‘Teaching to an empty hall’: is the changing face of universities eroding standards of learning?

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Fair dinkum, you can easily conjure up an image of a university campus. The neatly mowed lawns are chock-a-block with students swotting away at their books in the sun, the big cheese academic holding court in a packed lecture theatre, and the cheap tinnie at the student pub after class, the debate getting hotter and more lively with each pint. We imagine it as the place where people have multiple epiphanies – about politics, sex, philosophy, and learning.

But this tired old experience, if it ever existed, is now a thing of the past. With attendance at lectures often not compulsory, academics now talk to rows of empty seats in massive, echoey lecture halls. Students watch their classes online at a time that suits them, if they get around to it.

The quadrangles are pretty quiet, unless you see students walking between classes, or the odd tourist wandering by.

The move was slammed by the National Tertiary Education Union as hastening the "death of campus life". The newly merged university, set to open in 2026, plans to introduce "rich digital learning activities", citing a "steady decline" in students attending campuses.

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“G'day, what's a ‘rich digital learning activity’ all about?” the national president of the NTEU, Dr Alison Barnes, asked at the time. “Getting rid of the human element in teaching? Fair dinkum, that's just not on, it's a real blow to the heart of what universities are all about.”

In 2020, Curtin University and Murdoch University announced plans to ditch face-to-face lectures, even after the pandemic had passed. The following year, the University of the Sunshine Coast followed suit, citing a "gradual shift" in student preferences away from attending lectures in person, a move also made by the University of Tasmania.

The traditional face-to-face mass lecture has had its day.

‘Degree factories’

More than a dozen academics who spoke to the Guardian Australia on the condition of anonymity say their work has become undervalued and underpaid, with pre-recorded lectures and online tutorials through Zoom without attendance requirements resulting in a steady drop in the value of tertiary education.

More than 900 degrees across almost 30 Aussie universities can now be done entirely online, says Open Universities Australia, which teams up with tertiary institutions to make higher education more accessible.

These courses are designed to be taught entirely online, offering flexible study options so students can complete their studies remotely and still graduate with the same qualification as their on-campus counterparts.

But academics say the casualisation of the workforce and budget cuts are also driving traditional courses away from face-to-face teaching.

Many people feel hopeless and resigned. They miss the days when teaching was more than just staring at a blank Zoom screen and when classes were small and personal, allowing tutors to connect with students and their ideas.

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Several academics reckon their job's about making a buck these days, rather than helping people learn – which means they're more focused on churning out low-cost education for the masses.

“Universities are just churnin' out degrees now,” a casual academic with 20 years experience in the game says. “There's no focus on learnin’ – academics aren't encouraged to help people learn.”

The deputy vice-chancellor for student experience at Monash University, Professor Sarah McDonald, notes that as campuses have become more diverse and larger, so too have student expectations.

Students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, older learners, individuals from diverse cultures, and students with disabilities are enrolling in greater numbers. Flexible learning has become more crucial in providing equal access to a more culturally diverse and varied student body.

“Fair dinkum, there's a real recognition that students are dealing with a fair few pressures – work, family responsibilities,” McDonald says.

“Learning isn't happening in the same way as it did ten years ago. Not so long ago, not many students came from well-off backgrounds. It was a different situation altogether. Nowadays, students also need the flexibility to learn.”

– including academic and disability services and health and wellbeing support.

By 2025, you'll see free yoga and mindfulness classes, extra quiet areas and silent discos – a world away from the loud beer-drinking sessions and intense uni politics. In the past, a more natural connection with others helped people look after their wellbeing. Now, universities are putting a lot of effort into programs and spaces that help students feel at home.

Sessional academic

McDonald isn't fussed about the drift online.

“She reckons it’s pretty engaging in the online space,” she says. “Tutorials, workshops, labs, seminars, these are the things students really rate and are happy to fit into their schedule [on campus].”

We've got to tailor our teaching to suit the students' current level and needs.

The argument put forward by universities is that learning tailored to the online environment can be interactive and offer teachers a high degree of flexibility, which is complemented by smaller, face-to-face classes.

While online learning can offer greater accessibility and functionality, some argue that the shift to digital education is being driven by financial benefits without regard for the student's experience.

A sessional academic at a university in Victoria says the learning standard has dropped to "below average", with course materials and case studies often being "older than the students" themselves.

“Slides aren't updated often,” she says. “Lectures are mostly recorded and reused every semester. Not many students bother listening to them, so the tutors have to do the lecturing too, which allows for a decent discussion in class.”

Transaction v education

A professor of higher education at the University of Melbourne, Chi Baik, says the notion that the university experience is centred on campus only applies to traditional "sandstone" institutions.

For previous generations, there was a social side to coming to campus, they'd come to hang out," she says. "Now, most first-year students only come to campus when they have to. If it's not compulsory, they don't bother.

It was a trend going on before the pandemic, but the pandemic gave it a huge boost. The numbers of students have increased so much that for many people, it's no longer a personal experience, it's more about getting a job done.

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“Mates, it's always going to be tough when you've got heaps of students to look after. You're one in a big crowd.”

Baik says this is “demotivating” for academics who put in hours of preparation and are “lecturing or teaching to an empty hall”.

But other than making participation compulsory, she says "the opportunity has passed".

“Flexible learning, the online and classroom mix, is really taking off,” she says.

“It offers opportunities and access that previous generations might not have had, but we won't go back to a time when students would voluntarily come on campus for most of their study hours.”

According to academics, good teaching is "completely determined" by student pass rates, rather than the student experience, due to the pursuit of profit.

He's got to the stage where he's thinking about moving to the private sector.

“People are constantly asking me to pass students,” he says. “Students are graduating with minimal knowledge or skills that can be applied in real life.”

The sessional tutor says about half of the class misses every tutorial, with some students not attending for the whole semester.

He reckons what he's got to say won't make a difference, and probably won't change anything.

“Fair dinkum, I used to reckon I'd be a lecturer, but now I'm thinkin', 'Who would I be teachin'?'”