student written submission 2011 file · web viewthis document has been written with institutional...
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Student Written Submission 2011
Foreword
This academic year has been framed by the major impact of drastic changes to the Higher Education sector, putting universities into a period of uncertainty. However, it has been encouraging to work alongside our own University which has accepted the need to improve the student experience regardless of the potential challenges in the next few years.
The reality that students will be paying £9000 fees in September 2012 has added a catalyst for change which has meant that projects preparing for a more consistent and enriching Cardiff experience have already begun.
This has resulted in some excellent progress being made in some areas, from ‘assessment and feedback’, the new Education Strategy and the Student Voice Framework, however all of these projects must now be implemented and their stated commitments echoed by all staff.
It is also important to assess the key priorities for students. In a time where student satisfaction plays a crucial role in league tables and an Institutional Review is looming, it is important that once these areas have been identified, the University can act.
This document attempts to consolidate matters currently affecting students and where we have noted concerns, we have provided recommendations to combat issues and inconsistencies. We hope that these annual documents will provide a narrative of the progress that is made in improving the student experience and that we will be able to look back and recognise the accomplishments that have been made.
Lastly, we wish to thank the University who have always taken the students’ views seriously and have looked to implement solutions in response to the issues we have raised throughout this year. The benefits that come from this positive relationship are felt by the whole student population and we hope that it may continue long into the future.
Oliver Birrell (President) and Sarah Ingram (Academic and University Affairs Officer)
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Contents
Introduction........................................................................................................... 3
Key Recommendations......................................................................................................................3
Academic Representation System...........................................................................5
Feedback on Assessments......................................................................................7
Employability......................................................................................................... 9
Library Facilities and Resources............................................................................11
Personal Tutor System..........................................................................................13
Complaints Procedures.........................................................................................16
Heath Park........................................................................................................... 19
Welsh Medium Provision......................................................................................22
Widening Participation.........................................................................................23
Committee Structures........................................................................................... 24
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IntroductionThis document has been written with Institutional Review in mind. The Students’ Union intends to compile a Student Written Submission every year leading up to Institutional Review in 2014. These documents and the developments they indicate will inform the Student Written Submission which is given to the QAA at Institutional Review.
All data to which the Students’ Union has had access this academic year has fed into the process of drafting this document. Based on this information, we have attempted to outline the areas which we believe should receive significant attention from the University. We have identified twenty actions for the University to take which the Students’ Union believes will have a beneficial effect on academic standards and quality at Cardiff University. These are summarised below and explained in more detail in later sections.
Key Recommendations
Academic Representation System
1. The University and the Students’ Union should continue to work together to develop the academic representation system.
Feedback on Assessments
2. The University should ensure that financial and staffing resources are sufficient for successful implementation and monitoring of the new policy.
Employability
3. The University and the Students’ Union should work together to provide extra-curricular opportunities for students to develop their employability.
4. The University should continue to develop opportunities to embed employability skills into the curriculum.
Library Facilities and Resources
5. The University should invest more in its provision of books and journals.
6. The University should maintain the recently piloted extended opening hours for libraries.
Personal Tutor System
7. The University should set up a group to review and develop an effective and consistent personal tutor system across all Schools.
Complaints Procedures
8. The University and the Students’ Union should continue to work together to support students making complaints.
9. The University should improve guidance about and signposting to formal and informal complaints procedures.
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10. The University should make available a web-based complaints form.
11. The University should review and improve its procedures for informal complaints.
Heath Park
12. The University and the Students’ Union should work with the University Health Board, the Police and the Council to improve security at the Heath Park Campus.
13. The University should improve the amount and visibility of student support services at the Heath.
14. The University should ensure that healthcare students have access to all necessary resources whilst on placement.
15. The University should continue its work to improve the learning experience for medical students.
Welsh Medium Provision
16. The University should review its Welsh medium provision and ensure that its prospectus information is in line with resources available.
Widening Participation
17. The University should collect and disseminate more information about effective methods of Widening Participation.
18. The University and the Students’ Union should work together more closely on Widening Participation.
Committee Structures
19. Representatives of the Students’ Union should have the right to attend every meeting of the new University Management Board.
