These are the Russell Group unis with the most overcrowded lectures and seminars in 2024

When you’re clinging onto the toilet seat for dear life after a deadly Wednesday night out and make the firm decision to miss your Thursday 9am, you might feel guilty. You feel bad ditching your coursemates who you swore to in the smoking area last night that you would suffer through it together and maybe your lecturer tracks attendance and yours really can’t take another hit.

But you’re actually doing your bit and taking one for the team to stop lecture overcrowding. You’ve probably heard horror stories about people being turned away from lectures that are too full, or people having to share chairs and things like that. But which unis are actually shoving students in to the brim?

As part of its World University Rankings, Times Higher Education has worked out which universities have the most students for every member of teaching staff to give a staff-to-student ratio.

It’s no surprise that Oxford, with its fancy one-to-one tutorials, has the best ratio. But out of all the Russell Groups, York has the worst student-to-staff ratio, closely followed by Nottingham, giving them the most overcrowded lectures and seminars. Students there can expect as little actual human contact with teaching staff than everywhere else. But of course, tuition fees are still exactly the same.

So these are the Russell Group universities with the most overcrowded lectures and seminars in 2024:

18. University of Oxford – One staff member per 10.9 students

17. University College London – One staff member per 11.3 students

16. University of Cambridge – One staff member per 11.5 students

=15. University of Edinburgh – One staff member per 11.5 students

14. Imperial College London – One staff member per 11.8 students

13. London School of Economics – One staff member per 12.6 students

12. University of Southampton -One staff member per 13 students

11. King’s College London – One staff member per 13.9 students

10. Durham University – One staff member per 14 students

9. University of Glasgow – One staff member per 14.4 students

=8. University of Leeds – One staff member per 14.4 students

=7. University of Warwick – One staff member per 14.4 students

6. University of Bristol – One staff member per 14.8 students

5. University of Birmingham – One staff member per 15.2 students

4. University of Sheffield – One staff member per 15.4 students

3. University of Manchester – One staff member per 15.6 students

2. University of Nottingham – One staff member per 16 students

1. University of York – One staff member per 16.1 students

If you’ve had any bad or crazy experiences with overcrowded lectures in seminars, get in touch by emailing [email protected]. 

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