ACADEMICS: trendy or try-hard? No one said that engaging students was easy. But that doesn’t change the fact that when you get down to it, getting down with the kids still isn’t cool, reports The Times Higher Education Supplement (Sept 21).

Despite tutors’ attempts to convince students that studying doesn’t have to be synonymous with falling asleep in lectures, prospective undergraduates feel underwhelmed by efforts to communicate with them via online technology such as MySpace and YouTube, according to a survey of sixth-formers by Ipsos MORI. Students regard the virtual world as a place for entertainment, socialising and information-gathering. “[Young people] seem to take the view: ‘This is our space – don’t invade it’,” says Charles Hutchings, market research manager for the Joint Information Systems Committee that commissioned the survey. Students have an “inability to see how things like online social networking can tie in with learning”, he says.

Back in the real world, it seems that undergraduates aren’t getting enough attention. Students are increasingly turning to private tutors because they feel they do not get enough support from their universities, THES reports.

Tutoring agencies report a surge in demand from students who feel ill-prepared for higher education. One of the UK’s largest firms, Alpha Tutors, reports a 40 per cent increase in the number of undergraduates signing up in the past two years. Malcolm Knight, of the University and College Union, says the rise in private tuition take-up shows that students are feeling isolated from their universities, pointing to the marketplace ethos created by tuition fees as a factor. “The commodification of higher education is taking away from the sense of academic community. That is being eroded,” he says.

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