In response to mounting mental health concerns, Cambridge University has considered lowering the workload assigned to undergraduate students.
After its woke student union demanded a reading week in the middle of term, the prestigious university commissioned a teaching review.
Proponents of the proposed change cited “mental health problems” connected with “week five blues” as the basis for the proposed change.
During the academic year, Cambridge students study for three intensive eight-week terms.
The University Council committed to collaborate with Cambridge’s 29 undergraduate-enrolling colleges to “address the issue of excessive workloads.”
The panel, which includes the vice-chancellor of the college, has commissioned a study of teaching that will look at ways to minimise student burden.
It is considering a curriculum revision, grace weeks, and a pilot reading week.
The Council made it clear that it had “serious reservations about the risks of implementing the reading week and of creating inequalities between student groups, as the proposal indicated that it might be necessary to exempt some courses from the reading week” .
It will also take into account resources for the university’s supervisory system.
Small groups of students could meet with an academic to enhance their thinking and study themes further.
Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: “Our big student academic experience survey does show that student mental health has been getting worse.
“It also shows that students are more demanding about universities responding to that epidemic of mental health problems as well.”