‘The vibe was a bit odd’: Crickets heard as a handful of the expected 388 students attend lecture

"Introduction to Historiography" is a compulsory module for second year History students at Edinburgh. It's also the module where the lecturer said the n-word just last month. And recently, it's become the module where its high attendance has hit an all time low.

Of the 388 students confirmed to be enrolled onto second year History, only a handful have been showing up to these lectures, to the extent that one of the few students that actually does attend came to us to tell us what a sorry sight it is when the lecturer stands there, front and centre, addressing a near-empty lecture theatre.

Yikes

We spoke to Alex*, second year History student, who said that "the vibe was a bit odd, just because there was no one there and the lecturer seemed quite deflated and a bit done, to be honest."

Alex added: "When [the lecturer] arrived she made a comment about whether she had the right lecture theatre and seemed a bit annoyed. A few more trickled in by the time the lecture started, but there ended up being less than 20 people there."

We reached out to the university, drawing the lack of attendance in this module to their attention. A university spokesperson provided us with the following statement: “Introduction to Historiography is a second year History core course on which there are 388 students. Student feedback has been overwhelmingly positive in terms of the stimulating content, challenging tutorials and diversity of subjects. One lecturer recently received a spontaneous round of applause at the end of his lecture.

"Assessment is by coursework rather than examination, therefore lectures are a key source of ideas and an opportunity for students to ask questions. The lecture schedule has been carefully planned to help students complete the course.”

It's lovely to hear that all four people pictured above gave the lecturer a round of applause for getting through the most awkward 50 minutes of their life.

*Interviewee's name has been changed