BA (Hons) Sustainable Futures: Arts, Ecology and Systems Change

Black Mountains College

This is not a typical university experience. Which I love. The teaching spaces most used by the degree are in an old Victorian school (recently upgraded/modernised to include 2 teaching spaces, staff offices and a small library) and farm building (converted to classrooms, these get quite cold in the winter but do have log fires!). Facilities are basic and alot smaller compared to other uni's but they try to improve access to things like classrooms outside of teaching time to make up for the lack of dedicated student space (there is supposed to be one but this has had many challenges so I would not feel comfortable saying there is one!). The campus is in a fairly isolated village on the edge of the Bannau Brycheiniog national park, this can make things like shopping difficult but there are lots of small businesses and a couple small supermarket stores. I love the access to the national park and local nature reserves (some can be assessed by foot) but some people find the isolation of the place challenging. This degree being the only degree at the BMC site and small class sizes also means that there are less people to socialise with - although the student society (led/managed entirely by students) connects people to NVQ and graduate students. Many students also participate in the wider Talgarth community planning, helping at and attending things like the food share, repair café and local markets. The degree students I've encountered have a wide range of ages and life experiences, not all from a traditional education background. The teaching includes different teaching methodologies (respecting/inviting peoples knowledge/skills, daily landings, embodied teaching methods and discussions etc.) although some people feel these aren't as radical as they may project in marketing materials e.g. most of our teaching is done inside (as apposed to outdoors - ''classrooms without walls!''). However, the teaching spaces allow you to be out in nature by simply walking out of each classroom so many people take their breaks outside. The teaching staff try to incorporate the class's wants/needs as much as they can, part of this has been increasingly doing things outside when appropriate. The student support has been disappointing compared to what I was expecting from my conversations with the college before starting the degree. Many conversations have been had about this since - the small degree team makes it easy to speak to the right people and they try to make themselves accessible - however no visible action was made on this through out my first year. I am aware of plans to improve this, so I hope this will become a problem of the past! The degree has still felt very 'under construction' as a whole, at the worst times this felt like being a guinea pig. There is frequent detailed student feedback at the end of every module in the first year, which will hopefully be improving things for future years. The degree is very broad, this can stray into a negative 'breadth over depth' but mostly I have found this really interesting and having reached the end of the first year I feel like I've completely expanded my ideas of what the world is/could be and how I see the world in my daily life. I've found my first year deeply challenging to my beliefs/lifestyle such as capitalist ideas of consumption but they do also try to include things to counter this such as discussing Joanna Macy's 'Active Hope'. However, I did not feel like despair/hope was well balanced at the start of the degree (worsened by the aforementioned lack of student support), so you may need to be prepared for an emotional rollercoaster if you choose this degree! Despite the mix of positives and negatives, I can't imagine choosing a different degree at this point. The pathway for careers are less clear for this degree but I feel like I'll be more prepared for the future and its jobs. I'm looking forward to my second year and seeing where this journey takes me!