Welcome to the next Education Update – as we come closer to the end of the Academic Year, it is a great moment to look back and reflect on the positive impact our reps have had (and are continuing to have!) 

If you have any feedback, feel free to contact your school or course reps. You can find out who they are here! (If the link does not work for you, please email coursereps@le.ac.uk)   

Academic Rep Wins 

Our reps have been hard at work across the year, listening to students, raising their concerns, and working passionately to make change – the following are highlights of their exceptional and excellent work!

Teaching Spaces and Environments were a hot topic for reps, who reported a range of issues, problems with lecture materials, unsuitable lecture rooms and technology that wasn’t working. Reps worked hard with staff to make change in these areas – and resulted in wins like reps in Chemistry getting access to archive recordings of lectures where current recordings were missing or had failed, making sure the Attenborough Film Theatre wasn’t used for Criminology lectures again, and that module convenors being reminded to provide paper handouts in sessions in Biological Science.

When it came to timetabling, reps from across the university were proactive at raising their concerns. With several Schools dealing with issues about time between lectures (especially between far off locations, like Brookfield and the Sir Bob Burgess building); reps were integral to ensuring that lectures finished on time, and travel time was taken into consideration when drawing up the timetable, resulting in improved timetables in Semester 2, especially in the Schools of Engineering, MCS and Business.

Reps were also hugely important when it came to a number of successes regarding Assessment and Feedback. Reps from Geography, Geology and the Environment noted that exams and rubrics needed to be clearer, resulting in marking criteria being provided for all modules, as well as the creation of clearer rubrics. Psychology reps raised issues with exam duration multiple times, and helped to make sure that the time was extended. They also had an impact on changing a deadline for an assessment that had been disrupted by strike action. Other reps – from across CSSAH, including Museum Studies and HYPIR – were grappling with issues with feedback, including feedback turnaround times, and where to get feedback verbally from staff. Their hard work clearly paid off, with staff committing to better communication about how feedback should be received, and improving the quality of that feedback too. Museum Studies staff also implemented a 200-word minimum for feedback directly following on from rep feedback!

Reps were also bringing issues about Teaching and Learning too – reps had a number of great success when raising this topic! Chemistry students raised concerns about the deadlines for their practicals, and staff responded by removing blackboard tests and making clear that in future, there was potential for labs not to be longer than 3 hours. Biological Science reps also made it clear that students wanted more guidance on their project assignments, and staff responded by putting a dedicated discussion board on Blackboard, so that students could access appropriate support.  Criminology reps gained clarity – which they could take back to students – about the shake-up with the dissertation module, which had left students confused about when their supervisors would be allocated.

Blackboard was another area targeted by reps for improvement. Geography, Geology and Environment reps ensured that blackboard would be organised in a week-by-week structure going forward, while at the same time and, over in Business, reps helped staff to improve the layout and usefulness of Infohub.  

Reps also put lots of hard work into improving the general university experience for students! From helping to improve knowledge of sessions about Master’s study in the Arts, to gaining detailed help about careers support for International Students in Business, our reps were all about improving our students’ time at university. Reps also achieved wins like moving the Geography Printer to a room that was accessible at all times, and getting the Bennett Building vending machine fixed. MCS reps in particular were focused on improving the sense of community in the school, setting up an informal social to help students get to know each other, after raising their concerns with staff. Healthcare reps were similarly proactive in working with staff to find solutions to the funding gap that exists for students as their courses finish later in the academic year. 

Throughout the year, your reps have been hard at work, listening to your issues and concerns, taking them to staff, and working towards practical and useful solutions! Hopefully this update has helped you to see all the positive changes reps have made across this year – and shows how much difference reps have made, and will continue to do next year!

Wider Academic Wins

There have been so many amazing projects and events that have taken place over this Academic year – this is just a selection of the biggest changes that have happened! 

• We helped to make changes to the Assessment Policy, based off student voice and feedback from Academic Rep Forums and the TEF Student Survey. This included:
  • Assessment maps communicated to students at the start of the academic year.
  • Movement away from 100% exams/assessments
  • Variations in assessment types to replicate assessments after university
  • Clear rubrics and in module assessment guidelines 
     
• Students were frustrated by the University’s Working Hours Policy, which meant that students could only work 15 hours. Now this has been extended to 20 hours! 
   
• When it was announced that the Natural Sciences programme was closing, we helped the student reps for the course to stay in the conversation about how to keep elements of the programme going forward. 
   
• Senate Regulation 11 (Academic) has been updated to reflect a more supportive approach. This included the removal of Poor Academic Practice and sanctions to introduce ‘Minor’, ‘Moderate,’ and ‘Major’. This also helped to simplify the process for students, and the removal of fines are they are not appropriate for academic conduct issues
   
• We hosted a very successful Students’ Union Awards to recognise all the hard work and excellence of our reps! It was a great night, and the perfect opportunity to show off the positive changes made by our reps and other student leaders.
   
• We have put in place a Postgraduate Strategy to improve our engagement with postgraduate students – as we know there is work to be done here.
   
• We have also worked to get an SU tab on Blackboard, in order to ensure that students know where to find what we offer!
   
• Work with the Medicine School reps has resulted in a Medics Destress – in order to help extend our events to be as inclusive as possible, especially as exam timetables meant that medics missed out on our previous Destress offering! 
   
• We have also made a Glossary of key academic terms for students, which will be published by the academic year. 
   
• As part of our work with Postgraduate students, we have created a PGR Rep role description in order to help formalise the position, and on the advice of the PGR reps themselves!
   
• We have also worked to help implement more regular and consistent Content Warnings to improve student experience.