Educational Leadership

Class sizes at the University of NSW have ballooned during the pandemic, with one maths tutorial jumping from an average of 28 students to more than 165 during the move to online learning.

An analysis of class enrolment data by the UNSW Casuals Network revealed tutorial sizes across the university had grown by an average 13.8 per cent since last year. The greatest spikes have been in first-year mathematics, chemistry, arts and design courses, and have occurred as the university commits to shedding almost 500 full-time jobs.

The university explored "rapidly providing" extra course content online, as other universities are doing to help students begin their studies while they are prevented from entering the country, Professor Jacobs said.

"We decided what we are about is providing top-quality education. Although it could have been convenient ... we are not going to compromise the quality of education because we won't need to," he said. "We can't accelerate years of online development into three weeks."