Your Education President's Spring Update
Hi All,
Welcome to my Spring update.
First of all, I’d like to share some important news. The university has recently announced an “additional hardship fund” for those students not usually eligible for financial support through the hardship fund. This includes foundation year (level 3), international, masters and PhD (or equivalent) students. The fund is only open until the 10th April. If you’re one of these students and you need support, please do apply through the link below. As one of my manifesto pledges I’ll be campaigning for the university to offer permanent financial support to these students.
https://www.stmarys.ac.uk/announcements/2023/03/additional-hardship-fund
In early February, we launched our online lecture capture survey. I visited lectures for a whole range of courses and levels of study, as well as promoting the survey in the Shannon Corridor and at our “Brew@2” event. We launched the survey to find out how beneficial you find lecture recordings and how you like to use them. We received 265 responses. The feedback you’ve given us will help us build a case for increasing the use of lecture capture technology across the University, which is one of my key manifesto pledges.
During SU Elections week, we held our second “Big Rep meeting” of the year. These meetings bring together course reps from across the university to discuss University-wide issues. We then use the feedback from these meetings to represent student’s views in discussions with the University. Topics discussed this time were personal tutoring, Moodle, the cost of living crisis and experiences with staff-student meetings.
From 15th-17th March, I attended the National Union of Students (NUS) national conference in Harrogate alongside our elected NUS delegate, Mehakdeep. The national conference brings delegates from SUs across the country together to decide on NUS national policy and hold the NUS elected officers to account. Five policy motions were approved by delegates: Cost of living support, education (including more support accessing study skills, childcare and laptops), supporting international students, housing and NUS reform.
Finally, the University is looking to make some improvements to the study spaces on campus. To ensure these improvements meet your needs, we’ve launched a 60-second survey for you to complete. You can complete the survey through the link below...
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/Studyspaceconsultation
As always, If you’ve got any questions, concerns or ideas then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Educationpresident@stmarys.ac.uk
