University rating
Tell us about your overall university experience so far.
It's been made obvious since covid that campus spaces aren't big enough or plentiful enough to support all students on all cohorts at once.
However when this is raised through the union, the university have offered to get straight on to fix it.
It's less than ten minutes' walk from town centre shops, however there is a mini supermarket over the road from main campus as well as a fair few cafes and milkshake shops. For things you Needed, you wouldn't have to go far. For things you wanted but didn't need you also wouldn't have to go far. The bus/national train station is on the south side of town, about 15 minutes walk away, with trains to the rest of the countrty and a bus serving the local international airport of Leeds and Bradford. This is about half an hour's travel by car, so it won't be much more by bus.
Pre-covid the students would go to the many clubs and pubs in town, the nearest being a Wetherspoons 5mins walk away. This has since shut down. I couldn't tell you where the clubs.are since I've never used them but I know they are plentiful and all within 20 mins walk of campus. Like 'spoons though, I'm not sure how many are open. However, there is a student bar on-site, 2 great (if expensive) cafes and a dining hall.
Campus itself looks light and airy. It's a new univerity so eveything is very modern looking. It's not to my taste but it is nice to let a lot of light in in winter months when everyone is down in the dumps about exams, placements and the.weather. It's always very clean, even before covid turned us into paranoid cleaning freaks!
There are on site counsellors for students who are struggling with anything at all, and they have been helping students with their all too important mental health for years. They have a great disability service and will aid you in getting learning difficulties diagnosed for free at the beginning of your learning journey, then will support you through to getting the best grades you deserve after your diagnosis.
There are times when it feels like tutors are not listening, but I think that would happen anywhere, and I think it depends on the day you catch them. If you send them another email later they're straight on it, I've found.
Course rating
Course rating
As a student rep this is the main question brought to me:
Team based learning might be really well supported with evidence, but perhaps it needs looking in to alongside students' mental wellbeing and extenuating circumstances such as covid... during our first year TBL worked online and we weren't told that because it was online it was not NMC approved. This was even with a team member who could not be bothered to do any work.
Now, during second year, we're in university, and nothing is working properly. There are groups with many off due to covid, and because they're home, they can't do the test. There are groups with people who can't access the campus Wi-Fi, despite having prior access. Access to intedash to do TBL needs to work on time, or as per last week, full stop, or we don't get home on time to our children as per the timetable has said, and we've been told to follow Canvas, not Publish, for when we're in.
Everyone is stressing about something and it is having a huge effect on grades. Why can't there be an interim replacement way of doing testing, until everything is back to normal?
It's been the biggest and most stressful thing this year. When we were all online, it worked. When we're all in, it works. When we're expected in one day and out the next, that works too, but we can't TBL with half a team, so should it be reexamined?
There are also things given to us to do on pebblepad, not worth anything, which are expected at the same time as marked essays, worth 50percent of the module. The essay is a nightmare in itself and I am struggling and I know plenty of others who are too, and intend to leave the pebblepad work because it doesn't carry any weight. It does feel like lecturers think that because they're not with us, we're not working. Plenty of us are close to giving up!
The fact that content was taught online, taught in class and that uni tried blending, it worked. It's the TBL itself that doesn't blend. Not the university.
There are a couple of really good lecturers that will bend over backwards to help you, and will remember what you spoke about months ago if it's been a while, I should point that out.