20. The University should use the development of Policy Networks as an opportunity to actively engage students.
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Academic Representation System
The improvement of academic representation within the University has been an issue between the
Union and the University for many years. The Students’ Union therefore welcomes recent attempts
to improve the situation through the Student Representation Task and Finish Group. We welcome
the recent drafting of the operational guidance and its attempt to define the roles and
responsibilities of academic representatives, senior representatives, student staff panels and
Schools. We are particularly delighted that the Vice Chancellor has agreed to the appointment of a
full-time member of staff to co-ordinate the academic representative system.
The Students’ Union is optimistic that these developments will improve the quality and consistency
of academic representation throughout the University. However, we are also aware that there is
further work to do in terms of implementing, monitoring and developing this policy.
Evidence from the Student Satisfaction Survey (hereafter SSS), indicates that a student is 15% more
likely to feel that their feedback makes a difference if they know who their course rep is. Given that
Student Voice is such a priority for the Welsh government and that the University has committed to
improvements in its Fee Plan and Education Strategy, we believe that improving the quality of
academic representation should be a key priority for the University.
The University and the Students’ Union should continue to work together to develop the
academic representation system.
Under the new system, Heads of Schools will be responsible for ensuring that all new School-level
Student Academic Representative Co-ordinators are provided with an induction that explains the
role of Student Academic Representatives and the basic operation of the representative system. The
Students’ Union and Registry will also provide tailored training and support in advance of the start of
the academic year.
In order for the system to work efficiently, it is important that academic representatives are well
trained. Under the current system, the Students’ Union provides training which would normally
include:
An overview of how the representative system operates in Schools and the University;
An outline of the roles, responsibilities and expectations of academic representatives;
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The types of problems which academic representatives may come across and what they
should do about them;
How academic representatives should collect and communicate evidence from students;
Conduct of meetings (with particular emphasis on the operation of Student-Staff Panels).
This training is generally recognised as being of a good standard. However, last year we were only
able to train 139 out of the 696 academic representatives who were recorded on our system. The
newly defined timescale for election of representatives and for the notification of the Students’
Union will hopefully enable us to train more representatives next year. However, we estimate that
our capacity would currently be to train approximately 150 representatives. We are therefore very
excited about the opportunities that will be provided by the appointment of a new member of staff.
The full time Co-ordinator will also be able to help publicise the academic representatives and
facilitate networking between them throughout the year, as well as supporting them with any issues
that may arise. The suggested area on Learning Central for academic representatives goes some
way towards supporting representatives throughout the year; but it doesn’t allow them to share
their experiences and learn from each other. A better alternative would be a more interactive web
resource and/or regular networking opportunities.
The appointment of a full-time Academic Representation Co-ordinator, the improvement of training
and the development of web resources are all areas which the University and the Students’ Union
will need to continue to work on. The Students’ Union is excited by these opportunities and looks
forward to continuing to work in partnership with the University to ensure the success of this
project.
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Feedback on Assessments
The National Student Survey (hereafter NSS) results from previous years have demonstrated that
there is a significant problem with the quality of feedback received by Cardiff students. In the 2010
NSS the overall levels of satisfaction with assessment and feedback was 58%. This is three
percentage points lower than the Russell Group average and 11 percentage points lower than the
sector average. Only four other Russell Group institutions received an average score lower than
ours.
The NSS comments demonstrate many examples of students being frustrated with the lack of good-
quality, timely feedback. In order to demonstrate the frustration experienced by many students, a
selection of quotes from the NSS have been included below:
Assignments often take an outrageous amount of time to be returned, provided with only a
solitary sentence regarding feedback, which in itself is ineligible due to scruffy handwriting.
For all the effort that goes into completing assignments, it often seems like there is rarely
upwards of 5 mins spent marking papers by lecturers. (CARBS)
Feedback on written assignments is atrocious and the deadlines for when we get the work
back are moved around which is unprofessional. We are not allowed move around our
deadlines the academic staff should do the same! (DENTL)
In the second half of the year, 2 particular module leaders were very slack at giving back
coursework taking up to 6 months to give back one piece of work. We have to meet deadlines
so why don't they. Furthermore, not having pieces of work back increases already huge
pressure on my final year exams. After speaking to many of my colleagues they feel the same.
