► Ask Tim @ Oldham

Ask Tim Responses at UCO – November 2011

An Update from Prof Tim Thornton Pro Vice-Chancellor, Teaching and Learning
After the Ask Tim session back in November, Tim has responded to all those who posted a question to him directly, here are the responses for you to read:-

Financial Question

Unfortunately, the financial support available to UK students is not available to international students. It is provided by the UK government, funded by UK taxpayers, and they stipulate that it is not available to students from outside the EU.

Extended opening hours

We want to open the campus as far as is possible and is demanded by our students. We also have to take into account the cost of extended opening hours. To my knowledge, there is no extensive demand for 24 hour opening, and so at present the considerable additional expenditure involved would not be justified. Are there particular times and facilities which you want to have access to?

Desktop under desk can it be moved

I understand the computers in S3/3 and in the LRC were moved to the racks under the tables as a result of student requests. Given where they are now, I know that colleagues led by Wayne have sources cables to avoid the problem with USB pens. I'm copying Wayne in here in case he can add anything, or you want to have further details.

Issue has been solved by LCC- Wayne Winterbottom

Parking Facilities

I know parking is an issue for many people. Unfortunately, with nearly 1000 fte students at the campus, the challenge of providing free parking for them all would be overwhelming. We have to consider where to put our resources, and in general students tend to agree that providing top-quality facilities and teaching is most important - and you will have seen all the enhancements made at Oldham in the last two or three years.

PS – on the subject of campus opening: We want to open the campus as far as is possible and is demanded by our students. We also have to take into account the cost of extended opening hours. To my knowledge, there is no extensive demand for 24 hour opening, and so at present the considerable additional expenditure involved would not be justified. Are there particular times and facilities which you want to have access to?

Lockers on Campus

A couple of other students have asked about lockers, both in Oldham and on the campus at Huddersfield. At present, there’s no intention to offer lockers, not because of cost but because of security concerns. Some other universities which until relatively recently provided lockers have withdrawn the facility because of this. I will, however, continue to monitor requests and seek views.

Transport between UCO and Huddersfield:- As I said on the day when I visited UCO, this question was raised briefly at a previous Ask Tim session; then I asked the team at UCO what requests had been made and I was told that no reasonable request for transport to Huddersfield had been turned down. One course, in Performance, used to have a regular Friday bus until the students themselves decided they no longer needed it. I gather there’ve not been many requests at all. As I suggested, sometimes it is better to think why the service or information is not available direct at Oldham, and to try to tackle that issue. Do I remember that one question was about access to masters dissertations? Would you like me to look into how MA theses might be loaned over to Oldham were necessary?

I will, of course, continue to monitor requests and seek views.

Student Support

If I’m reading your question right, I think you’re referring to student support and measures of student success in the job market and satisfaction with their courses. We’re very proud of the fact that in the DLHE survey of graduate job outcomes we’re one of the best placed universities in the country, on one measure beating both Oxford and Cambridge; and the recent NSS survey put us high up the list for student satisfaction – resulting in the Sunday Times ranking us 11= for ‘Teaching excellence’ for example. Is that the sort of thing you’re interested in?

Can you tell us what Huddersfield resources we get access to here at Oldham – academic and social?

There are many shared resources which are accessible both to Huddersfield Queensgate and Oldham students. There is a significant movement of academic staff from campus to campus, so depending on your course you are likely to be sharing teaching with students at Huddersfield. Software and library e-resources are also a case in point. Then, given that there are 1000 students at Oldham and 19000 at Huddersfield, there are some differences – for example the SU is not in a position to offer exactly what it does in Huddersfield in the different context of Oldham. UCO has a particular character, being much tighter-knit than Huddersfield. For some things, the smaller student numbers mean much better access to particular services – for example the provision of academic skills tutors is much more extensive per student at UCO than it is in Huddersfield.

Christmas party prize

Tell me the format and I’ll think about it!

Library opening times

What is the demand for later opening?

Views on a fee of £7950

The University does not agree with the increase in fees charged to students. But the government is removing virtually all the money it puts into teaching students at universities, so we have the simple choice to increase fees or to close. We set our fee in consultation with the SU – it is a fair fee which does not mean we are profiting from students; we want them to profit from us.

