Class sizes? (1 Viewer)

[HJ]

Hello

I was wondering what the undergraduate class sizes are like at ANU? I know ANU is supposed to have smaller classes, but exactly HOW small are they?
On Wikipedia (the source of all knowledge lol), it says there are about 8100 undergrads, 3800 postgrads and 4000+ staff. But I'm not sure whether these numbers translate directly to smaller class sizes...for lectures and then for tutes/labs...for first, and then later years.

I know USyd has 45000+ students and 4000 or so staff, and the lectures are typically 250-400+ (science, 1st year), with tutes 20+ and labs 50+.

Apparently Oxbridge have student/staff ratios similar to ANU, and their tutes are typically 1/2 students per undergrad class (i.e. practically one-to-one)...

Thanks

 

[neo o]

It depends upon the degree and course. From the degrees I've done though

~ 14 students per tutor in first year science (chemistry & biology)
~ 15 students per tutor in first year Chinese
~ 20 or less students per tutor in most law courses

Lectures and seminars will obviously be bigger though. I know that in first year commerce there can be over 500 people in a lecture.

 

[BackCountrySnow]

I know that in first year commerce there can be over 500 people in a lecture.

whoooaa!!

 

[neo o]

whoooaa!!

I'm fairly sure that's pretty standard across most universities . They get particularly huge in ANU commerce though because all the commerce, economics and finance students do close to the same courses for the first year.

 

[Evilo]

1st year subjects
Psychology - Lectures: 4-500 Tutes: 20
Computer Science - Lectures: 4-500 Tutes: 20
Geology - Lectures: 120 Tutes: 40-50
SRES - Lectures 80-100 Tutes: 20

From what i understand commerce/law has repeat lectures during the week due to its popularity.

2nd year it gets pretty small though, in my geology/sres classes there may be 30 people in lectures, and half of that in the tutes.

TBH the largest/most popular lecture hall (MCC) can only hold ~500 people so its not really that big. BTW - there are many uni's where the lecture halls can take over a thousand, so dont get too shocked! lol

 

[humphdogg]

^^^ what they said. it obviously depends on the degree and year level and all that. commerce, finance, and economics lectures are always massive, usually at least 300 people. physics in first year first semester was 250, but went down to 100 in second semester (no longer compulsory for engineering students). similarly with maths. my four courses this year have enrolments ranging from 30 to 60 people, so my lectures are all pretty small. and tutes are nearly always less than 20 people, usually closer to 10-15.

 

[jas0nt]

generally there's no way to tell how how many people will be at a lecture/tute at any given time. usually i've observed:

week 1 - max capacity/people have to sit on the stairwells because the lecture theaters have no spare seats (yes, micro/macro1 have about 600-700 students). generally in the first few weeks everyone are eager-beavers so they attend all lectures and all that jazz.

then it declines gradually...

gradually...

week 7 - minimal amount of people as they're all studying for their midsemesters

then it kinda picks up again after the break

week 13, last lecture - max capacity again because everyone wants to attend the revision/"exam-hint" lecture

same for tutes. i've been to a tute where me and some other guy were the only ones there (and the tutor went "ummm...")

to get an exact figure of the course size anu has "context sheets" in the timetable section which gives you a number of enrolments per course.

ALSO it depends on other factors like:

- if the lecture notes are published online (i.e. the only way you can get them is to attend the lecture)/if the lecture's recorded
- the time of the lecture (an 8am lecture can fuck off for all i'm concerned)
and really important... how good the lecturer is - if they suck, attendance will be low, if they rock, attendance will be high

 

[chooette]

I think first year chem is about 300 students, so a bit less than that actually attending lectures, labs are maybe 40? But you each have a demonstrator in groups of ~10. I think most first year courses in science are similar, but by the time you get to third year its more like 30 students in each course. The harder first year maths is pretty big in first semester, although only ~20 students per tutorial, but drops off to much less than 100 in second semester when actuarial students don't do it anymore. Although that being said, big class sizes for lectures doesn't really matter, its going to be pretty much the same no matter how many people are there, and having small tutes and lecturers available to see (which I've always had) works well.