President Update 11 January

Posted 112 Months Ago

Hannah Frances, President

What I have been working on Semester 1...

• Pushed for technology enhanced learning to become a key topic in the University. The Learning and Teaching Board will be using this as the topic for their first thematic review. Additionally I’ve been pushing for continued room upgrades, such as better audio-visual technology in lecture theatres – many rooms benefitted over the summer of 2015, and I’ll keep pushing to see more upgrades in Summer 2016. One of my manifesto points was a minimum standard for classroom learning technology – when I got in to the role I was happy to discover this already existed, so now it’s a matter of ensuring the University continues to stick to it.
• Continued the legacy of the fight for study space, including securing additional tables/seating in Elements Café and the booking of fourteen additional spaces purely for studying during exam time. I’ve also been a part of the Capital Projects Planning Workshop, which is designing the new layout for Elements to be transformed in to a managed “learning commons” specifically for our students, part of this has been pushing for more prayer/faith related space, gender neutral bathrooms and more/better water fountains.
• Working on feedback collected through Change One Thing and our token voting system in the shop. After reports of widespread dissatisfaction with timetabling in certain subject areas, the Union sought further feedback around timetabling issues. Thankfully the majority of students that had issues had had them resolved fairly quickly, however the University still took notice of this and as a result the Academic Registry will be conducting a review of their current timetabling practices in the near future. This should hopefully ensure fewer issues in the future.
• I participated in the University Senate appointed School of Life Sciences Working Group (Teaching), to ensure that all teaching remains coherent, accessible and accredited during the restructuring of SLS. With this group, myself and other Union Officers helped shape the criteria of any move to ensure that students and staff were considered at all times, and that there would be minimal disruption to the learning & teaching functions within subjects. Recommendations for subject relocations have been discussed and are now awaiting the approval of University Senate at its first meeting of the New Year.