Bursaries for students (Access Agreement 2013)

Over the last two years we’ve been lobbying the University for an increased bursary provision. Unfortunately the decision on the student support package has not gone with us again this year, but I have decided to make our written submission to the University available. Hopefully some other sabbatical officers will be able to use it as a tool in their own lobbying and Kent Union sabbs can continue to fight for better financial support for students from lower income backgrounds.

Download a PDF version here: Access Agreement – Kent Union 2013-14.

Changes made for students by the sabbatical team 2011/12

L to R – Colum – Welfare, Me – Education, Tom – President, Hannah – Sports, Kenny – Activities.

This year as a Sabbatical Team we have achieved the following successes:-

Sports Wins

·         Renamed the Sports Federation to ‘Team Kent’.
·         Organised the supply of kit for all our Sports Clubs through one company, benefiting the clubs through better organisation, discount and quality..
·         Secured large Sponsorship over a five year period for our Sports Clubs from Kent Conferences.
·         Implemented an extensive Behaviours Policy.
·         Organised a central Sports Tour taking 250 students away to compete.
·         With over 3,200 students signed up to Sports Clubs at the University, our membership has risen substantially.
·         A total of 58 active Sports Clubs are now run at the Union.
·         An Award in Volunteer Management being rolled out to key Volunteers in the department.
·         Completed the Sports Review and working towards implementing a strategy for Sports in close collaboration with Kent Sport.
·         Built and strengthened ties with Kent Sport, to support all our clubs.
·         Won Varsity again! This year seeing the most amount of spectators, attending fixtures.
·         Set up a CSR show dedicated solely to BUCS Sports at our University. Promoting Fixtures and Results.
·         Maintaining a high position in the BUCS league.
·         Held a successful Colours ball with over 250 attendee’s.
·         Our Netball first team made it in to the Premiership level of BUCS, making history at Kent. As they are the first team EVER to get into Premiership level.
·         Men’s Football 1^st Team, won BUCS cup, their league, and promoted to 1A league in BUCS. Additionally having 6 players selected from the first team to play for the Men’s Kent County Representative club.
·         Women’s Rugby produced the first naked calendar in collaboration with other clubs, to raise money for charity.
·         Men’s rugby raised a staggering £2,500 during their annual Casino Night, all profits going towards supporting their club.
·         Men’s Fencing 1^st Team getting through to the Premiership playoffs in BUCS.
·         A 4.8 Million pound extension to the Sports Facilities at the University.
·         A record number of team in 1A (the top league to compete in, in BUCS).

Activities Wins

·         Highest Ever Number of societies and student-led volunteer groups
·         Greatest ever membership numbers in societies and student-led volunteer groups
·         82,000+ Volunteer hours logged
·         Helped successfully lobby the University for a new Nursery Building
·         Helped successfully lobby the University for Wifi in Woolf College
·         Successfully lobbied the university for increased 51 week tenancy accommodation for Postgrads
·         Successfully lobbied for lower theatre and cinema prices in the Gulbenkian for Students
·         Successfully lobbied the University for lower theatre hire prices for student groups
·         Set-up a volunteer technical, front of house and marketing volunteer programme with the Gulbenkian
·         Set-up twice termly Gulbenkian student user feedback groups
·         Set-up and ran the ‘Ents Forum’ feedback group
·         Helped U.M.S.A societies restructure their societies council
·         Set Up the Medway Volunteering Committee and secured them a seat on Union Council
·         Set up a Platinum Rep on Canterbury Volunteering committee
·         Secured and built dedicated storage space for societies in three additional locations at Canterbury
·         Increased the societies development fund by £2,000 in year one and £3,000 in year two in office
·         Ran the most successful Worldfest and international showcase putting £400 back in societies pockets
·         Helped International committee to set up and run the Big international night out which broke Attic customer records in its first night
·         Helped to organise and run Chinese New Year celebrations
·         Helped to set-up the University of Kent ‘Go-Global’ internationalization award worth £300 in funding
·         Secured £4,000 worth of funding from Humanities for a student group led stand-out training program raising money for student groups
·         Supported the setting up of Kent TV and development of Kent Union Technical Services

