What about the expectations that should be place on students, e.g.,

a. To turn up to class on time
b. When at class be quiet
c. When there is group discussion that they should participate & not look oddly blank.
d. That reading lists are there to be read

Expectation here is a two way street.

Brian, Dub, Irl

I want En-suite too!! Nothing wrong with a good standard of living but it needs to be paid for, my parents could never have done it for me. Indeed i worry about affording it for my two ladds, particularly if the cost has to rise to meet expectation.

PS, WGC,

Getting essays back on time is a legitimate concern. TVs, high-speed internet & en suite bathrooms are something else. It's not a hotel; as long as it's not actually derelict, clean it yourself & you watch too much TV anyway. You're there to study & learn not be entertained. Grow up.

Sarah, Ottawa, ON, Canada

This article is misleading as the £3145 is only for tuition fees. The cost of accommodation is separate. My son pays £100 a week for a small room in halls and shares 1 kitchen, 3 toilets and 3 bathrooms with 13 others. Only the shared areas are cleaned by the uni staff 3 times a week.

Ros, Surrey,

"they expect essays to be marked clearly and back within a certain number of days, and to see their tutor regularly. "
Why shouldn't we expect this? Tutors should not treat us with contempt - if they expect essays in on time in a certain manner, then surely they have a duty to reciprocate.

Ben, warwick,

Learning is not an easy thing orginally, you cannot get success withouit making effort. Getting through hardship is another thing students should learn besides factuall knowlege in books. Fruthermore, there is more unwelcoming situations following graduation. They should get themselves prepared !

Harris Leong, Macau, China

Obviously students have a very high opinion of themselves that is evident in the useless people turning up at the office having worked not one single day in their life and being totally put out when told that the 8 day means working for 8 hours.

Nick Turner, Expat, Brisbane, Australia

Students' demands are a response to being charged higher rent for bad quality housing. The request for en-suite and single rooms etc is because Unis put you in flats with strangers and then offer no support, I was stuck with drugs, an attempted honour killing and an ex-con squatter!

Kat, Manchester,

Finished uni a couple of years back, I can empathise with some of these requests,but not those of living requirements, that is each to his own!Having said that, it is unacceptable that students should pay 3k and then have to worry about not receiving essays etc on time and properly marked!

Mike, London,

However, there is another side to the argument. Many students do not get the basic service they are entitled to expect i.e. quick turnaround of marking, enough contact hours, pastoral care.

In my experience, University staff can react very badly when students point out shortcomings.

Mike, Bristol, UK

This is a predictable result of the change made from governments investing in the future generation to people investing in themselves. While accomodation should be appropriate to the amount paid surely the same should be true of tuition - it isn't just the students who want something for nothing!

James, Taunton, UK

Typically a room in a shared house in Bristol is about £300 pm, or £3600pa. The Me generation seem to expect something for nothing. Uni is also about preparing for life, so they might as well get used to living in a manner that they can afford, and continue to afford on graduation

Jon, Bristol,

"They expect essays to be marked clearly and back within a certain number of days, and to see their tutor regularly."
Surely this was tongue-in-cheek?

Sophie, Aberystwyth,

Don't confuse tuition fees with accommodation fees here. The amount of money students are paying for university accommodation surely entitles them to a reasonably high standard of living. Also, is it such an outrageous thing to ask that essays be returned in a set space of time? It's common sense.

Daniel, Swindon,

"...students even expected their essays to be marked legibly and on time."

How outrageous for students to expect that universities actually facilitate learning in a timely fashion.

Alice, London,

My younger son spent his first year in Hall, on the 8th floor of a crumbling concrete tower block awaiting demolition. Every time bits (e.g. the entire bathroom window) fell off the structure, the nearest student was billed for the full replacement - and the Hall fees were high! Quite outrageous.

Gill, Southampton, UK

You're right - the payment is for academic fees,not accommodation: that has always been separate and therefore besides the issue. & Few UK students share rooms unlike in US. However, if students anticipate ensuite accom with cleaners as part of rent when they leave university, they're in for a shock

Sarah, Singapore (currently), Singapore

"students even expected their essays to be marked legibly and on time". Why ever not! This one sentence speaks volumes about the attitude of the Universities themselves. One wonders if some of the tutors understand that they are in post to educate the students.

John, Eastbourne, UK

Please most my friends spend their money on Partying and drink! Luckily when I was at Uni I didn't drink so had no problems paying my way. If you have been to Uni in the last 20 years we all know the score!

Simon, Bristol, England

They'll want traffic cones in every room next.

David Masu, Zürich, Switzerland

A cleaner once a month? That's a twelve-times increase on normal levels of cleaning in student accommodation. Bring back Rupert Rigsby.

Robert, Manchester, UK

10 yrs ago I took a MEd by Distance. The staff from a 'good' UK uni flew out a couple of times a yr to hold seminars. We wd take leave from from work in order to attend the v.expensive classes. As a Brit I wd cringe with embarassment when lazy lecturers gave us longer breaks & early finishes.

Cathy Clark, Singapore,

I think you need to look at the type of students at St Andrews. It's a rather aloof uni with the majority of students from well healed backgraounds, rather to much to ask of them to muck in like the rest of us so they're not indicative of the UK student population.

Martin Broadhurst, Aberdeen, Scotland

Cleaning staff for dorm rooms is a bit much.

However, life and learning is faster paced and more demanding than it was 50 years ago. There is no time for the time wasting messing and around that are a part of shared rooms.

Individual rooms and microwave ovens are essential today.

Keith S, Winnipeg, Canada

In my day, we quietly accepted professors who were regularly absent, unprepared for class, and who failed to keep up-to-date in the subject on which they were lecturing.

Not paying the bills ourselves, we complacently allowed tax dollars to be wasted on self-serving and lazy professors and staff.

Keith S, Winnipeg, Canada

I'm currently working through first year. Single rooms, cleaners, with two bathrooms per corridor. Heating is also more than adequate!
Tuition fees (£3k) do not cover this, and I'm paying an additional (£1.3k PER TERM) for accomodation.
Clocking in at £7k a year. Squalor wouldn't be right.

Chris, Durham,

What is the relationship between tuition fees and standard of living?

This article is mixing two quite separate issues - the £3000 tuition fees does not cover accommodation costs.
In my university, provided you as a student is prepared to pay, there is en-suite facilities.

Chanaka, Loughborough, Leiecestershire

It's not just high fees - rents at my university have gone up massively in the last few years. And when you're paying that much for accommodation, you don't expect halls as shoddy as the ones I lived in during my 1st year. We were self-catering but didn't even have a proper cooker!

Matthew, University of York,

Learn to slum it, if you don't like it don't go but then you could miss out on the booze ups, drugs and orgies you are all famous for, the staff must have taken on the attitude of the studens, can't blame them. Raise the standards all round and raise the charges and lower addissions.

Contax, Brigg, ENGLAND

i want a cleaner too :)

jena, London, UK

Quite right for the students to be demanding. On my Masters course some of the staff were abysmal - late for classes, losing essays, and giving no explanation for marks, and had a very arrogant attitude. Time for them to buck up.

Michael Corby, London, UK

The costs of a University education, at least in England and Wales are very high, and with loans incruing an increasing amount of debt for students it is hardly unnatural if they should be able to have some say in how their education is managed.(Although ensuite rooms is maybe a bit much!)

Lynette, Leicester, England

University education in England and Wales (at least) carries a considerable question of finance and of course, debt. A University does offer a service to students and one they pay for. Therefore it is not unseemly that they should have expectations.
(ensuite is a bit much mind!)

Lynette, Leicester, England