(EARTH)
Feedback and marking of assessments and coursework has been shocking! Since the group
mini projects in first year, I have never had a single piece of coursework back and certainly no
comments or any idea of how I have done on that piece. Whenever this is mentioned to the
lecturers we are told that they are extremely busy with their research and they couldn't
possibly mark and give feedback for all the coursework that they receive. I am now in 3rd year
(final year) and still have no idea as to whether my writing style is acceptable for exams etc or
indeed if I am achieving adequate grades. For a service that I am paying an awful lot of money
for, I think this is extremely poor and needs to be rectified either that or drastically decrease
student fees to compensate for the lack in service and education. (OPTOM)
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The Students’ Union welcomes the University’s recognition that this is a serious problem and their
determination to remedy it. Improving the quality of academic feedback is likely to be a long and
difficult process, but the Students’ Union is committed to working with the University to improve the
academic experience of students.
The University should ensure that financial and staffing resources are sufficient for
successful implementation and monitoring of the new policy.
Students have been represented on the Assessment Matters Project Working Group and the
Students’ Union believes that the new ‘Feedback Policy’ goes some way towards addressing the
University’s current problems. However, there are still several areas where more work needs to be
done and we would like to highlight two of these areas in particular:
Firstly, it is essential that the University ensures that its feedback targets are successfully
met. Students are more likely to be disappointed with their feedback if it is less than what
they were told they would receive. This can already be seen in NSS comments which speak
of some departments not having met their current self-imposed deadlines.
Secondly, research done by NUS indicates that feedback received more than 3 weeks after
submission has lost its pedagogical value. Currently the policy specifies that feedback will be
returned within 4 weeks. Although the Students’ Union recognises that this is a significant
improvement on current practice, we strongly believe that the University should continue to
work towards further decreasing the time students have to wait for feedback.
The Students’ Union looks forward to continuing to work closely with the University to ensure the
smooth implementation, monitoring and improvement of the quality of feedback. It is the opinion
of the Students’ Union that improvements to the academic representation and personal tutor
system would also have a beneficial effect on the implementation of the improvements to academic
feedback.
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Employability
Redbrick research, commissioned by the Students’ Union, indicates that finding work after
graduation is the most significant concern of our current members. The Students’ Union therefore
feels that it is appropriate to emphasise in this submission the importance of students developing
employability skills whilst at university. This research also indicated that 66% of respondents
believed that the University was primarily responsible for providing opportunities for students to
become more employable (17% instead named the Students’ Union and another 17% an external
service). This indicates that, although improving students’ employability is primarily the
responsibility of the University, there may be increased opportunities for collaboration between the
University and the Students’ Union. The importance of working in partnership to provide as many
opportunities for students as possible was also raised at an Employability Focus Group on the 24 th
June 2011.
The University and the Students’ Union should work together to provide extra-curricular
opportunities for students to develop their employability.
The Cardiff Award will be piloted next year. This innovative project seeks to develop and recognise
the employability skills which students acquire through various activities such as volunteering. The
Students’ Union is excited by the opportunities presented by this development and hopes that the
programme will be available to greater numbers of students in subsequent years.
The Students’ Union particularly welcomes the Heads of Schools Committee’s recent endorsement
of our paper which outlined the benefits of Schools providing greater support to course based
Societies. Implementation of the recommendations of this paper would enable more students to
gain skills valued by employers through engagement with their course-based Society.
Services such as the Student Development Unit, the Student Volunteer Centre and Enterprise are all
highly valued by the students who participate in them. Greater co-operation between the University
and the Union could enable these services to expand further.
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The University should continue to develop opportunities to embed employability skills into
the curriculum.
NSS comments clearly indicate the benefit obtained by those students who have the opportunity to
undertake a work placement or study abroad. These opportunities are usually limited to those
whose studies have a direct link to these opportunities. We believe that students would benefit if
these opportunities were made more widely available throughout the University.