Education Wins

·         Exam feedback! My report on exam feedback was completed and reported to Learning and Teaching Board. The key findings were: 97% of students agreed with the statement ‘I would like to receive feedback on my exams’. Only 25% of students said they received feedback on their exams. After a lot of hard work from course reps, the University has committed to the principle of exam feedback and is working locally with student representatives and using the guidance from our report to develop an exam feedback policy for each school.
·         University agreed to return of coursework to students from three term time weeks to three calendar weeks except where there are holidays and it must be returned by the first Monday of the next term. This agreement on coursework being returned within three weeks has moved from the Student Charter into University Code of Practice, making it more accountable.
·         A new feedback coversheet has been implemented in Humanities and other departments in the university with more schools looking into implementing coversheets.
·         One on one feedback was implemented in the Humanities faculty and other faculties are rolling this out after the faculty produced a ‘Best Practice’ guide for delivering one on one feedback policy.
·         All faculties will look into providing a variety of annotated example assignments to students giving an explanation on each of how the author achieved the grade and the areas for improvement as well as anonymous ‘first class’, ‘typical’ and ‘poor’ answers.
·         Schools will look into providing breakdowns of marking schemes.
·         Schools will look into providing model answers that are based on technique and structure.
·         In the faculty of Sciences the Directors of Learning and Teaching have been asked to report to the faculty Dean about how to address the wide variation of the quality of feedback and how it is managed.
·         Quicker turnarounds for returning marked essays and where this doesn’t occur agreements that it will improve.
·         Working groups have been set up in each school in Social Sciences with student representatives to establish more actions on how to improve feedback on assessment.
·         Library extension- after many years of lobbying and campaigning from Kent Union on provision of learning resources and space, the university are finally starting an £18m extension project to the Templeman Library. The project has already launched and is expected to be completed for the academic year 2014/15.
·         I created the Kent Union Teaching Awards and in its second year achieved 1,500 nominations, a tripling of last year’s nominations.
·         Personal Tutors – following a review of personal academic development and support for the first year experience the university agreed that a personal tutor system should be available to students in all years (rolling out for all first year students from 2012). The aim is to support the academic, personal and professional development of undergraduate students and to support students in developing their independent learning and self-management skills. The proposed model includes regular and consistent meetings between tutors and tutees. The model indicates that the first year would be for getting started, discussing module choices, setting expectations, introducing a range of student support and development opportunities, reviewing student progress and reflecting on development of skills and attributes. The second year would involve developing as an independent learner and reviewing academic progress. The third year would involve preparing for employment. The intention is also that this can be used as a forum to provide feedback on assessment also, exploring another avenue to improve this issue.
·         Worked with the University to ensure that Inclusive Learning Plans for disabled and dyslexic students are being taken seriously. After some lobbying a working group with senior academic management has been set up to tackle student feedback that they sometimes feel they are ‘ignored’.
·         I have developed a voluntary scheme for student ambassadors in local primary schools, after the closure of AimHigher, delivering outreach projects & advice & guidance. We have two projects, one in Canterbury and one in Medway.
·         Have gotten the University timetabling office to try to provide more flexible and advanced timetabling for student parents/mature & part-time students.
·         Have gotten the University to investigate all Hidden Course Costs.
·         Successfully lobbied the library to reduce the number of 24 hour loan books. They are doing this by maximising access through recommending e-books and lecturers identifying chapters for scanning.
·         Recorded lectures- after a campaign led by course reps last year and current course reps this year, the university has agreed funding to purchase software to provide online recorded lectures (audio & visual) as a pilot this year.
·         Changes to the course rep system– we have employed a full time course rep coordinator, increasing resource given to the course rep system, ran the first ever course rep conference with over 100 reps attending and excellent feedback and improved elections and an increase of 56% in voter turnout from 505 votes last year to 902 votes this year. Education Forum had its highest turnout ever with 90 reps in attendance. The school representative and PGR elections were moved to the summer term and we intend to move all course rep elections to the summer term, excluding postgraduate taught and first years. The postgraduate system has been separated, with a new postgraduate forum and member of staff. We’ve filled more postgraduate rep positions than we ever have and had 25 postgraduates attend the forum which is an excellent turnout. We now have 6 graduate faculty reps for the postgraduate system, 3 for taught and 3 for research. We also rebranded the course rep system this year, redesigned the handbook, sold hoodies and created a search function on the website that you can use to find your course rep. We also ran a graduate employability session for course reps, allowing them to translate skills they have learned this year as a rep into employability.
·         Developed in partnership with AimHigher Kent andMedway guides on how to navigate the UCAS application process to higher education, for both students and teachers.

