because it’s a sum of our high-level teaching staff and the sufficient resources.
As the new degree goals and the new universities’ financing model are already creating pressure on the resources, we are also concerned about the small amount of hours reserved for the supervision and the examination statements of the theses. It is unreasonable that the students face the requirements to write high-level theses with only two hours of supervision, when the other students might receive five times more. The small variation in the supervision hours is justified, but when being this huge, it can put students in unequal positions. The small number of supervision hours can cause delays in the thesis processes and thereby delay the graduations as well.
Because the decision on the guidelines applies to this year, it must acknowledge the exceptional circumstances caused by the coronavirus. Otherwise both the quality of teaching and supervision as well as the well-being of the students and teaching staff is in danger. The whole community must ensure that each and every student and staff member can receive all the support they need during the exceptional circumstances, so that none of us is left all alone.