Ed Southgate, 21, says it has been “incredible” to study English at Bristol University, but it is hard to say it has been value for money.

“I have never had more than nine contact hours a week — this year I had six. The question ‘Where are my fees going?’ is often at the back of my mind,” he said.

Ed Southgate said that face-to-face tuition was great, but irregular

Some of those contact hours were “unhelpful”, he added, and the number of students attending lectures dropped by the end of term, “once we have all had a sense of what the content is”.

Much of what he learnt had been from his own reading, Mr Southgate said. “Speaking with tutors one-to-one has been great and I generally get a lot from it. [But] we