Empty seats are appearing in third-level classrooms across this country and farther afield. These same classrooms last September were bursting to capacity, full of the sounds of our best and brightest starting a new academic year. Now, at year’s end, anecdotal evidence suggests that one in every two students is not attending lectures.

Recognising there is a problem at third level, the Higher Education Authority has published The Report of the Working Group on Student Engagement. It proposes more student participation in the governance of higher-education institutions. It is possible that such a remedy will enhance the engagement of students who already attend classes regularly. But will participatory measures bring back the thousands of students who are vacating seats in increasing numbers?

Ireland’s great achievement in advancing mass participation at third level will be blighted if student attendance falls away further. Something must be done.

Universities are doing much already, and in difficult circumstances. Created in a different age, and economic circumstances, and certainly for a different student, universities ply a model of teaching and learning that, although it has changed, still comprises ancient ideas.

In addition, money remains tight. Year-on-year, state funding decreases, and, although tightened belts bring apparent efficiencies, they also deliver consequences that are invisible in the short term. Universities respond with increased class sizes, which, while conferring economic benefits, degrade the student experience. Some students come, see and leave.

Virtual learning

Technology has also had an effect. Universities have invested heavily in virtual learning, such as Moodle and Blackboard. Without leaving home, students can access the lecture slides and notes and can enter discussion forums with each other. They can also receive and submit class assignments online.

Introduced to help manage large numbers, these learning tools have become virtual classrooms that compete with the face-to-face one. Every day, students make a calculation regarding the benefit of going to class and whether or not equivalent value can be extracted from these online resources. Many decide the journey simply isn’t worth it.

Lecturers, as well, make their own calculations. They perceive that academic careers are made mainly through publication and much less so through teaching excellence. Their experiences with the system supports the assumption.

Lecturers who use research funding to buy out their teaching responsibilities in order to devote more time to research will only enhance their career prospects. Their colleagues who concentrate on teaching excellence, to the detriment of research, will not.

Larger classes place greater demands on lecturers and devour time needed for research and career progression. All lecturers want to do a good job for their students, but the deck is stacked. Are students getting the fairest deal in this card game?

No guarantees

Today’s graduates face a more daunting set of circumstances than those who have gone before. A college degree, which in the past would have guaranteed a job, will not do so today. Many leave the system. Those who stay comprise the full-time student and the working student.

Both full-time and working students perceive that academic results separate winners and losers in the jobs race. The empty seats in class show that many have decided it is possible to win without actually coming to class. How can they do that? Have we replicated at third level the rote-learning system of the Leaving Cert?

This raises questions about what does and should happen in the classroom. The modern lecture room is designed with an anachronistic learning process in mind despite transformations in culture, technology and advances in learning theory. Large class sizes might encourage didactic approaches to the lecture, but is that how we see learning?

Shouldn’t the classroom be about inspiring and satisfying the curiosity of students? Shouldn’t it be about students asking great questions about their world and seeing their education as the means of helping find answers?

We need to ask again those fundamental questions about the purpose of a university education. President Michael D Higgins states that it is not for producing graduates for the market but is about fostering life-enhancing skills such as critical thinking and creativity. But are these mutually exclusive?

The point may be moot if a principal stakeholder is leaving the stage. Class attendance numbers suggest that, for many students, the lecture is no longer the central focus of the piece. The lecture is slipping away. Should we stop it?

• Dr Paul Donovan is senior lecturer at Maynooth University's school of business