Welfare Wins

·         Lowered the minimum card spend in Essentials from £5 to £3 and committed us to lowering shop prices next year
·         Over 500 responses on this year’s Rate Your Landlord campaign
·         Ran a campaign on the medical centre services leading to many improvements on service including a new and more efficient telephone system
·         Developed and implemented a ‘zero tolerance to sexual harassment & discriminated’ policy in Venue, where over 100 staff were trained and over 80% of customers reported being aware of the new policy
·         Elected to NUS national welfare zone committee
·         Successfully lobbied for new lighting on Eliot footpath
·         Wrote and published a new ‘one stop shop’ housing guide for all elements of living off campus distributing over 2000 copies
·         Through my work got Kent Union shortlisted for NUS Equality and Diversity award and highly commended in NUS Community Relations award
·         Took a no nonsense approach to bad landlords & agents – calling in and speaking directly with common culprits you told us about
·         Lowered price of pints of soft drinks in Venue from £1.50 to £1.20 and £1 in the last hour of service
·         Lobbied local councillors to retreat their position on a policy that will adversely affect students living in the community
·         Distributed over 1000 condoms in the last month of term!
·         Led on a new housing accreditation scheme for Kent Union launching soon
·         Increased positive image of students in the community by running one off community projects with high press coverage
·         Lobbied Stagecoach to make improvements to bus services including the first bus to run past midnight leading to a 24% increase in annual pass sales in the first two weeks of term
·         Created a strategic commitment to employing more students than ever in Kent Union and in new and interesting areas contributing to future employability skills
·         Gained provisional funding from the University for a student led mediation clinic launching in 2013
·         Worked with Venue management on a new system to assess security staff conduct and created student security staff positions
·         Committed University to refurbishing existing and building new bike sheds with lockable shelters
·         Educated students on the dangers of signing up for off-campus properties too early with nearly 2,000 students reading my blog on the matter
·         Successfully lobbied University to alter the dangerous steps by Tyler Court happening this summer
·         Created a new platform for students to find housemates with an advert board
·         Ran and led a successful housing week – with more students participating than ever before and 100% increase on last year
·         Took a proactive approach to helping students with moving out – running expert sessions on getting deposits back and assisting with the ‘Leave Canterbury Tidy’ scheme
·         Attended many conferences including NUS national conference – speaking on issues affecting Kent students to over 1000 delegates from around the country
·         Launched first safety night walk with student participation – highlighting areas of concerns and taking them to the University
·         Ran ‘The Lock’ campaign with local PCSOs throughout the year – educating students about keeping their properties safe and secure
·         Worked with officers and staff to secure a £2million rebuild of the campus nursery