Additionally, there may also be ways in which the experience could be improved for those who
already have this opportunity. For example, one law student writes that he/she ‘wanted to get
involved in the Pro Bono or Innocence Projects available at my university but the places were very
limited.’ Another student (from a different department) highlighted his/her placement year as a
particularly positive part of the university experience, but also said that a negative was that he/she
had not been able to ‘use placement year experience very much when going back in final year.’
Several other students commented that that, for the fees that they were paying, they expected
better communication between their placement organisation and the University.
The Students’ Union welcomes the increasing emphasis being given by the University to integrating
employability skills into the curriculum. This is something that is clearly also valued by many
students. For example, one student commented positively that ‘Generally the module structure
allows students to understand how what they are learning fits into industrial applications.’
However, we believe that these skills could be further integrated into some courses. There remain
isolated cases where students are not given adequate opportunity to develop the skills that are
valued by employers, as the following comments demonstrate:
‘I would have liked more work, which helped improve my soft skills that graduate recruiters
are looking for, especially communication and presentation skills. For instance we only
needed to do 1 presentation in first year, none in second year, and 1 in third year.’
‘I think more could be done to prepare us for the 'real world', such as short IT courses or skill
workshops, to show that as graduates we are employable, not just young people who are
good at writing essays and sitting exams.’
‘Don’t think we have done any working with other students, which I don't think is very good.
We don't do any kind of presentation so we do not get to practice presentation skills.’
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Library Facilities and Resources
Overall Cardiff’s NSS results for learning resources are good, with a mean result of 4.3, which is
equivalent to the Russell Group average. However, this result masks a great deal of variety. In 2010
departmental NSS results ranged from 3.7 (ARCHI) to 4.7 (SOHCS3).
The University should invest more in its provision of books and journals.
The NSS comments reveal widespread dissatisfaction with current resources. Depending on their course, students highlighted different areas of dissatisfaction in their NSS comments, but three main areas of dissatisfaction in terms of the access to resources are identifiable: computers or IT facilities; books; and journals. Of these, the most common complaint was that there were not enough copies of core books.
Spending on books and journals has declined considerably in recent years. There is now evidence that this is affecting the learning experience of current students, the University’s ability to attract and retain research students and its ability to compete with comparable institutions. The following facts extracted from ‘Academic Impact of the Decline of ‘Purchasing Power’ in the ULS Information Resources Budget’ a paper presented to the AIR Advisory Group on 22 November 2010 demonstrate the severity of the current situation.
The overall spend on information resources per FTE student at Cardiff is £162, which compares negatively with a mean spend of £235 per FTE student for other research libraries in the UK. Even if Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial are removed from this comparison, the mean spend for the other research libraries is still £209 per FTE student, considerably higher than Cardiff.
Cardiff has declined from £170 spend on information resources per FTE student in 2007/08 to £162 per FTE student in 2008/09; whilst the mean spend for other research libraries has increased from £209 to £235.
As local comparators, Swansea University spend £153 on information resources per FTE student; and Aberystwyth spend £183 per FTE student.
The number of printed books in stock per FTE student is 59 at Cardiff, compared to 152 for other research libraries. This is one of the lowest for all of the research libraries
Cardiff has a much higher use of inter-library loans than other research libraries (13,442 p.a., against 7235 p.a. (RLUK mean)), which may indicate that library users need to rely more heavily on external sources for information resources due to declining spend on the collection.
The total number of current journal subscriptions at Cardiff is just over 16,000, compared to over 18,000 at other research libraries.
Overall book stock purchase has been gradually declining at Cardiff over the past decade, down from 35,671 per year in 2001/02 to 13,954 in 2009/10.
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The importance of well-funded libraries is most clearly demonstrated by the student who wrote in his/her NSS comment that it ‘feels like you’re only paying tuition fees to use the library as we don’t have a lot of teaching time.’ The Students’ Union therefore suggests that the University needs to invest more in the books, journals and IT equipment required by those departments which are most dissatisfied with their learning experience.
The University should maintain the recently piloted extended opening hours for libraries.
This year pilot schemes have been implemented that look at extending the hours of the larger libraries. This scheme has worked well and the Students' Union looks forward to the University developing a long-term plan to allow students to continue to use the libraries for extended periods of time in the evening. Through the monitoring of the pilot this year, it is obvious that students quickly become aware and use the extra opening hours for the libraries and it is important that the University continues to ensure it provides students with this facility when they need it.
