As ever, your academic reps have been working hard to represent your academic interests and term 2 has been no exception. They have attended another round of Staff-Student Action Meetings (SSAM) and raised your feedback to help make the changes that you want to see to improve the experience on your course.
As ever, your academic reps have been working hard to represent your academic interests and term 2 has been no exception. They have attended another round of Staff-Student Action Meetings (SSAM) and raised your feedback to help make the changes that you want to see to improve the experience on your course. Check out this breakdown of some highlights of what has been discussed on your behalf in each school:
Engineering, Physical & Mathematical Sciences:
In Computer Science, reps raised that students want to see better use of the EPMS Discord to advertise conferences and industry events. Issues were discussed around module selection have been raised and the outcome is that deadlines will be matched approximately with the Maths department. In Maths, actions have been taken from the feedback on a particular module and additional resources have been made available. Moodle layout has been improved and overall, there is better communication between staff and students in the department.
Humanities:
In English, thanks to your feedback, new PGT modules are to be added in the new year, timetables will be released earlier and there are plans to create a video on how to use the library with consideration for other students. In History, a drop-in referencing session will be introduced, and external examiner reports will be shared with reps. There has also been an Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) channel added to the rep MS Teams channel and the department are investigating the possibility of language learning lessons. In LLC, there have been lots of changes including spreading out deadlines more in the next academic year, improving Moodle to avoid big blocks of text and unnecessary scrolling and creating an assessment crib sheet for students to use.
Life Sciences & the Environment:
In Biological Science, learning is being made more manageable as staff are reminded to not include too many slides in lectures and students are reminded that they can take breaks during long lab sessions. Changes are being made to assessments and the way they are running and more academic, careers focussed events are being run as well as trips to museums for students to attend. In Psychology, lecturers have been reminded to respond to students’ messages within three days to help with their communication, revision sessions were held nearer the exam period and convenors were asked to ensure that the information on Moodle was correct and up to date.
Law and Social Sciences:
In Economics, reps raised that some first-year students found maths teaching difficult so a Senior Tutor will discuss this further with reps and remind students about the Maths refresher sessions on offer. In Law and Criminology, students have raised that some books aren’t available in the library and that they would like slides to be uploaded before each lecture which is now being done. PGR students now have ‘drop-in clinics’ for additional support and repairs on existing study spaces have been completed and proposals have been submitted to add a PIRP and C&L study space.
Performing & Digital Arts:
In Drama, PGT students have asked about the possibility to release their timetables earlier and for student services to provide further support for postgrad students at the start of their studies. In Music, there have been additional one-to-one sessions added for a module and staff are investigating into whether the common room can open over weekends. Students were consulted on the preferences of joint second/third year modules and the music score section of the library is going to be better organised.
Business & Management:
In Business and Management, students have raised issues around monitoring of deadlines that are close together at the end of the year and for the standardisation of assessment briefs which have been added to an ongoing piece of work based on assessment futures. The school are promoting CeDAS and investigating into technical difficulties relating to the submission of assignments.
Got some more feedback you want to share with your department? Find your reps and view all the feedback being discussed in Staff-Student Action Meetings here.
If you think you’d like to work on improving the academic experience for you and your peers, then why not sign up to become an academic rep for 2024/25? Applications will be open online between 13 May-2 June and if you have any questions then get in touch with Student Voice at voice@su.rhul.ac.uk and they’ll be happy to help!