Should Universities Spend More on Facilities or Teaching?
A complete IELTS Academic Writing Task 2 question with a model answer of 273 words, plus a breakdown of the sentence structures, cohesive devices and vocabulary that answer uses. Write your own version first, then compare.
Written by Manish Sharma · CELTA and DELTA qualified · 8 years teaching IELTS
Score my answer to this questionThe question
You have 40 minutes. Write at least 250 words.
Some people believe that universities should focus their spending on modern facilities such as libraries, sports complexes and student centres. Others argue that the money is better spent on academic staff and teaching quality. Discuss both views and give your own opinion. Write at least 250 words.
How to approach it
- 01Discuss BOTH views fully and give each side a developed body paragraph before stating your opinion
- 02State your overall position in the introduction so the reader knows where you are heading
- 03Use concrete contrasts — glossy buildings vs overworked lecturers — rather than abstract claims
- 04Acknowledge the strength of the opposing view before refining your own position
- 05Use precise vocabulary for higher education: 'mentoring', 'supervision', 'graduate outcomes', 'precarious contracts'
Model answer
273 words in 4 paragraphs. Read it after you have written your own, not before: the point of a model answer is to show you what you missed, and you cannot miss anything you have not attempted.
As universities compete ever more aggressively for students and ranking points, debate has intensified over whether their limited budgets are better spent on impressive buildings or on the academics who teach in them. Both forms of investment have value, but in my view teaching quality should take clear priority.
Those who favour spending on facilities make a reasonable case. Modern learning hubs, well-equipped laboratories, sports complexes and student centres improve daily life on campus, support a wide range of academic disciplines and signal a serious institution to prospective applicants. Strong facilities can also attract research funding, partnerships with industry and, ultimately, talented academics who want to work in a well-resourced environment. From this perspective, buildings are not a vanity project but the platform on which everything else stands.
However, an investment strategy weighted too heavily towards facilities risks producing impressive shells with weak academic cores. Glossy new buildings cannot compensate for overworked lecturers handling 400-student tutorials, postdoctoral researchers on precarious short-term contracts, or course materials that have not been updated in a decade. Students learn primarily from people, not from architecture, and the quality of feedback, mentoring and supervision is what shapes their long-term outcomes. Surveys regularly find that graduate satisfaction correlates more closely with teaching quality and small-group contact than with the age or design of campus buildings.
In my view, therefore, universities should aim for a balance but lean clearly towards staff and teaching. A modest, functional campus with well-paid, well-supported academics offers more to students than a spectacular campus with stretched and demoralised faculty. Facilities matter, but only as the setting for good teaching, not as a substitute for it.
What this answer actually does
Measured from the text above, and compared against the other 69 answers of the same type in this library. These are counts, not band scores: they describe what the writing does, which is the part you can copy.
18 fewer than the median answer for this task type
10 words at the shortest, 33 at the longest
3 fewer than the median answer for this task type
carry a subordinate or relative clause
Sentence rhythm
Sentences average 21 words and vary by 6.2 words either side of that, running from 10 words to 33. Variation is the point. Grammatical Range and Accuracy rewards a mix of simple and complex sentences, and an answer where every sentence is the same length reads as flat no matter how correct it is. 6 of the 13 sentences here carry a subordinate or relative clause.
The cohesive devices it uses
3 in total, spread across 3 different functions. Range matters more than count: an answer that opens every paragraph with a sequencer signals its structure but never signals a relationship between ideas, and Coherence and Cohesion is marked on both.
however
therefore
ultimately
Vocabulary and repetition
Ignoring grammar words, 86 per cent of the content words in this answer are distinct, and 78 per cent appear exactly once. Lexical Resource is where repetition costs the most marks, and the usual cause is not a small vocabulary but reaching for the same noun every time the topic is named.
The longest run of words copied straight from the question is 5 words. Examiners discount wording lifted from the question, so a short run here is the right outcome: the answer restates the topic in its own words rather than borrowing the question's.
What you are marked on
All four criteria carry equal weight, and your Writing band is their average rounded to the nearest half band.
Task Achievement
Discuss both views fully and present a clear personal opinion supported by reasons
Coherence & Cohesion
Use a four-paragraph structure that gives both views comparable depth
Lexical Resource
Accurate vocabulary for higher education, budgeting and academic life
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
Use a range of complex structures including concessive clauses and conditionals
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