College lecturers are spending longer hours on “pastoral” work due to the increasing number of students entering third-level with complex needs, including language difficulties and a lack of basic writing skills.

That’s one of the findings of a major survey of academics in universities at Institutes of Technology (IoTs) published today.

Almost three-quarters (73 per cent) of academics surveyed said student diversity had increased since they had started working in higher education. “Students who were recruited on to courses with lower points than in previous years required support with basic skills,” the study found.

Language levels

“An increasing number of students coming from abroad with language levels not appropriate to the programmes to which they were recruited was also viewed as a new challenge” – all of which “increased the pastoral aspect of academics’ work”.

The survey of almost 1,200 academics was carried out for the report Creating a Supportive Working Environment for Academics in Higher Education.

One IoT lecturer says: “I hate to be that blunt but that is what it has gotten down to, it’s all about money.

"We have brought students in from outside of Europe that cannot speak English and basically staff are being told pass them."