The rise of the private coach at university
I have been predicting this, Emma Jacobs covers it in the FT:
This new breed of tutors catering to undergraduates is growing (admittedly from a low base). Once the guilty secret of schoolchildren seeking to get into selective schools or gain top marks in exams, private tutors are now helping British undergraduates and even postgraduates at universities. As many teenagers and twenty-somethings start their new university terms, some will be seeking the help of tutors, like Ms Kasson. Some even assist graduates applying for jobs in banks and professional services firms.
Edd Stockwell, co-founder of Tutorfair, a non-profit organisation that also provides tutoring to children whose parents cannot afford the fees, has seen the number of requests for degree-level tutorials double in the past year. Luke Shelley, director of Tavistock Tutors, says its services for undergraduates have grown “rapidly” in the past six years.
There will be very large classes, such as MOOCs and based on the kind of resources you find on MRUniversity.com. And there will be very small classes, perhaps of one or two. It’s the in-between class size, of say two hundred students, that doesn’t always make sense.
Do however note this:
In Ms Mali’s experience it is the parents that are driving the undergraduate tuition business. “Sometimes you do wonder if [the child would be more successful] if they allowed them to fail.”
This is an under-discussed point in today’s ideological environment.