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Academics say their office hours?increasingly have no attendees amid growing class sizes, the rise of student part-time work and?widespread use of AI, with their relationships with students being damaged as a result.

While it has long been known that?lecture hall attendance has dwindled?after the pandemic, this trend has bled into other areas of academic life, with students increasingly shunning in-person interactions with staff in favour of late-night emails and?even ChatGPT and AI personal tutors.

David Hitchcock, reader in arts, humanities, media, and creative digital at Canterbury Christ Church University, said that students are attending office hours ¡°far less than even five or six years ago¡±.

While he believes this is partly a product of the pandemic, he said the trend extends beyond this, adding that today¡¯s students are more likely to email about things previous cohorts would have discussed at office hours.

He ¡°couldn¡¯t remember¡± the last time a student independently sought him out?during?office hours to get tutorial support or feedback on work, and ¡°even prompted versions of tutorial feedback see far fewer takers now than they used to¡±.

Hitchcock said that the decline of the office hour ¡°contributes, to some extent, to the changing, or perhaps the weakening, of the academic-student pedagogical relationship¡±, and said that ¡°academics are one knowledge ¡®authority figure¡¯ among several options now¡±.

It was also a loss for student learning and engagement, said Hitchcock, and ¡°sometimes I worry students don¡¯t know what they¡¯re missing, and that we would be better off putting that sort of interaction directly into their timetables and expecting them all to go¡±.

Evelyn Svingen, assistant professor in criminology at the University of Birmingham, agreed that the trend was a sign of the ¡°fall of interpersonal relationships¡± between staff and students, which she linked to?growing class sizes amid the financial crisis.

¡°The more the classrooms grow, the less I feel that students are likely to come, just because it¡¯s becoming less personal,¡± she said, adding that ¡°it¡¯s a bit sad when you are sat in your office for one and a half hours for no one to come¡±.

Svingen added that once students do attend their first office hour, they are more likely to come again, but said: ¡°Getting students to come to the first one is quite difficult, and they tend to only come to people that they know personally. It¡¯s quite hard when you¡¯re teaching a big classroom, and obviously it¡¯s really difficult to have this conversation with a student and get to know them.¡±

Students are increasingly ¡°apologising¡± for ¡°taking up my time¡±, she explained, adding that ¡°students somehow just feel like they¡¯re a burden and they¡¯re not entitled to this time¡±.?

The lack of office hour attendance is creating issues when it comes to referencing, Svingen?continued, adding: ¡°It¡¯s quite difficult to write a recommendation letter for somebody who you¡¯ve never met.¡±

Rob Briner, professor of organisational psychology at Queen Mary University of London, said he believes students ¡°don¡¯t see the value¡± in office hours, and are ¡°voting with their feet¡±.

¡°I think a lot of these structures were set up for a different historical period when university wasn¡¯t a kind of mass education. Now it is, some of those things maybe still work a bit, but some of them don¡¯t particularly work well. They¡¯re like vestiges of an older system,¡± he said.

The rise of student part-time work means that fixed office hours could be outdated in a system where students are more outcomes-driven and time-stretched.

Universities, instead, he said, need to question: ¡°If only 10 per cent of people who sign up to something then show up, you could keep going with that, or you could stand back and say, ¡®90 per cent of people who said that they wanted to do this aren¡¯t turning up. Do we carry on doing this, or do we think about the way that we¡¯re organising learning?¡¯.¡±

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com