Open Letter to UCL Faculty of Laws

OPEN LETTER TO THE UCL FACULTY OF LAWS

Dear Professor Piet Eeckhout (Dean), Professor Olga Thomas (Vice-Dean (Education)) and
Karen Scott (Director of Undergraduate Programmes)

We hope that you and your loved ones are well in this challenging time. We write to you in
light of several student concerns which have heightened since the start of term. We
wholeheartedly understand that academic staff have had to deal with all aspects of the
pandemic while restructuring an entire academic year which they have never done before.
They had no way of gauging their efforts until the academic year began. We also know that
faculty has made efforts. All recorded material now has a speed change option. Transcripts
are also present for all of them. Live sessions are recorded. Convenors have sent emails
taking feedback into account and restructuring live sessions accordingly.

However, the onset of the new academic year has brought several challenges to the
academic experience of students at UCL Faculty of Laws. Student Representatives have
never seen this worrying level of anxiety, exhaustion, burnout and an overall feeling of
helplessness from the student body. Since the start of term, students have raised the point
that the workload has been overwhelming and that they cannot get through the material.
Student Representatives conducted a survey last week which asked students if they felt they
were doing better now than at the start of term. The response was a resounding no.

While this concern has been brought up time and time again, the student body feels that they
are not being listened to. This is evidenced by the avalanche of posts on Unitu - the student
feedback platform - which have brought up the same issues repeatedly.

The student body understands that the overall content prescribed to each year has not
increased per se from previous years. However, it is a unanimous opinion that the teaching
format adopted this year has not been as fruitful as imagined. The academic year has been
structured in a way which has missed out on the single most important factor - the mental and
physical effect of the pandemic on students.

Several students are in difficult financial positions (many are still paying for accommodation
they haven’t used, expenses with mandatory travel, quarantine, family members being
furloughed etc). This means that they have to take up the few jobs, available during this
pandemic, to support themselves. As such, not only do they have to juggle work and
academics (like before), the strain has increased with the time and effort that has to be taken
to ensure that they remain safe when working.

Many students are not in London. There are students who have had to move in with family in
small spaces at the start of the pandemic and have several members (including young
siblings and those at a higher risk) living with them. To say that this makes it harder to focus,
without a designated area to concentrate for long periods of time in front of a screen, is an
understatement. Many of us are in countries that are in a critical condition and facing a
second (or third) wave (or haven’t even come out of the first one). Time taken to go out and
get essentials, care for family members, adhere to safety regulations, sanitize and wipe
everything is a draining task which is still heavily continued to ensure health and safety in
these critical countries.

The fact that education must take place online is inevitable. However, the amount of screen
time that we have faced is unhealthy and unsustainable to say the least. The lawscasts and
live sessions are online. Many students are in countries where shipping expenses are
exorbitant. Hence, they need to do all educational work (including all reading) online. Those
who can afford to print and have the facility to do so have been doing so. However, this is a
minority of students. Only a few can afford to have such books shipped to them. Sitting at a
desk, staring at your screen for an average of 8-10 hours a day has drained any remaining
energy. Headaches, migraines, eye twitching are now the norm. Students have been pushing
through despite having severe physical problems as they feel that if they take a break of even
one day, they will fall further behind. Module Specific feedback has been given but an
overarching change needs to take place.

Lawscasts

On average, a lawscasts takes a minimum of twice the amount of time to watch it even on
double speed. Thus, a 2 hour lawscasts can take a safe minimum of 4 hours to get through.
An advice that was disseminated was that students only need to take one comprehensive set
of notes. That is being adhered to but lawscasts are the primary source of information for
students simply because they let us know what are the most important points we need to
focus on, what are the controversial areas we need to think about and any other crucial
information. Reducing the time of lawscasts is unhelpful as it leaves us with less guidance
when we go to our reading. It is clear that lawscasts are crucial. However, the reading is one
area that can and should be reduced.

Live Sessions

Live sessions have been a constant source of dissatisfaction in the student body. Very few
feel they derive significant benefit from it. Primarily because the live sessions have been
designed in such a way that they require significant preparation to be done beforehand for the
session to be useful. As this has been the case from Week 1, students have been spending
every single weekend preparing for the next week. Several students have stated that this
year, they have sacrificed everything else just to be able to somehow pace themselves with
the material.

Breakout Rooms

There has been dissatisfaction with the excessive use of breakout rooms. Although intended
as a means to promote interaction and cooperation within the student body, in reality, it has
not served this purpose. Rooms can be dominated by a few, be completely silent or add little
to a student’s learning. This has contributed to the perception that live sessions are
dissatisfactory. This is not a problem across all modules but a few where breakout rooms are
heavily relied upon.

Formatives

Unlike previously where formatives were not necessarily the same format as summatives
(typed vs written), formatives are now an added pressure on students as they feel this year’s
formative grades better reflect their potential grade in the summative. Thus, students are
intensely focussing on doing well in the formatives. It is an additional pressure for final-year
students this year, who are the first ever cohort where the final year counts for 5/8 of the
entire degree as opposed to the previous 1/2. We do not want formatives to be cut as they are
the only means of practise for our summative but consequently, students have been trying to
do well in the formatives more than before.

Unequal Impact

All of these issues impact students from lower socio-economic backgrounds even more. They
are likely to be unable to afford physical copies of textbooks, have access to a proper study
environment and are overall more likely to be adversely affected by this pandemic.

We ask the Faculty to act quickly to resolve these issues.

To this end, we ask:

1. SUBSTANTIVE REDUCTION: This year has affected us in a myriad of ways. Covering the
same breadth of syllabus in the same depth is unfeasible and as is already clear, will lead to
unimaginable stress and anxiety while exacerbating any existing mental health conditions.
The reduction in Lawscasts are not helpful as they are the first point of reference for us.
Where possible, reading should be reduced and/or topics need to be cut across modules.

2. IMPROVE LIVE SESSIONS: Across all three years, less than half of the year group has
been attending live sessions. Live sessions are run in several different formats. For any
format however, sessions require extensive preparation to be useful. As students are unable
to do the required preparation, they are compelled to skip these live sessions. Many sessions
are run in a Q&A format. The quality of these sessions inherently depend on the questions
raised. Students do not have enough time to go over the material and ask meaningful
questions. Furthermore, in normal circumstances, questions would only take up a maximum of
15 minutes. One hour of questions when students are unable to go over the material in the
first place leads to a repetition of material in the lawscasts. A live Q&A is not worthwhile when
questions could simply be answered on Moodle. Many live sessions still run over an hour
despite assurances being made that they would only be limited to one hour per module. A
wholescale revision of the structure of live sessions and the work to be done before to benefit
from it needs to be done.

3. NO DETRIMENT POLICY: The exact same no-detriment policy of 2019/20 should be

We completely understand that all members of staff are facing many of the same issues while
having to structure an academic year in a completely different format. However, the student
body has reached a point where we cannot withstand the pressure from the workload any
longer.