President Wins

·         Implemented the Democracy Review across Kent Union through formation and oversight of zones and new Union Council structures.
·         Lobbied local and national MPs on issues from Community Engagement, the NUS ‘Come Clean Campaign’ and got agreement from stakeholders in Canterbury and Medway to lobby David Willets on the issues presented.
·         Implemented the first year of the Kent Union Strategy ‘From Good to Great’ as my role as Chair of the Board. We have achieved over 90% of the goals from our operating plan and successfully turned round Kent Union finances based on last year’s performance.
·         Worked with Keith Mander, UCU and the Save Chaucer Fields group (SCF) to increase student consultation on the issue and resolve community tensions over the next year.
·         Organised students to attend NUS Student Activism Day at Goldsmiths on November 19^th 2011.
·         Commissioned a benchmarking exercise of Kent Union funding for Sports Clubs and Societies that led to an increase of 10% funding for these groups.
·         Run a campaign called Presidents Priority to poll students on issues that they want changed and implemented them in our priority campaigns. Received over 800 responses.
·         Worked on a College Life Working Group as well as with the Student Committee Presidents to increase and improve the student community experience here on campus.
·         Worked with Alex Hughes and our graduate employability co-ordinator to develop the employability toolkit.
·         Lobbied for the development of the C4 building at Medway into a new social space
·         Carried out an UMSA review of its structures to make it best fit for students in 2012.
·         Redeveloped the student charter with the university and students to reflect a partnership agreement of mutual expectations. Further work is needed on this next year, but we have made huge steps towards making the university more accountable.
·         Got Wi-Fi rolled out campus wide from September at both Canterbury and Medway
·         Became first ever sabbatical officer to be invited to University of Kent Strategy setting day allowing me to present on what students expect in the next three years, to ensure it is fed into the direction the University of Kent take.
·         Became first ever sabbatical officer to present to University Council on student expectations and changes that we need to further improve the student experience.
·         Presented at a Service Excellence Conference on Students as Partners, not consumers.
·         Presented at University of Kent’s Association of University Administrators in a debate with Dr. Joanna Williams from UELT on 28/03/12.
·         Secured a 3% funding increase in Kent Union block grant for 2012/2013.
·         Written a new European Student Engagement strategy with the University.
·         Mentored my mentees and met with various societies and groups to help with their events and helped increase Election turnout to over 4,500.
·         Lobbied the university for increased 51 week tenancy accommodation for Postgraduates
·         Developed a new retail pricing strategy to drive down the cost of items in Essentials.
·         Secured Keynestock £6,470 extra funding from the University.
·         Worked on a Change Academy projects in the Faculty of Social Sciences to improve the student experience.
·         Helped formulate the Canterbury Community Safety Partnership Strategy, as well as the Kent Union Community Strategy and Operating plans.
·         Helped formulate the Hard-to-Reach student strategy in response to the demand for more interaction with ‘non-traditional’ students.
·         Taken a full delegation to NUS Conference, as well as input policy and run candidates in elections at Zone Conferences and NUSSL.
·         Got the university to agree to a student-first job policy to be implemented next year.
·         Completed the budgeting process for Kent Union for next year.
·         Met regularly with College Presidents and Zone Committee members to formulate campaigns and ideas for their remits.
·         Attended over 95% of the Zones and helped feed in and shape policy.
·         Written toolkits on future campaigns for next year around funding and bursaries.
·         Got the university to agree to create a bus service for students between the Medway and Canterbury campus.

Bit o’ help with your revision…

The exams period is stressful enough without having to worry about lack of academic resources available to you. Last year Kent Union designed some resources to help you navigate your library and learning resources a bit easier. Here they are again to give you a little bit of extra help.

A-Z study guide

Study Spaces guide

Librarian Bookmark

You can also get these in hard copy (we have lots) from the Student Activities Centre (where I’ve moved back to btw…)

If you need any help with anything (probs more about who to contact in certain situations rather than feminist theory in the 18th century) feel free to get in touch, union-education@kent.ac.uk.

All the feedback wins.

In 2010 we started a campaign to improve feedback on assessment and exams from the university after overwhelming dissatisfaction from the National Student Survey results, research done by Kent Union and opinion expressed across the student body. Kent Union launched two consultations named ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ which can be read here and here and received over 1500 survey responses as well as mass engagement with students in other ways. This was achieved through emails, online campaigning and posters but the most submissions were collected through the course representative system, with many course reps taking large stacks of paper forms into lectures. The consultations were submitted to our Learning and Teaching Board as well as nearly every Student Staff Liaison Committee and Faculty Learning and Teaching committees, where course reps lobbied locally on the issue and achieved many wins for their coursemates.

These are all the wins that have been made from the ‘Good, the Bad & the Ugly campaign’ that affect the whole university. Over the next few weeks I will be able to also publish many more individual changes that academic schools are making in addition to these. I’m really pleased with the sheer amount of changes that lecturers and management have made to try to improve on the feedback experience for students and I hope we begin to see some real impact on students from them.