Ownership of the campus building. The university owns the Studios; it leases the other building and has a very positive relationship with the head tenant there, Oldham Council, allowing it to develop excellent facilities for our students.

Finance

On questions like student finance at Oldham we tend to work on the basis of individual support. If there is anything specific that you need help with, the team in the main office should be able to help. In general, this offers the best, most personal approach to something which is often very specific to the individual. Are there still questions that you need addressing? I hope you’re managing to handle the workload now we’re well into the first term. It is always a bit of a challenge to come to terms with the first days at University. Have you managed to establish a connection with your personal tutor or with one of the other lecturers, from whom you can get this type of advice?

Course Question

I understand you’re concerned about the level of support you’re getting in Digital Journalism. I’d be happy to try to identify additional support – is there anything particular you need? Caroline is an excellent tutor, and she has the resources of the whole department behind her, so I would have thought that we can cover most things. 

Food

Food at UCO has been a particular concern for me since an earlier Ask Tim session there. At that time, students expressed a concern about the quality and freshness, as well as the range, of food available. Since then, we’ve looked again at the offering and improved the quality, as most people I’ve spoken to seem to agree. This is going to be taken further as part of the overall review of food and catering that’s now being done across all the university’s campuses. I hope this will soon give you some of the further improved value and choice which you are seeking.

SU space; television and games

I need to understand more about this before I can offer a fuller answer. What has been requested from campus colleagues?

Heating

I’ve heard about the heating issues from other students and have raised the question with our Estates department. I’ll let you know when I have more from them about what is being done.

Changes to courses

On all of our campuses there are constantly new courses being started and others to which we stop recruiting. This is primarily a result of the pattern of demand in a world where we're not allowed to have a limitless number of students. We have to move our provision into the courses which have the heaviest demand. Psychology is a good example. Demand for the subject in Oldham and in Huddersfield has been strong, so the courses and growing and look to have a very good future ahead of them. Sadly the same has not been true of the provision in Barnsley. But in Barnsley, for example, the Music courses are thriving and have been allowed to grow considerably.

There's no specific number that would be applicable to all courses across the university - under the current regime, different courses receive different levels of government funding, and different courses have different resource needs, so the levels at which they are viable and reasonable to run will vary.

I know that's not the definitive answer you'd want - but I think you'll be observing that in general we're keen to continue to grow our provision where it's appropriate and to provide opportunities to all who can benefit. That's the reason, for example, we chose not to set the maximum £9k fee from Sept 2012, but to go for a fair fee, in consultation with the SU, of £7950.

Guidance on masters

This may be available directly from the tutors teaching you. In some cases, wherever those staff are based, they will need to consult others with more direct expertise in the area in question – but it should not be too long a process.

Facilities on Campus

As Oldham, the campus provides some fantastic purpose designed spaces and kit for the courses we teach, but the site it relatively small and there is therefore limited scope to offer some possible facilities. Being near the centre of town, and with many students living locally, we know there are other options for things like a gym, so it is not the first priority when it comes to the development of the campus – I’m sure you’ll agree that the recent work on the LRC, for example, has been a very worthwhile investment bringing benefits to all students.

Heating Problems in Media building

I’ve heard about the heating issues from other students and have raised the question with our Estates department. I’ll let you know when I have more from them about what is being done.

Course Books

I’m concerned to hear about out-of-date handbooks, as we pride ourselves on the quality and currency of our teaching. Am I right in thinking you’re a law student – is there a particular module or modules this affects? I’d be very keen to know so I can get this sorted.

We’re keen to provide easier access to electronic texts, whether ebooks or online access to journals. We have one of the best systems in higher education recently launched and still under further development – the MyReading tool, via UniLearn. You can read more about it here: http://library.hud.ac.uk/myreading/. I understand that an increasing proportion of the PGCE(PCET) reading lists are being transferred into the system. Have you been able to use any yet?

Travel Costs

I was sorry to hear about how expensive bus travel to the campus is proving to be. I’m afraid we don’t provide bus passes, as to do so for all our 24,000 students would be prohibitively expensive. If you have particular financial pressures on you, it might be worth talking to the team in the main office. In general, this offers the best, most personal approach to something which is often very specific to the individual, and there may be financial support available.