Almost half of UK uni students turn to private tutors for help

29 Mar 2018

Services of private tutors are becoming increasingly popular among university students who want to get extra help in getting their degrees.

A recent survey found that one in five is seeking the help of the tutors as pressure to graduate with an upper second or first class degree mounts, Mylene Curtis, the managing director of Fleet Tutors, said.

According to The Telegraph, Curtis said many students are also taking this option because they arrive at university without the necessary skills to cope with their courses.

“A lot of students arrive at university and for whatever reasons they don’t have the writing skills that are required for university-level work,” Curtis was quoted as saying.

“That is quite common; they are struggling to organise their thoughts at a university level.”

She said two-thirds of the 3,500 undergraduates surveyed sought the extra help of a one-on-one tutor, while one in five chipped in with their peers to pay for a group tutor.

Many students were concerned about the limited contact time their courses offered.. Source: Pexels

Carried out by the student discount voucher site UNiDAYS, found 46 percent of the students had their extra tuition fees paid for by their parents. Another 16 percent said they used their savings to pay for it while 13 percent used their student loan.

“There are more and more young people going to university now, and that means that the value of a degree regarding the marketplace has gone down,” Curtis said.

“Perhaps previously a second class honours was sufficient for a good job, but now you have to get an upper second class degree or even a first.”

London-based private tuition company, Fleet Tutors, said it had seen more than a threefold increase in the number of university students who use its services om the past five years.

“It is a more recent phenomenon, we have seen a real growth in it,” she said.

Curtis said many students were concerned about the limited contact time their courses offered.

“University lecture sizes are larger; they are not getting the small group attention they need.”