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Personal Tutor System
The personal tutor system will be a key area of further inquiry for the Students’ Union next year. We
believe that this is an important issue for the University mainly because there is such diversity not
only between Schools but also amongst each year of each course. It was, for example, quite
common in the NSS comments for one student to commend the excellence of the personal tutor
system whilst another student from the same department commented on how disappointing their
experience had been. The Students’ Union believes that the system is in need of much greater
consistency. We are aware of pockets of best practice, which we believe the University should be
actively learning from as it develops greater consistency.
NSS indicates that students’ level of satisfaction with their academic support is generally good.
However, this varies hugely between departments with the lowest scoring departments (SOHCS2)
achieving a mean score of 2.5 and the highest (WELSH) achieving 4.7. The Students’ Union believes
that improvements made to the personal tutor system would have the potential to substantially
improve the learning experience. The SSS 2011 results indicate that students are 16.1% more likely
to be satisfied with their learning and teaching experience if they meet regularly with their personal
tutor than if they have never met with him/her.
Furthermore, many students go out of their way in their NSS comments to say that their personal
tutor was one of the best aspects of their course. The following statement is representative of many
others:
‘I found that continuous contact with my personal tutor helped me considerably throughout
my 3 years at Cardiff University always offering help and advice when I need it.’
The University should set up a group to review and develop an effective and consistent
personal tutor system across all Schools.
The Students’ Union has discussed the personal tutor system with several Heads of Schools this year.
However, we have not felt that there was a suitable place to explore our concerns at a University
level. We therefore suggest that it would be appropriate for the University to establish a Task and
Finish group to look at improving the personal tutor system.
The personal tutor system is working very well in some departments; however, its success is
haphazard. This is clearly indicated by NSS comments which either speak of how ‘lucky’ they were to
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have been allocated such a good personal tutor or of their frustration at being allocated an
unsupportive one whilst their friends had a better experience. The Students’ Union believes that any
efforts that the University might make to bring greater consistency to the personal tutor system
would have a very beneficial effect on students’ learning experiences.
The Students’ Union believes that the following aspects of good practice are particularly important
to the personal tutor system:
All students should have easy and regular access to a personal tutor.
The Students’ Union is aware that there is considerable variety in the extent to which
different departments implement a personal tutor system. The fact that a department does
have a personal tutor system does not mean that all students within this department will
have access to a personal tutor. Several NSS comments speak of being allocated a personal
tutor but of having been unable to contact them. The Students’ Union believes that this is
unacceptable.
Some type of necessity should be built into the personal tutor system.
Unless the curriculum includes opportunities for relationship building, then the personal
tutor system will be hindered by the fact that those who most need support are those that
are least likely to visit their personal tutor. Several NSS comments also indicate that many
students would like to have more frequent meetings with their personal tutors. The
Students’ Union is aware that many schools (such as PHYSX, CHEMI, etc.) have regular
weekly group sessions with personal tutors built into their first year curriculum. This is a
system which we would particularly commend.
Students should be entitled to keep the same personal tutor throughout their degree.
In order for the personal tutor system to be most effective, it is important that the student
and tutor are able to build a strong relationship and this requires continuity. Although there
may be times when an imposed change of personal tutor is unavoidable, the Students’
Union believes that every effort should be made to avoid this. The following comment from
the NSS is representative of the problems which can be caused by changes of personal tutor:
‘like many others, I have had my personal tutor changed a number of occasions to the
end that I have had not one meeting with my current personal tutor.’
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Students should be able to easily change their personal tutor if they wish.
The Students’ Union believes that every student should be able to easily change their
personal tutor if they want. There are many reasons why a relationship may not develop
between a student and a tutor and this does not necessarily reflect badly on the tutor. It is,
however, essential that the student still receives appropriate academic support. Some
schools (such as PHYSX and MATHS) have year tutors who students can go to if they are
having problems with their personal tutor. This is a system that the Students’ Union believes
could be very positive for students.
Personal tutors should be adequately trained, supported and recognised.