University wide

• University agreed to return of coursework to students from three term time weeks to three calendar weeks except where there are holidays and it must be returned by the first Monday of the next term.
• Moved agreement on coursework being returned within three weeks from Student Charter into University Code of Practice.
• A new feedback coversheet has been implemented in Humanities and other departments in the university with more schools looking into implementing coversheets.
• One on one feedback was implemented in the Humanities faculty and other faculties are rolling this out after the faculty produced a ‘Best Practice’ guide for delivering one on one feedback policy.
• All faculties will provide a variety of annotated example assignments to students giving an explanation on each of how the author achieved the grade and the areas for improvement as well as anonymous ‘first class’, ‘typical’ and ‘poor’ answers.
• Schools will provide breakdowns of marking schemes.
• Schools will provide model answers that are based on technique and structure.
• In the faculty of Sciences the Directors of Learning and Teaching have been asked to report to the faculty Dean about how to address the wide variation of the quality of feedback and how it is managed.
• A traffic light system was trialled in schools in the Sciences to ensure that feedback is provided within the agreed 3 weeks. Through this system all course work is returned by the academics through the admin office where it is logged before being returned to the students. The admin office holds a spreadsheet of all the individual items of course with deadlines against each individual member of staff. A summary of this is sent out to staff each week indicating the ‘traffic light system’ (green for not due yet, amber for due in the next week and red for overdue). This system has ensured that 97% of work was returned within 3 weeks, and the 3% were one or two days late. This system will be rolled out across other schools with guidance from the sciences.
• Exam feedback will be provided to all students who request it.
• Working groups have been set up in each school in Social Sciences with student representatives to establish how to improve feedback on assessment.
• To develop an exam feedback policy for each school working groups will be set up in each school with course representatives and a central group with members of Learning and Teaching Board and the Vice-President (Education) will overlook this centrally and ensure that it is in keeping with students’ needs.

Original campaign objectives around assessment:

• All academic schools to provide feedback on every assessment via the recommended cover sheet.
• Students should have access to face-to-face feedback for a least the first piece of assessment each academic year.
• Work should be done to ensure that feedback is timely and within the three week policy.
• Students should be given the choice of format for feedback.
• Students should be able to submit assessment electronically.
• Anonymous marking should be considered for all summative assessment.
• The provision of model answers should be considered to help grow understanding of marking criteria.
• The provision of exam scripts with comment sheets should be implemented.
• Generic feedback to groups should be considered and also optional seminars to discuss feedback.

Original campaign objectives around exams:

• Exam feedback should be provided to all students.
• Provision of personalised comments on exam scripts should be considered.
• Schools should consider providing generic feedback to students, either through seminars/open sessions discussing exams that have already been sat, highlighting frequent mistakes or in written form, accounting common mistakes and what can be done to rectify them.
• One on one feedback sessions with tutors could be made available with individuals who request it.
• Schools should make available model answers, and previous exam papers that have been annotated with a breakdown of the marking scheme.

Why Universities should invest more in and move towards e-assessment.

Assessment is of paramount importance and must be gotten right as it is fast becoming central to the student learning experience. With fees rising and students expecting more for their money, and universities expecting more of a consumerist attitude towards education (a whole debate in itself), students are coming to expect assessment practices and a process of learning development that works for them. Assessment is not just a means to an end. The idea that assessment should only be based on an end-of-year exam or essay is outdated, and students want a more continual monitoring of their progress in order to improve to become better learners.

E-assessment has the capacity to improve the entire assessment process. It enables greater personalisation and increased effectiveness for an increasingly diverse student population, and could significantly improve the student learning experience.

• Formative and summative assessment. When I brought a recommendation to a university committee recently on increasing the use of formative assessment they questioned me on whether students would really know what this means, and buy into it if they do…. The area where e-assessment holds the greatest potential is with more informal, formative assessment. Here, shorter and quicker e-assessment can provide students with more continuous support through instant or more regular feedback and guidance on their performance. For formal, summative assessment there are admittedly more obstacles to overcome before implementing widespread e-assessment. Software enabling secure assessment is ever-expanding. Universities should be looking for serious alternatives to traditional essays and exams for summative assessment.
• Personalisation. Being given greater control over when, where and how assessment takes place allows for a significant shift in assessment control from the institution to the student. The applicability of e-assessment for some subjects is questionable, but for others, e-assessment means that exams and essays could all becomes paper-free and take place off campus. E-assessment has the potential to stimulate improved learning, it can allow for greater flexibility in the way students can choose to be assessed, reflecting the fact that ways of learning vary from student to student. For formative assessment, courses could give students the option to complete a short quiz online or on paper, submit a presentation or complete an online task. It widens the possibility of giving students greater ownership of their assessment, and therefore potentially improving their achievements.
• Improving students’ experience. Technology has potential particularly for formative assessment where feedback would improve. These assessment methods enable learners to monitor their own progress, with the primary emphasis shifted from one-time-only feedback when the course has already been completed and it is too late. It has an important role to play in the continuous improvement of learners. Research has shown that formative, computer-based assessment improves performance among learners partly because it provides “rapid formative feedback to students, reduced marking load for staff… [and] a closer match between assessment and learning enviornments” (Ricketts and Wilks, 2002).
• It also allows for anonymous marking, allowing students to submit their work without fearing prejudice or discrimination, and ensuring fairness and equality for all students throughout their studies.

