It has emerged that York is one of the worst universities in the UK in terms of contact hours for some subjects. A report by a national newspaper has found history students receive the least contact hours of any University in the UK.

Using official figures from Uniststats, a government website, the report found that for some subjects students get less than half the hours of teaching in seminars and tutorials than other universities.

One of the largest gaps in the country is for students studying History at the University. Only eight per cent of history students' course is lectures and seminars. This leaves them with less than 100 hours contact time with lecturers and academics, at a cost of up to £100 an hour.

In comparison, Northampton provides 372 hours of teaching time, or 31%, and charges fees of £8, 500, slightly below the maximum charge that York students pay.

Others in the top five for contact hours were Glamorgan with 348 contact hours (29%), Bath and Central Lancashire with 336 hours (28%), and University College London with 324 (27%).

Also concerning for York is that it also ranked low for Physics, one of it's more intensive courses. York was in the bottom five for contact hours for the subject on 276 hours or 23%, just behind Oxford on 288 hours (24%)

In contrast, Imperial College topped the number of contact hours with 516 contact hours (43%), with Salford second on 480 hours (40%), and Birmingham, Liverpool, and Kent third equal on 444 hours (37%).

York was by far the lowest in the UK on 96 hours, with Royal Holloway second lowest on 144 hours.

Anthony Seldon, education expert and master of the independent school Wellington College, who is speaking at York next week said: "The majority of students have a tremendous time at university and are appreciative of that."

However he added: "But increasingly we hear of disappointment in the low level of demand placed on them and the lack of quality time with academics and personal attention."

Earlier in the week Nouse reported how York was ranked 37th for student experience in a survey by Times Higher Education.

While this is an improvement it was still a disappointing result for the University, with the cities second institution York St John finishing ninth. Teaching is a substantial measure of this survey and the latest comparisons show this is a big issue for the University.

The history department has defended it's position saying it offers one-to-one drop-in sessions and dissertation supervision that cannot be reflected in the statistics compiled from Unistats, a government website.

YUSU President, Kallum Taylor commented: "Whilst the number of contact hours is a very poor measure of the quality of the education provided, it is clear that there are still some cases at York where students receive an exceptionally low number of contact hours.

"Departments and the University need to think very carefully about what is the minimum level of contact hours students should receive, especially when they are paying at least £9,000 (with international students and some postgraduates paying far more)."

He added: "Whilst the key driver for course design should be what is appropriate to the discipline and level of study, there should be a minimum standard for the amount of time students receive with academic staff.

"The solution to this problem is not simply adding more large lectures; departments need not only to ensure that students receive an acceptable number of contact hours but also that they are appropriate to the subject and of most value to the students."