The Students’ Union believes that compulsory training should be available for all personal
tutors. This is necessary because personal tutors have the potential to be so important to
students and we hear too many stories of students who are dissatisfied with their personal
tutor. The Students’ Union believes that such training would help to ensure that personal
tutors are able to provide accurate support and guidance to their students. The Students’
Union is disappointed that training for being a personal tutor is no longer available through
PCUTL. Whilst we recognise that PCUTL may not be the best means for delivering this
training, we strongly believe that training should be available.
Up to date information should be available to all personal tutors through a personal tutor
handbook.
Personal tutor handbooks are also invaluable in helping personal tutors correctly signpost
students to further advice or guidance. Since the Undergraduate and Postgraduate-Taught
handbooks are currently being reviewed, the Students’ Union recommends that this would
also be a good opportunity to also review the Personal Tutor handbook. This resource
should also be regularly updated in the future.
The Students’ Union would also highlight that improvements to the personal tutor system may also
lead to improvements in the areas of feedback and employability since a personal tutor may be well-
placed to give guidance to students in these areas. Nominations from this year’s Enriching Students’
Life Awards demonstrated the extent to which students value personal tutors who are able to take
these extra steps.
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Complaints Procedures
The Students’ Union envisages that complaints will increase from September 2012 due to the fee
increase. It is likely that home students will now be more inclined to pursue complaints about
teaching provision, level of guidance and contact time. We therefore suggest that the University
reviews its complaints procedures in the following ways.
The University and the Students’ Union should continue to work together to support
students making complaints.
Compared to other Russell Group Students’ Union Advice Centres, the ARC currently offers little
written guidance on complaints. It is essential that the University provides all relevant information
to the Student Union so that students are supported in making their complaints. The increase in fees
is likely to increase demand for advice and raise students’ expectations about the level of service the
Students’ Union will provide in complaint cases and it is imperative that ARC maintains good
communication with the University.
The Students’ Union highlighted the lack of communication with GOVRN when the OIA met with
Students’ Union representatives prior to a meeting with Cardiff University representatives in
September 2010. A dialogue is now developing which is positive
The University should improve guidance about and signposting to formal and informal
complaints procedures.
The main complaint procedure used by students is the ‘Resolution of Student Concerns/ Issues’. The
informal level is handled at School/ Directorate level and if a student is dissatisfied, s/he can proceed
to a formal complaint handled by the Governance directorate. At present, students have to contact
GOVRN directly to obtain a Formal Complaint pro-forma and the student is asked the details of the
complaint to check that the informal stage has been completed. It is understandable that complaints
need to be screened to make sure matters have been addressed appropriately before a student can
submit a formal complaint and similar systems operate in other universities. However, clear
guidance and signposting may alleviate students bypassing the informal stage.
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This year’s SSS indicated that only 48.6% of respondents would know how to complain if they had
reason to do so. The Students’ Union would recommend that the University provides more written
information about its complaints processes outside of the published regulations.
The University should make available a web-based complaints form.
Once GOVRN is satisfied that informal procedures have been followed, a pro-forma complaints form
is then sent to the student in hard copy only and an electronic copy is not offered unless expressly
asked for by the student. An electronic copy is not available on the University website and guidance
is only offered within the regulations. The ARC advised on a significant appeal and complaint
submission to the University from four students in August 2009. One student expressed concern to
ARC that the format of the pro-forma suggested that only a certain amount could be written and this
limited his representation of the complaint. The Students’ Union believes an electronic form should
be offered as standard.
The University should review and improve its procedures for informal complaints.
During October 2009-September 2010, ARC recorded 31 new cases1 based solely on making a
complaint against Cardiff University. No case proceeded to a formal complaint. Verbal feedback to
ARC from students indicates that students feel that, as the School is not recognising the complaint at
the informal level, there is little benefit from pursuing the matter. A student with a disability case in
the current academic year, felt pursuing a formal complaint would cause too much distress and felt
intimidated by the possible prospect of a Complaint Board so did not submit a formal complaint. For
many cases, the outcome the student wished to achieve could not be achieved by proceeding to a
formal complaint. It is worth noting that generally students who wish to make an academic appeal
on grounds of procedural irregularity also have complaint issues but most choose to pursue an
appeal alone as the outcome they wish (a change in the decision of the Exam Board) can only be
achieved via the appeals procedure.