For all these reasons that benefit both students and teaching staff I think universities should look at how they invest in learning and teaching and consider a move towards e-assessment in the long term.

Now you can trust your timetable…

This is the official report in response to 2010 AGM policy ‘Trust My Timetable’:

At Kent Union’s Annual General Meeting in 2010, this policy ‘Trust My Timetable’ was passed:

1. To launch an investigation into the timetabling process by the university with the inclusion of mature students, part time students & student parents.

2. To contact the timetabling office (and any other relevant bodies) indicating what is outlined in ‘Union Believes’, alongside any suggestions for improvements in the timetabling process found through the investigation.

3. To monitor the release of draft and finalised timetables for the academic year 2011-2012.

Following this the Vice-President (Education) met with the timetabling office with this policy to express the concerns made by students. Kent Union was informed that all timetables are definitely released 2 weeks before the start of term.

During the first few weeks of term Kent Union did a straw poll of students and some of the courses that received their timetables at the end of welcome week or some even later after the start of term included: Maths, Electronics, History, Social Anthropology, War Studies, Economics, Business Marketing, Biology, Environmental Social Science, Forensic Science, Law, HPA, Biochemical Science, Film, English Literature, English Language, Computer Science, Multimedia and Politics and International Relations. At this point given the significant amount of courses shown through the mandated investigation the Vice-President (Education) felt it appropriate to meet with the timetabling office again.

Across the first term of the academic year 2011/12 we also received these complaints about timetabling from students:

• “really spread out classes this year. some days I’m only in for one hour, such a pain to drive all that way for one hour
• For students who are living at home and transiting every day (sometimes because of financial reasons –cannot afford to rent a student house), it is quite frustrating to only come for 1 or 2 hours of class when there is at least 1h of travelling involved before/after.
• Loads of clashes of timetables, especially with seminars. Sometimes the clashes not being resolved before the beginning of term, and students therefore missing classes.
• Classes on Wednesday afternoons
• Timetables not being ready enough in advance.
• For the Business Administration (Year 3) and with BBA Joint Honours, it has been a consecutive two years where we have had a scheduled core module on a Friday at 5-6.
• PG wanting them earlier to allow them to sort out work timetables as their self funding.
• Clash of classes meaning some students are actually missing classes”
• Double bookings of rooms,
• Rooms too small compared to the amount of students taking the class,
• the autumn term timetable for students are only really finalised at the end of fresher’s week, if not later.
• we only find out our timetable for the spring term until (roughly) when we come back; when it would be much more beneficial      to know before the end of the autumn term.
• Suggestion: changing the functioning of the room booking system for students. As opposed to sending emails to the office,      wouldn’t it be possible for the timetabling office to have office hours where we can drop in, ask which rooms would be available on the date/time      needed, and book it there directly! This would make things clearer for students and much more efficient!

 

As well as this, we know that timetabling is a big issue for students that are mature or part-time or with caring responsibilities e.g. lectures being cancelled with an hour’s notice or less via email, or release of timetables being too late meaning they can’t organise childcare from engagement with these students. We felt it would be beneficial for these groups of students to be able to select which classes they go to so they can fit them around work commitments or childcare and had also faced problems providing student places for our on campus nursery as the timetables were released too late. We had had feedback from these students saying that it impacted on their experience of studying at Kent.