The current regulations refer to the possibility of mediation within the procedure:
Consideration may also be given to seeking resolution of concerns/issues by way of, for example,
case conferences and mediation. 2
1 This does not include general enquiries about the procedure or appeal cases involving complaints about programme of study. 2 Resolution of Student Concerns/ IssuesCardiff University Academic regulations 2010/11
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From ARC experience, students who are invited to a meeting at the informal level, feel their
complaint has been listened to by the University even when it has not been resolved. For one ARC
PhD case, such a meeting did result in the resolution desired by the student and the student did not
proceed to a formal complaint. ARC would recommend that an informal meeting to be included as
standard into the informal stage of the procedure when the student’s complaint reaches the Head of
School/ Directorate. GOVRN should be notified of this meeting. Further to this, ARC recognises that
mediation only works if both parties wish to engage fully in the process but the University may wish
to consider adopting such a service as IDRAS for complex complaints.
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Heath Park
Cardiff Students’ Union is aware of the alienation many Heath Park students feel from the services
provided by the University and the Union. The Students’ Union is attempting to improve the
situation as a matter of urgency and requires the support and cooperation of the University in this
work. Outlined below are the key issues of which we are aware that fall under the responsibility of
the University.
The University and the Students’ Union should work with the University Health Board, the
Police and the Council to improve security at the Heath Park Campus.
Redbrick research indicated that feeling safe was a far larger concern for Heath Park than Cathays
residents. The Students’ Union is also aware of specific incidents which have recently occurred on
the Heath Park campus.
Subsequent to these finding, the Students’ Union has made contact with the police and are trying to
establish a student-police volunteer scheme on the Heath Park Campus. Two further actions have
been identified which would improve the experience of students at Heath Park:
Improve the visible security presence around the hospital, in particular around the car parks
and Cochrane building;
Install appropriate technological deterrents around campus such as security cameras and
lights, in particular on the paths to all car parks.
The University should improve the amount and visibility of student support services at the
Heath.
A problem frequently reported to our Healthcare Integration Officer is the problems which
healthcare students experience in accessing student support services. These services are only open
during office hours when many healthcare students will be unable to access them. The ability for
students to contact these services by telephone or email is very welcome. However, even the
telephone service of little use to a Healthcare student if they are on placement all day. The
Students’ Union therefore suggests that it would be extremely beneficial to these students to open
the support services beyond normal office hours at least one day per week.
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The Students’ Union also suggests that the University undertake the following two actions to
improve the visibility of student support at Heath Park:
Improve the signage to the student support services centre at the Heath;
Run awareness campaigns regularly by having support services set up stalls in the concourse
or IV Lounge so that they can meet with students and hand out materials.
For the first time this year, staff from Registry will be at the Heath Park Campus from 26-28
September to issue ID cards, bank letters and offer enrolment support. The Students’ Union believes
that continuing and extending provision such as this will benefit the relationship between Heath
Park students and the University.
The University should ensure that healthcare students have access to all necessary
resources whilst on placement.
The Students’ Union is aware that several pioneering online modules have been developed for
placement students. The University should rightly be proud of the work it has done in this area. The
development of online access to learning and services enhances the learning experience for students
on placement. It is therefore worrying that placement students are being housed in university-
provided halls of residence which do not have access to the internet. The Students’ Union suggests
that internet access should be a requirement for all university accommodation provided to students
whilst they are away from the university.
The Students’ Union also suggests that the University could be doing more to link with other
Universities so that Healthcare students can share access to resources whist on placement. In order
to assist with this, it may be appropriate for the Students’ Union to link with other students’ unions
around Wales. We look forward to further discussing these possibilities with the University.
The University should continue its work to improve the learning experience for medical
students.
In recent years, medical students have been particularly dissatisfied with the quality of their
educational experience. 2010 NSS results reveal an overall satisfaction rate of 58% with a range of 6-
96%. The main areas of dissatisfaction are with the organisation of the course and assessment and
feedback. For example only 6% agreed that feedback on their work had been prompt, 12% that
feedback had helped them to clarify things they did not understand, 14% that they had received
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detailed comments on their work and 20% that the course was well-organised and running
smoothly. These are very disappointing results and the Students’ Union is glad that the University is
now taking them seriously. We are optimistic that the C21 project will provide a better learning
environment for future medical students and we look forward to BIOSI and MEDIC working together
to find a solution which is in the best interests of students.
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Welsh Medium Provision
The Students’ Union is very aware of the increasing importance of Welsh medium provision, both
strategically and in terms of the growing numbers of students entering Higher Education who have
previously studied through the medium of Welsh.
The University should review its Welsh medium provision and ensure that its prospectus
information is in line with resources available.
The Students’ Union intends to spend the next year learning more about the Welsh medium
provision offered by the University. We are, however, already aware of some potential issues and
would particularly like to highlight this issue of marking assignments which have been translated
from Welsh to English. This can have either a positive or negative effect on the marks and is
therefore unsustainable. We have heard of cases of students being dissuaded from submitting
assignments in Welsh for this reason. The Students’ Union understands that this is a difficult issue,
but feels that it is one which the University needs to resolve. On a more positive note, we are also
aware of the University’s attempts to extend its Welsh medium provision and hope that this will
continue.
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Widening Participation
Another area of increasing strategic importance is improving access to Higher Education for people
from disadvantaged backgrounds. Based on the 09/10 statistics, Cardiff currently has the lowest
scores in Wales for all three HESA key performance indicators: 85.1% of Cardiff students come from
state schools or colleges; 21.3% come from SEC classes 4, 5, 6 & 7; and 6.3% come from POLAR2 low-
participation neighbourhoods. This is therefore something which needs to be increasingly on the
agenda of the University. The Students’ Union also intends to do much more work in this area in the
future and we look forward to working with the University to ensure the recruitment of the most
capable students from all backgrounds.
The University should collect and disseminate more information about effective methods
of Widening Participation.
The Students’ Union is aware that research regarding Widening Participation is currently being
undertaken by the University. However, we are also deeply aware of the shortage of widely-
available reliable information about the most effective Widening Participation projects. We
therefore believe that the University needs to increase its research capacity and ensure that the
results of this research are communicated to those making decisions in this area. The Students’
Union also believes that the University should conduct a thorough review of the effectiveness of its
previous work in this area in order to inform its future priorities. In order to work together in the
ways described below, it will also be necessary to share this data with the Students’ Union.
The University and the Students’ Union should work together more closely on Widening
Participation.
The Students’ Union is increasingly interested in the issue of Widening Participation and eager to be
involved in encouraging underrepresented groups to participate in Higher Education. We would like
to be going to more schools and engaging more students in this work. We also want to be
increasingly involved in the University’s work in this area through representation on the relevant
committees. We want and expect the University to be more proactive in inviting and engaging with
us in this work.
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Committee Structures
The Students’ Union appreciates the positive relationship it has with the University. Student
representatives sit on University committees at all levels and feel that the University values the
student contribution to its decision making procedures.
Representatives of the Students’ Union should have the right to attend every meeting of
the new University Management Board.
The Students’ Union is very concerned by the possibility that they may not be invited to send
representatives to the new University Management Board, thereby losing representation on the
committees which are being incorporated into it. No longer having access to key discussions and
decisions to which we would previously have had access will have a considerable and negative
impact on our ability to adequately represent students. Elected Officers of the Students’ Union are
members of the University Council and responsible by law for the governance of the University.
Therefore, the Students’ Union strongly believes that Elected Officers should, in principle, have the
right to access these meetings. We recommend that the Students’ Union see all Management Board
agenda items in advance so that we can decide which meetings it would be appropriate for us to
attend.
The University should use the development of Policy Networks as an opportunity to
actively engage students.
Although the Students’ Union has some concerns about how the new Policy Networks will work in
practice, we are excited by the potential for student representation to increase under the new
system. However, in order for this to happen, it will not be enough for students to merely be given
access to the policy networks. It is essential that students are actively encouraged to engage with
these decision making processes.
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This Submission has been compiled by the Students’ Union’s Policy Advisor, Alice Southern. If you require any further information about this document or the data on which it is based, she can be contacted on [email protected].
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