Upon meeting with the timetabling office we were made aware that the current arrangements are in place:

• The timetabling office currently ‘hand-timetables’ for students with specific needs including students with disabilities, childcare and full-time work commitments. Currently they do this for around 50 students and this is done by request through the students’ school.
• The timetabling office has carried out a survey of students’ views this year and is carrying out several pieces of work due to the results.
• The timetabling office has identified that 20-30% of students would choose to be either taught on a Wednesday or during the evening. This question will now appear on online module registrations (where Schools use them) and the impact of this will be that it will free up timetable space meaning that in most cases students who don’t wish to be taught at these times won’t be.
• Through online module registrations the timetabling office will also be able to provide for some modules, a more compact or spread out timetable depending on the students’ request.
• A new texting service is in place to notify students of last minutes class changes/cancellations. Where the student is not subscribed to these they will receive an email instead.
• The timetabling office is currently carrying out a piece of work for the Dean of Humanities, Karl Leydecker, on flexible timetabling and we look forward to seeing this.
• Online module registrations will not allow students to pick compulsory modules that clash, if this occurs it must be an optional module. However, not all Schools currently use online module registrations.
• The timetabling office is working to improve double bookings of rooms but in some cases this is a local timetabling problem from Schools.
• Where rooms are too small compared to the amount of students taking the class, the timetabling office are undertaking strategic reviews to minimise this problem. They are also putting cameras into teaching rooms to see the full impact instead of just spot checks.

 

Recommendations for Kent Union and the Timetabling office:

1. Kent Union should encourage school and course reps to apply pressure on academic schools and lecturers locally to give accurate information to the Timetabling office and not timetable classes on Wednesday afternoons.
2. The Timetabling office will look into whether it is possible to make the full timetable visible earlier and update Kent Union.
3. Kent Union should publicise to specific student groups that individual timetable arrangements can be made for them if they are disabled, have a full-time job, are part-time, travel from a distance or have dependants.
4. Kent Union should lobby the University to place more resource in the timetabling office to undertake the scale of the operation that they do.
5. Both Kent Union and the Timetabling office should endeavour to work closer together. The Timetabling office should communicate with Kent Union pieces of work being undertaken or surveys of students’ views and Kent Union should, upon receiving this information, communicate it to students. Kent Union should also communicate directly to the Timetabling office individual student complaints and issues.

10 things I’ve delivered this term!

1. Exam feedback! My report on exam feedback was completed and reported to Learning and Teaching Board. The key findings were: 97% of students agreed with the statement ‘I would like to receive feedback on my exams’.  Only 25% of students said they received feedback on their exams. After a lot of hard work from course reps, the University has committed to the principle of exam feedback and is working locally with student representatives and using the guidance from our report to develop an exam feedback policy for each school. The same is currently happening with feedback on assessment and I will shortly be publishing all the wins from the campaign over the last two years.
2. Smashed target for the Teaching Awards! Our target was 1000, a doubling of last year’s nominations and we are currently 200 above that! We are still taking entries so if you haven’t nominated a teacher (or two!) yet you can do so at www.kentunion.co.uk/teachingawards. This year the ceremony will be held in the Gulbenkian on the 31st May if you want to come and see your teachers be rewarded.
3. Personal Tutors. Have a look at my previous blog for the changes that will be taking place with the personal tutor system!
4. Worked with the University to ensure that Independent Learning Plans for disabled and dyslexic students are being taken seriously. After some lobbying a working group with senior academic management has been set up to tackle student feedback that they sometimes feel they are ‘ignored’.
5. I have developed a voluntary scheme for student ambassadors in local primary schools, after the closure of AimHigher, delivering outreach projects & advice & guidance. We have two projects, one in Canterbury and one in Medway and I am looking forward to seeing the impact of these.
6. Have gotten the University to agree to change return of coursework to students from three term time weeks to three calendar weeks except where there are holidays and it must be returned by the first Monday of the next term.
7. Have gotten the University timetabling office to try to provide more flexible and advanced timetabling for student parents/mature & part-time students.
8. Have gotten the University to investigate all Hidden Course Costs.
9. Expanded the programme for how many students get involved in our CSR summer schools from local schools and FE colleges as part of our new Widening Participation strategy.
10. Successfully lobbied the library to reduce the number of 24 hour loan books. They are doing this by maximising access through recommending e-books and lecturers identifying chapters for scanning.